Sears house needs new owner

With a distinguished past and an uncertain future, the Lisle residence at 4711 Garfield Ave. is in limbo.

In the fall of 2003, the village began purchasing properties on the block between Route 53 and Main Street, north of Burlington Avenue. The buyouts were part of a sizable redevelopment plan to provide storm-water detention for future downtown redevelopment.

The proposed manmade Garfield Pond, including landscaping, paths and greenery, is designed to convert a flood plain into a welcoming threshold to the community.

The village bought roughly 17 houses on the block with plans to level all of them.

When the house at 4711 was discovered to be a Sears Catalog house by then-assistant village manager Barbara Adamec, a Lisle resident who recently retired from the village post, the house won a temporary reprieve from the wrecking ball.

"I hope someone buys that wonderful house, moves it and keeps it in Lisle," Adamec said recently.

"Besides being a Sears house, what made it special is that the woodwork was untouched, the glass handles were still on the doors and for the most part (the house) was left intact."

In the 1920s to 1940s, few working families could afford a single-family detached house and an automobile. The Sears easy-payment plans allowed a new generation of homeowners a first house that could provide a financial steppingstone. The company's well-designed kits allowed a person with basic construction skills to build a house for his or her family.

According to records at the DuPage County Recorder's office, the land in Lisle was first platted May 1926 with a 60-foot frontage and 150-foot length. The house's chain of ownership started with James Hulka in 1927 and continued with then-Lisle Mayor Thomas Malloy beginning in 1944, Norbert and Susan Osuch Jr. in 1962, Patricia Lumb in 1986, Thomas and Regina Stoffel in 1990, Mel and Judy Sims and 1994 and the village of Lisle in 2005.

Lisle's first mayor, Thomas Malloy, his wife, Bea, and the couple's three children lived in the home for 18 years. His position in local politics helped the village establish its solid foundation. When Bea toured the house last year, she commented on how little was changed within the house.

Malloy said a member of the Yackley family was renting the house before she and her husband bought it for $6,500.

The story goes that a young man built the 1926 Sears Avalon House for his fiancee and put his best into the structure.

When the marriage didn't take place, he rented it out and then finally sold it to Malloy.

The Sears house was the Malloys' first home and shares a historic part of the American dream. Other houses tell the country's immigrant story, the development of marketing, manufacturing and housing construction.

"(Sears houses) are compact and well-built, sturdy houses," said Rosemary Thornton, who wrote the authoritative book "The Houses that Sears Built" in 2004.

"Many Sears homes get moved. It would also be possible to disassemble the house."

Thornton said she has seen only a couple of the stylish Avalon models in all the 20-some states she has traveled in her quest to document and lecture on Sears houses.

She feels the Lisle house is a rare find.

"I've been searching my memory and I think I've only seen two Avalons in my whole career, and one of them was in Northern Illinois -- probably the house you're speaking of," Thornton said.

Sears sold approximately 75,000 houses through its 32 years in the mail-order house business, Thornton said. Each kit contained precut lumber labeled with a letter and numbers to facilitate assembly. Each No. 3048 Avalon included 30,000 pieces of house, a set of blueprints and a 75-page instruction book with the owner's name embossed in gold on the cover.

By the mid-1930s, when houses became increasingly more complex with plumbing, electricity and central heating systems. Building became a more technical trade that required specialized skills, and Sears closed its catalog house business.

Today, Sears homes survive, but many have been unrecognizably remodeled over the years.

That is not the case with the Lisle Avalon house at 4711 Garfield, a one-story frame residence with three bedrooms, a bathroom, attic, basement, brick fireplace, wraparound front porch and rear deck. The structure has been authenticated as a Sears house.

According to village bid No. 1027, the high bidder must relocate the house.

Creative thinkers in Lisle need to step up and recycle this historic house.

Dave and Nancy Schneider, who live in another Sears house in Lisle, said they enjoy the distinctive styling of their home. It is a great conversation piece as well as being comfortable. Another family may find moving the Avalon house will afford them a home with a fair price tag.

Bea Malloy suggested by e-mail that the house could be relocated and used as a Good Samaritan location, offering a warm meal, clothing and a place to stay for those in need.

Adamec said the house could be part of the museums of Lisle Station Park, representing an important time in Lisle's history that is currently not represented at the historic complex.

Others have suggested the structure could become a children's library. The owner with the means then could give the building his or her family name.

Mayor Joseph Broda can envision the house welcoming Lisle visitors.

The structure could be moved to somewhere on Ogden Avenue and make a charming ladies' tea room with a quaint gift shop, or a fascinating knitting and yarn shop that offers lessons.

A philanthropic organization could develop the house into an art center complete with a gallery and classes.

The village of Downers Grove, which prides itself on its collection of catalog houses, may want another one.

Thinking of large land areas, the arboretum could use the historic structure for an outpost.

The park district always needs more places to have classes, and its Partners for Parks could rally funds for the project.

A real estate office could dazzle clients with a genuine bit of local flavor with an office like the Avalon house.

Some communities reflect their pride by having house walks through historic structures. The library in Libertyville cataloged its local houses on the Internet.

In Battleground, Ind., a Sears house was built for an interpretive display of a working farm, Thornton said.

"There is a limited edition of this particular genre of American architecture," Thornton said.

"For people to just plow these houses over as if there is an unlimited supply is extreme foolishness.

"What is the magical number when we stop and realize 'Oops, these houses have value; let's start protecting them'?"

Do all the Sears houses have to be gone before we begin to treasure what we have? Who will be the crusader to save a little of Lisle's history for future generations?

Bid documents are available at the village hall. At 11 a.m. Oct. 1 at the village hall, the signed and sealed bids will be opened.