First, let me share what Sears and Palmer had to say about kits and these rusticated or rock faced blocks being used as building materials around the turn of the century until 1940. Then I will fill you in on the homes in Greenwood.
Sears Roebuck & company began selling buildings or components of buildings in 1895. Some early experiments by Sears included selling a kit to build a complete school or office building. The first complete Sears Kit homes, that is, residences, were marketed by Sears & Roebuck in 1908, and eventually Sears offered 370 different models of residential homes, ranging from small bungalows at $500. (kit cost) to larger homes costing $5000. Buyers of a Sears Kit home saved about one-third of the typical construction costs of their era.
Beginning in 1929 the volume of Sears Catalog houses sold dropped dramatically. So, it’s probably true that most of these homes were sold and built before that year, but it is certainly the case that the sale of some models continued to 1940.
Sears, Roebuck & Company was also one of the largest manufacturers of the small rock face block machines. Hence, in many of the Sears home plans, rock face block is incorporated into the design. From small bungalows to large American Four-Square farmhouses, rock face block was used to construct anything from the foundation, to the porch, to the entire home.
Block machines sold by Sears and the use of rock face block as a building material was promoted by Sears as a low cost alternative to natural stone and brick. They touted the insulating properties, its strength, its decorative appeal, and that it was fireproof. Sears marketed these machines not only to builders, but to individual home owners, stating that no professional experience was necessary.
Harmon Sylvanus Palmer is the American inventor credited with the concrete block machine. Although history uncovered, others had developed machines before him. Palmer patented a concrete block mold in 1887, his first block machine in 1899, a concrete block wall with rectangular voids in 1901, and another machine in 1903.
Shortly after Palmer patented his machine, dozens more were developed and sold by companies across the U.S. One of the biggest manufacturers was Sears Roebuck & Company. These new machines were so easy to use they allowed anyone from a skilled mason to a farmer to make their own concrete blocks. Sears marketed their machines (the Wizard, the Triumph, and the Knox) through mail order catalogs to both professional builders and to the many do-it-yourself home builders of that era. Sears also encouraged use of the blocks by including them in their famous Kit Homes.
During the early 1900s the bungalow and American foursquare style homes were the latest architectural trend. You will find rock face block most frequently on these styles of homes, especially on the foundations. You will however see this block on early 1900s Queen Ann homes, mission-style homes, Greek Revival styles, and many more architectural styles around the country.
By the 1920s rock face concrete blocks had become a common building material used for foundations, porches, even entire buildings and houses. With the advent of the automotive industry, many homeowners found themselves in need of a garage to house their new cars. Rock face block was a cheap and aesthetically pleasing material that was often used to build these new garages and service stations.
By the late 1930s a more modern look of smooth face concrete block came into style. The invention of large automated block machines that could only produce smooth-faced block also pushed builders to use this now cheaper design. And, by the 1940s, use of rock face block was almost non-existent. Many of the machines were eventually scrapped for metal during the Great Depression and WWII. Over the years these blocks have also been covered with siding, stucco, and cement coatings, and many of these unique houses and buildings are hiding in plain sight!
For more information, see The History Behind Rock Face Block.
In Greenwood, we know of at least two homes that have been confirmed as Sears kits and another couple that were built before kits were mass produced that we would like to find out more about from where their blocks came.
The first confirmed Sears kit, the house on the other side of the creek from the old Chaffee Hardware Store, where the Murdocks and later the Mary and Harry Bise family lived; 2702 Main Street. At about 2500 square feet not counting the huge attic or the cellar, the larger of the two was built in 1908. This model was built with a combination of rusticated and the smoother face blocks. Janet Jackson seems to remember that the house was originally built by the Young family. You remember Grace, she would have grown up here. Lou and Winifred Murdock bought it in the 1940s.
