Sears Catalog Kit Home

Built circa 1912 by Dr. Rufus Zeno Chapman and his wife, Viola Cater Chapman, this distinctive residence is known locally as the Sears House. It is believed to be the first and only prefabricated Sears home in Pine Apple.

Sears Modern Homes were catalog and kit houses sold primarily by mail order through Sears, Roebuck and Company. The company offered more than 370 designs in a wide range of architectural styles. Shipped primarily by railroad, the kits contained most of the materials needed to construct a house. Pine Apple’s railroad connection made it possible for the materials for this home to be delivered directly to the community by rail.

While not an exact replica of the Sears Magnolia plan, the house shares features with the Magnolia and other Sears Modern Homes illustrated in the company’s 1911–1912 catalogs.

This stately residence is a two-story, hipped-roof house, two rooms deep, with a one-story rear ell. Its most prominent architectural feature is the recessed front porch, supported by monumental paneled, battered piers resting on rock-faced concrete block bases. The porch has a concrete slab floor, while a distinctive rounded porch extends from the north side of the house.

The Sears House was included in the Pine Apple Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.