Identifying your Old House Builder

[MySharona (WavyGlass)]

Has anyone identified the original builder or company behind their home? I do not have that type of info, but I would love to!

I have been browsing Home Kits from Sears in the early days, would most homes come from kits or did people build their own also? Mine is a Craftsman Home. I have browsed oodles of books and pictures but cant find one like ours, so Im just curious if most homes Craftsman style were in kits during the 1920s? Or did people wing it and build their own.

Mine is also a stucco finish, which the previous owners thought was added later, but we got photos of the home from the 40s and one of the original daughters that lived here is still alive and we were told it has always been a stucco finish, its the really thick chunky texture, most in my area have wood siding and brick, ours is thick stucco.

[Neighmond]

Mine was built by a local lumber dealer, who was old when he did it, so it was built in 1914 but has lots of traits of an earlier home.

[Gothichome]

I'm sure with a picture or two Rosemary migh t just be able to help.

[heartwood]

to add to gothic's comment...i think rosemary would do a triple cartwheel if your home is a sear's kit house...and she could offer lots of interesting information as well.......

....jade

[MySharona (WavyGlass)]

Here is the front, still have some wavy glass in a few of the front windows.

[MySharona (WavyGlass)]

here is the floorplan,



Our home is in Az, so my guess is it may have some influence from California Bungalows, and I see there are other kits other then Sears, just would love to find mine somewhere, and also the home next door belonged to the brother, house has a similar inside layout to mine, except it has a wrap around porch and a sun room on the front porch area. And the roof is different, mine is a very simple design.

[Sashguy]

Try this link. Just about every Kit Home that you could hope to find. http://www.antiquehome.org/House-Plans

[BungalowMo]

Greetings & welcome to the forums!

I must add.....Holy Moly that is one pretty bungalow!!

It will be fun to see what you find out...

[dpkmpy8]

The family that originally owned my house gave me the name of my builder. IT seems his name pops up regularly in local history. No documentation though.

[christiner (WavyGlass)]

I don't have an old house myself, but in doing genealogical research i've found info about my relatives when they got a contract to build. The newspapers in San Francisco would publish the owners names, the contracted builders, what was included in the contract and the amount - this was late 1800's IIRC. I'm not sure if they would have done the same thing in AZ or not.