Page 9 - The Wayne Dispatch

A new kind of “house hunters” near you

By Carolyn Marnon being achieved at comparatively
Did you know there was a time small cost. The ornamental trellised
when you could buy a kit through a porch is a typical English feature. It
catalog and then build your own is cozy and graceful and the colonial
home? Last September, Novi resi- and French windows with their
dents and kit home experts Andrew flower boxes make this type of house
and Wendy Mutch came to the Wayne at home in any American community.
Historical Museum and spoke about The proud possessor will quickly
their own kit house, a 1926 Sears avail himself of the special advan-
Hamilton, the history of kit houses tages which an artistic grouping of
and an overview of some kit houses shrubs and flowers will secure.
found here in Wayne. Vines or ivy on the trellis and side
Kit homes got their beginnings in walls will transform this house into
the early 1900s in Bay City, Michi- a bower of beauty.”
gan. The Aladdin Company, owned Andrea’s home was mentioned in
by two brothers, Otto and William Matt Miller’s column “Rearview Mir-
Sovereign, was one of the longest- ror” in the June 2009 issue of The
lived manufacturers of mail-order, Wayne Dispatch. Andrea was tickled
or kit, homes. Several years after because he called it “the most charm-
the Sovereign’s introduced kit homes ing house on Chestnut.” This 3-bed-
to the nation, Sears, Roebuck and room, 1 bath home is thought to
Company and Montgomery Ward en- have been built around 1928. An-
tered the market. Aladdin and Sears, drea says some records say 1926,
the largest companies, sold thou- but the 3-bedroom model doesn’t
sands of kit homes per year in the show up in catalog information until
1920s. The 1930s brought de- Andrea Graham owns The Hathaway model from the Sears catalog of kit homes. 1928. It is thought the original home
creased kit sales. The final Sears This English cottage-style home in Wayne was built around 1928. was owned by the brother of a for-
Modern Homes catalog came in mer Wayne mayor; Andrea thinks
1940 and the last home kit was sold carpenter hours to build as opposed same attention to detail was used on she is the fourth owner.
sometime around 1944. to 583 hours for a conventional the inside of the doors where people “When I walked in here,” she says
A potential buyer of a kit home house, a time reduction of 40%. might not think to look. about the first time she saw the
would find a postcard in a newspa- When the Mutch’s bought their Andrea’s home, the Sear’s Hath- home, “it spoke to me. It had detail.
per or magazine. The postcard home in 2003, the previous owner away model, stands like a tall red It was charming. It had a fireplace,
would be mailed to the company re- gave them a binder full of informa- sentry on the corner of Chestnut and the wood floors. I had never seen
questing a catalog. The catalog tion about their house and about Third. The open-air front porch that anything like this before. It said An-
would be mailed to the person who Sear’s kit homes in general. It wasn’t wraps slightly around the entrance drea all over it.”
would then go through it and find until about 2012 when they decided corner has the original ornamental The living room and dining room
their new home. They would send an to investigate whether there were trellis detailing. This English cottage- share an open-air concept. Plan
order into the company noting any other “Hamilton” homes in their style home, according to a page from drawings in the Sears catalog ad ap-
changes they might like to make, up- area. Their first discovery was an- a Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog ad- pear to show a wall dividing the two
grades or additional items like win- other Hamilton in Ypsilanti found vertising the model “is a striking ex- areas. Andrea thinks the builder
dows, trims, furnaces. Once the through a Sears archive of homeown- ample of this style of architecture in never put up those walls. The origi-
company got the order, they would ers. The kit housing hunt was on. frame construction and wood shin- nal oak floors are in place. A previ-
pack it into a railcar (or two, depend- Since then, the Mutch’s have become gle siding. It makes a home suitable ous owner had covered over the
ing on home size) with all the compo- a local authority on the subject, giv- for suburb or country. The treatment
nents needed for the new owner to ing presentations at many of the li- is unique and artistic, the result See House, page 10
build their own home (or have some- brary’s throughout Michigan.
one build it for them.) It would be Attendees of the presentation at
shipped to the closest railroad sta- the Wayne Historical Museum were
tion to the owner. Once it arrived at able to ask questions and make com-
the local station, the owner was noti- ments. One attendee, Andrea Gra-
fied that he would have 48 hours to ham, pointed out that a red house in
come and unload the railcar. He Wayne that appeared on screen dur-
would then take all the components ing the Mutch’s presentation hap-
to his land where he would have al- pened to be her house. She had
ready, hopefully, put in the founda- purchased the home in 2005. She
tion for the home. A kit home saved spoke to those gathered about the
a homeowner money and time. The details that were put into the homes.
instruction book that came with the She had discovered that not only
kit might be 75 pages long, but at was there wood trim framing the
least the wood pieces were all pre- doorways of her closets, but she had
cut to size. The precut house with fit- stepped inside a closet one day to
ted pieces would take about 352 clean it out and discovered that the
The Wayne Dispatch · January 2020 · 9