I first admired this house in the late 1990’s when the photo above was taken; the house seemed well-maintained and the exterior paint was crisp and sharp… the colors were perfect for a two-story Craftsman. I wondered at the time if the colors weren’t like those that it had been painted in originally, but I never dreamed that I would one day find the answer.
Located in Russell, Kansas, the other memorable thing about the house (aside from its unaltered, authentic-looking exterior) was its very memorable address: 123 W. 4th Street! I was surprised to see the house pop up on Zillow recently… with the same paint that I remembered.
The real estate listing describes the house as a “Sears and Roebuck home” which it is not, but I did suspect that it could be a kit house by another company. It’s a common mistake people make with kit houses. No matter who produced the kit, over time fading memories invariably attribute them to Sears. With a little bit of digging I found what I was looking for… the house is an example of Wardway’s “Hampden”. While I haven’t verified this, I’m confident that this is a Wardway/GVT product.
Wardway, of course, was Montgomery Ward’s brand of kit house. The kits sold by Wards were actually manufactured by the Gordon Van-Tine Company and were virtually identical to the kits they sold under their own label. Marketed as the Hampden by Wardway and as Home No. 501 by Gordon Van-Tine, the houses were identical – except for the specified standard exterior paint colors!
The house we’re about to look at was built in reverse from the marketed plans (a common option offered by many kit house companies), so I’ve reversed some of the images so that they will better relate to this house as it was built. Let’s take a peek inside!
This image (in reverse) is from the 1924 Wardway Homes catalog. Like many kit houses, some items differ from the catalog illustration. Changes here include a single attic window in the gable, a smaller window on the interior stair landing and brick piers on the front porch (with two, rather than three, porch supports). Image courtesy of archive.org
This is a Wardway Hamden in Russell, Kansas, as it appeared in 2013. Image courtesy Google Street View.
I’ve reversed the floor plans, too, to help relate to the example built in Russell. Image courtesy of archive.org
This is how the Hampden appears in the 1924 Wardway catalog. Image courtesy of archive.org
The description of the paint colors was what really grabbed me… good evidence that the current colors are very much like the originals! The GVT version of the house offered red stain for the shingles rather than brown. Image courtesy of archive.org
Ward’s description of the many attributes of the house. Image courtesy of archive.org
The same house in the 1921 Gordon Van-Tine catalog, Home No. 501. Image courtesy of archive.org
The front of the house today. Image source: zillow.com
The living room has three windows overlooking the porch rather than the pair shown in the catalog – another customization. Image source: zillow.com
Dining room. Image source: zillow.com
The balustrade-like grille of the stairwell emphasizes the Craftsman character of the house. Image source: zillow.com
The Wardway catalog emphasizes some of the features of their homes, including this built-in linen closet. Image courtesy of archive.org
And we find the linen cabinet at the top of the stairs in the hallway! Amazingly, it appears that all of the woodwork in this house survived without being painted. How often does that happen? Image source: zillow.com
This photo is a bit small, but in the foreground you can see a cistern pump! I wonder how many years after 1924 that this was in use? I love these fascinating remnants of the past which have defied time — surviving to remind us once in a while what the past was really like… Image source: zillow.com
Nice find! I really love the idea of a few flat cars arriving in town with everything you would need to build a house. I am used to thinking of these houses with the darker color on the bottom and the lighter color above. This color scheme looks nice, and shingles make sense a dark color. . . cool find, especially with the color info data.
It’s really amazing how many kit houses were built (and remain)! I also like the color scheme very much; it reminds me of Wright’s Winslow house, which must have seemed insanely modern in 1894!
That was an interesting video; thanks! The seller said he was concerned about what the next owner might do with the house, but had taken no steps to protect its integrity legally prior to a sale. Hmmmmmm…
More serendipity! There are definitely lots of similarities between the house in Rockford and the Hampden above. Could it be an earlier version of the Hampden? The Rockford house has a colonnade between the living and dining rooms, a wide cased opening between the entry hall and living room, a bay window with built-in seat in the dining room, a more generous kitchen, partially sloping second floor ceilings and a smaller sleeping porch – all differences which make me think that this house was either built from a plan book design or was a kit from a lesser-known, yet-to-be-revealed, kit manufacturer.
The Rockford house is also quite similar to Plan No. 146 by architect Frederick L. Ackerman whose work appeared in many plan book publications, but it lacks the window seat in the dining room. As you know, architects and plan book publishers routinely stole each others work back then.
The plan is also quite similar to many of the earlier Foursquare plans… put a hipped roof on it and it would be a dead-ringer! It has some really nice features such as the continuous banding on the living and dining room walls… it really gives it a strong Craftsman vibe. Thanks so much for sharing this!
There are issues with the Rockford house, for sure. Two things working in favor: Rockford has tons of GVT/Wards houses and must have had an active sales office; and the newel post resembles the ones GVT sold but tough to see in the photo.
Maybe I’ll hear from the owner one day and we’ll get an answer…
I would not be surprised at all to find that the house in Rockford is an earlier version of the Hampden… the kit plan may have been streamlined and updated over time just as Sears did with some of their houses. I was not aware that Rockford had a concentration of GVT houses. I hope the owner will have some answers! The Hampden is seen in the 1924 Wardway catalog but the house does not appear in the 1917 catalog. I have not been able to reference any others. Now I’m really curious! Please let me know if/when you find out more… I’ll be looking, too!
