had to look up wayland...(i'm in se mi) it really hadn't changed much from the picture...what a gem!

very interesting article. Isn't it amazing that these pre-fab homes from days of old are still standing? I guess the manufacturing in the old days was better than today's. The work ethic today is not the same.

My oldest son has owned his Sears home for probably 30 years and although he has done some remodeling, it's as sturdy as the day it was built.....

Sadly, it's not a Sears House.

The details are wrong and it's too big and the porch roof is wrong. More than 80% of the time, people who think they have a Sears House are wrong. Most of the time, those folks *do* have a kit home, but it's from a company other than Sears.

However in the example above, it is NOT a kit home, period.

Oh well.

But, I recently returned from WV where I found the 8th Magnolia!! Very exciting!!

Here is a link that might be useful: More on the Magnolia here.

Wow, Rosemary...that's a stunning home. What did it originally cost to buy the kit from Sears?

I definitely believe my sister's home is a Sears, because I think YOU told her so! (Norwood, Ohio)

How's Teddy? Haven't seen any pics lately.

You have a keen eye Rosemary - because, to my untrained eye, that house looks a lot like the Crescent prototype. I would never be able to tell!

Are their clues on the inside too? My house has the name of the lumber yard stamped on some of the boards under the steps and a few other places in the house (not a kit house - just old, LOL). That lumber yard is long gone, but it was a local one.

Do the Sears homes have any identifying markings on lumber or anything like that?

For some reason I just picture them assembling them by numbers - lol! Board ones goes next to board 2... etc. etc.. and having this monstrosity of an instruction manual. Of course if it was done in the modern day - you would be required to print out your own PDF.. ;)

Rosemary, thank you so much for all the information on the Magnolia homes. The WV home is stunning, and I'm glad the owners treat her with the care she deserves. It is heartbreaking to see the neglect that caused the demise of the Nebraska home.

Wow, what a sad but uplifting story. Sad for the Nebraska house, happy for the WV house. When I look at the pictures of the Nebraska house I see all of the architectural pieces that could have at least been salvaged, like the pillars and the fireplace mantel and all of the trim. I love antique woodwork and it kills me to see that it was all burned or sent to a landfill. What a waste! Kudos to the people who restored the WV home, knowing what a treasure they had. 7 figures to restore an originally 4000.00 home, amazing.

Sleeper, when they told me the cost of the restoration, I was shocked. It's a beautiful house and a top-notch rehab, but it was well in excess of $1,000,000. However, had it not been restored, the house would have probably suffered the same fate as the Nebraska Magnolia.

For a long time, it was believed that there were only six Magnolias built but that was an apocryphal story (turns out). Of the eight Magnolias that are now known, THREE were found thanks to some kind soul telling me that they had found a Magnolia. And one of the kind souls was someone here at KT :D

There are a LOT of clues for identifying kit homes.

This is the big deal. Look for marked lumber!! These marks - together with that 75-page instruction book - helped the novice homebuilder figure out how to assembled those 12,000 pieces of house!

If you find these marks on your home's framing members, you have a kit home.

How cool is that?

And here's a kit home recently discovered in Baltimore, MD. It's the Sears Pennsgrove, and is probably the only version of this house ever built.

The house was built in 1931, as THE model for the Sears Pennsgrove. That photo in the catalog is THE picture of the Baltimore house.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to identify a kit home

Oh, that is too bad they think they have a Sears home and do not. Sure looked the same to me. Should I post to the online news or leave it alone?

Hellion, you might want to go ahead and post it.

IMHO, history is important enough that it really needs to be accurate and true, even when the truth is a little painful.