Content: This is not a normal colonial home of the century. In 1923, Sears, Lowbuck & Co. Built from a kit ordered through the catalog.
Location: The two-storey is located at 424 19th St. NW, in Canton’s historic Ridgewood neighborhood.
When: The photo was taken on April 1st.
Story: For starters, it’s not on sale.
Former state legislator and veteran local politician Mary Sirelli lived in the house for a quarter century before her death at the age of 85 last month. Her son Don had moved in a year ago to help with her care.
“It was her pride and joy,” he said of the house.
Mary Sirelli also loved her precious backyard garden.
The 4-bedroom, 2,882-square-foot home is certainly of several types. According to experts and enthusiasts who have catalogued such mail-order homes, there are still Sears Magnolia homes standing in the United States.
Sears is believed to have sold up to 100,000 catalogue houses in hundreds of styles until 1940 in the early 1900s.
The kit home, which includes the guidance book and most of the ingredients and fragments, was shipped to numerous packaged and wooden framed buildings. Small home kits are available for sale for under $1,000. High-end models such as the Magnolia cost over $5,000.
Magnolia’s style was adopted from Cambridge, Massachusetts, home of poet Wadsworth Longfellow. Each comer in Portico has a Corinth column that supports the cornice around the entire building.
Mary Sirelli and her husband Richard Fawcett bought a house in Canton in 2001.
Don Sireli remembered the crew of the PBS television show “History Detectives” to visit Canton’s home once. The documentary episode aired on July 15, 2003, explored Akron’s house to determine whether it was Sears’ home.
In a 2001 Canton Repository column, Diana Rosetti explained that former owners, Tom and Barbara Meril, who spent the year restoring the house, were pleased that the structure was rolled up with good hands.
“We always felt like stewards, and they seem to respect that too. Now we’ve been passing the torch,” Tom Merrill said at the time.
Reach Tim at 330-580-8333 or tim.botos@cantonrep.com.on X: @tbotosrep