I had a chat with my cousin Greg Cornell, son of Clair and Evelyn (Lounsberry) Cornell who spent some time in this house with the Bise boys (Harry Jr, Guy, Lincoln and Mike). He was able to tell me that this house was a traditional Four Square, four rooms up and four down. You entered through an inner foyer to the second "front door", both originally were the 2/3 wood, 1/3 glass to allow the homeowner to identify visitors. Through the inner door was what he called the hall that traversed all the way to the back of the house. It was more than a hall as it was 8' wide. To the right was a living room, probably originally the formal parlor. To the left a dining room and straight ahead the stairs to the upper bedroom floor with its ornate newel post and woodwork. To the left of the stairs you continued back to the large eat-in kitchen and behind the living room was the room the Bise's used for their pool table. Greg remembers the cast iron radiators pumping the steam throughout the house for heat and the little dug out room in the basement, still with a dirt floor, where they played foosball.
The attic was huge, with a towering ceiling height. The Bise kids (add Wanda, the oldest) had a ping pong table in a giant playroom up there. They even had a rope swing attached high in the rafters. Duane Chaffee told me about the cistern that was in the attic. Lloyd would always caution him about it when he was to do a plumbing repair as one wrong move when turning the water back on could cause it to overflow from the attic into the bedrooms below. Three floors, foosball, billiards, ping pong and even a rope swing...a childhood paradise.
If you spent time there with Lou and Winifred Murdock or have any stories about life with the Youngs in this house, I would love to hear them.
The second, the Lippert House at 2672 Main Street, a Four Square; built in 1909 with almost 2100 square feet. Maybe you remember the Burley’s living there. Duane Chaffee spent lots of time in this house with both the Lipperts and the Burleys. Sarajean and Suzanne were frequent babysitters for the Chaffee boys. And, he shared that he and Gary Burley would even decide where they would have dinner by calling both mothers first.
From the big stone porch, which is no longer there, and through the front door and an interior foyer, you enter into a reception area with all the expected craftsman woodwork; to the left were the stairs and off to the right, flanked by pillars was the parlor or living room including a big craftsman fireplace with the built in mirror above the mantle. Continuing back through the pocket doors, you find a dining room and to the left the kitchen. This home had a real butler’s pantry as there were no cupboards in the kitchen itself, just the appliances. Most preparation happened at a table.
Friends of Sarajean (Sally) and Suzanne (Sue) hung out in the “back room” behind the pantry. It was accessible from the stairs out back. Now Sue also let it slip that the back stairs to their bedrooms made no noise. Take that information as you wish. More in May when we hear from the Lipperts.
In true four square tradition, all four bedrooms were accessed via a central area at the top of the stairs; girls on the back and parents and guests on the front. Let us not forget the stairs to the attic that were behind the “closed at all times” door in Sally’s room. What do you think she envisioned lurking on those stairs?
A third, what I am calling the John and Blanche Wallace house, at 2680 Main Street, was built in 1900 at about 1350 square feet with 3 bedrooms. While the building materials match and Sears was selling buildings starting in 1895, it was built before Sears mass marketed residential kits. Howard and Celia (Pierson) Lamphier rented this house in the mid 1920s from William Slocum, before the Wallaces moved from the Carney place across the street.
In this version, you entered the front room, as Irene (Wallace) Chaffee, who grew up here, calls it. You remember, that is from where Blanche ran the Greenwood switchboard and as a child, Duane Chaffee experienced the thrill or maybe the terror of a call about a fire. To the left was John and Blanche’s bedroom. We have it on good authority that the bedroom and front room are now combined as a living room. Directly behind the front room was the kitchen and adjacent was the dining room. Behind the kitchen was where Blanche did her laundry and canning. Upstairs, just picture a young Irene glancing out her window onto Main Street as her brother slept in the rear bedroom.
The Clarence and Evelyn Simons house, later occupied by Harlet and Cecilia York after they moved from their house on Holt Street, and then by their son Alta, out on 417 has similar blocks. Remember, we have talked about the Holt Street house before, John and Pearl Murray were the next owners and John and Kathleen (Lounsberry) Murray along with this author lived there for a spell.
For a time, we thought maybe this was also built from a kit; alas not. It was built in 1860. But, with rusticate concrete blocks. Thanks to some information received from Steve Cotton of the Canisteo Historical Society and, by word of mouth from Duane, Lloyd Chaffee believed that concrete blocks like these may have been manufactured in Greenwood.
If you know anything about block production as far back as the mid 1800s or who may have owned a block machine from Sears or any other kit manufacturer, please let me know. And, as the block may have been covered during renovations, if you know of any other kit homes in the Greenwood area, we are interested in finding them as well.