This also shows that, on the right side, the fireplace chimney on the Elmwood, is slightly inset into the wall of the bedroom, whereas the fireplace chimney of the Sunbeam (left), is fully on the exterior of the wall. Notice the placement of the door into the bathroom, and the location of the heating vent chimney. The only obvious differences are the placement of the door into the bathroom, and the location of the heating vent chimney: The Orlando Sunbeam, with its heating system vent chimney visible on the exterior of the house.Īnd, here are the two second-floor floor plans of the Sears models, the Sunbeam (on the left), and the earlier Elmwood, on the right. But, in the Elmwood's floor plan, that vent chimney is placed inside the wall of the kitchen (as pointed out with a red arrow on the Elmwood's catalog floor plan, above), so that vent chimney is not visible from the exterior of the house, as it is if the house was built during the Sunbeam years (1922 and after).
In the catalog floor plan, above, the red arrow points out that the chimney is placed on the exterior of the house, outside the wall of the kitchen. The Sunbeam, however, has that entry into the refrigerator's nook, that leads to the stairs that go to the landing where the back door is, and to the basement.Īnother difference between the Elmwood and the Sunbeam, pointed out to us by researcher friend Karen DeJeet, is the placement of the heating system's vent chimney (not the big fireplace chimney- that's on the other side of the house), shown here (below) on the left side of the house, off of the kitchen. Both have an entry from the dining room, but, for the Elmwood, that was the only interior entry. The back door placement is the most obvious detail in the back, but you can also see that, if you get to see the interior of the house (and the kitchen hasn't been all re-done), you can note that the entry to the kitchen is different, too. (above which, is the stairway in the living room, that leads to the upstairs bedrooms). No longer exiting from the kitchen, it exits from the landing of the stairway Indicates the changed placement of the back door. This is the Sunbeam, from the 1925 catalog, and the blue arrow here The blue arrow points to the Elmwood's back door out of the kitchen,Īnd, here is the 1925 Sunbeam's first-floor plan:
Here is the 1921 Elmwood's first-floor plan: Here is the Elmwood, with its open sleeping porch in the upper dormer,Īs offered in the 1921 Sears Modern Homes catalog. The blue arrows on the catalog images below, point out that difference.
The Sunbeam's design did away with that little porch, and placed the back door at the base of the staircase in the center of the back of the house, where it lead to the basement. There is also a very slight difference on the first floor: the Elmwood had a little back porch off of the kitchen, and a back door from the back wall of the kitchen, led to that porch. It had an open sleeping porch up in that dormer, whereas the 1922 through 1925 catalog images of the Sunbeam show that as an enclosed dormer, with lots of window area.
Hunter, explains a bit about the history of Montgomery Ward mail-order homes, on her website, .īefore 1922, this model was known as the Elmwood. Leading researcher (and Renaissance woman) Rebecca L. But, we know that Jeff Miller's house in Dansville, New York, is a GVT (short-hand we use to refer to the Gordon-Van Tine company) model, because he has BLUEPRINTS! Yes, I wrote that in all caps, because, yes, I am REALLY excited to see blueprints for one of our mail-order houses :) As a result, both companies marketed many of the exact same homes, under different names. That's an easy mistake, because Montgomery Ward homes were actually made by the lumber company/mail-order-house company, Gordon-Van Tine. Somewhere along the way, Jeff had been told that his house was a kit house made by Montgomery Ward. Montgomery Ward also sold kit houses, but Jeff's house has GVT blue prints! And, thanks to a comment from Jeff Miller, of Dansville, New York, we have this beautiful Gordon-Van Tine model No. Gordon-Van Tine was one of those companies. Of course, the term Sears House has (erroneously) become synonymous with mail-order-kit-house, because most folks (who aren't as fanatical about them interested in them, as I, and my researcher friends, are) don't know that there were a number of major companies offering order-from-a-catalog-get-a-whole-kit-of-the-building-supplies houses.
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