A lot of people overlook these gable-fronted houses as Foursquares, but they are often essentially the same inside. There seems to have been regional variation between the gable roofs and hips. In Omaha the majority of Foursquares had the traditional hip roof with dormer, with only a few gabled roofs (generally the more Craftsman-styled versions). Here in Aurora, IL the gable-fronted versions are much more prevalent, even in the more neutral teens/twenties post-victorian style with a single arched window in the gable and basic Tuscan Order columns on the porch.
That’s a simple, but classy place. Aside from the built-in linen closet, it seems pretty sparse inside, though. These look really great with more millwork inside (larger door/window casings with cornice molding), and a more ornamental stair and colonnade would really dress it up. It’s probably a good example of a “base model” without the more costly add-ons that would have been optional.
The dark-on-top is the reverse of most recommendations I’ve read for two-tone houses. It’s nice to see some documentation and examples that it wasn’t always done that way, as later generalizations and opinions can so easily replace the original facts (Queen Anne’s being painted in bright contrasting colors, for instance). I still think I prefer the dark bottom, light top, but this looks good too.
There are some Romance Revival houses in our area (French Eclectic, Tudor Revival, English Cottage, etc) clad in limestone, with brown wood trim and dormers, etc. The two colors are very similar to this house, and look very good together. One owner recently repainted in a current trendy gray, though. It looks terrible in comparison to the original brown.
Yes, the Hampden is pretty sparse inside, but it was marketed as an economical house for “the conservative buyer who wants good appearance in his home without expensive trimmings…” Given that, I think it is quite amazing that the house has remained relatively unaltered. Aside from the kitchen, the house is not that different from when it was new! Simple can indeed be classy.
We purchased the Russell house in June 2019 from the original family. It was included in the estate of a twin daughter born in 1924. It had been a rental since the mother died in the 1970s. We are currently restoring and updating the house. I just stumbled on this site after spending hundreds of hours looking at kit homes over the last 2.5 years and not finding a match to our house.
I see similarities with the Hampden but also with the Mesa. Our house seems to be a mix of the two plans. Examples being the front porch and verticle lite windows are Hampden. The size and placement of the windows are the Mesa. The stairs location and coat closet are the Mesa as well as the window between the two. Our lack of the newel post shown in the Hampden but the Mesa design seems to mirror what is in our house (would love to see a picture of that wall in the Mesa. The location of the linen closet upstairs is the Hampden. The porches are the Mesa due to the location of the stairs on the first floor. However, both porches were originally closed in and are different widths but both wider than 6 feet. They are also longer than these plans and extend over a foot past the center of the house. The oak floors in the downstairs porch match the rest of the house as do the windows. Neither of these Wardway designs had both porches closed in. The chimney location is the Hampden but we have a laundry shoot next to it. The bathroom layout according to the original plumbing we replaced was the Mesa without the linen closet and chimney.
We also have several other built-ins. One in the small front bedroom over the stairs and then the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, laundry shoot doors, and what has been a spice cabinet in the kitchen but might have been the original ironing board cabinet. The other big difference is the two west bedrooms. The closets are the Mesa (split into three) with the closet closest to the hallway being just a door between the two rooms. There is an additional built-in tall cabinet in this walkway located in the smaller room.
Any idea if there is another model similar to the two but includes some of the features that we have in Russell? Or did individuals make this many changes to a kit home? The rear porches are the most structurally different of everything that I listed.
Nice find! I really love the idea of a few flat cars arriving in town with everything you would need to build a house. I am used to thinking of these houses with the darker color on the bottom and the lighter color above. This color scheme looks nice, and shingles make sense a dark color. . . cool find, especially with the color info data.
It’s really amazing how many kit houses were built (and remain)! I also like the color scheme very much; it reminds me of Wright’s Winslow house, which must have seemed insanely modern in 1894!
Yes! Another dark on top guy. That is a truly lovely house. Here is a nice clip from our local PBS station. It was for sale a few years back: https://www.pbs.org/video/chicago-tonight-january-30-2013-wrights-winslow-house/
That was an interesting video; thanks! The seller said he was concerned about what the next owner might do with the house, but had taken no steps to protect its integrity legally prior to a sale. Hmmmmmm…
Great find!
I think I just found one! What do you think?
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2001-S-4th-St-Rockford-IL-61104/5562271_zpid/?fullpage=true
More serendipity! There are definitely lots of similarities between the house in Rockford and the Hampden above. Could it be an earlier version of the Hampden? The Rockford house has a colonnade between the living and dining rooms, a wide cased opening between the entry hall and living room, a bay window with built-in seat in the dining room, a more generous kitchen, partially sloping second floor ceilings and a smaller sleeping porch – all differences which make me think that this house was either built from a plan book design or was a kit from a lesser-known, yet-to-be-revealed, kit manufacturer.
The Rockford house is also quite similar to Plan No. 146 by architect Frederick L. Ackerman whose work appeared in many plan book publications, but it lacks the window seat in the dining room. As you know, architects and plan book publishers routinely stole each others work back then.
The plan is also quite similar to many of the earlier Foursquare plans… put a hipped roof on it and it would be a dead-ringer! It has some really nice features such as the continuous banding on the living and dining room walls… it really gives it a strong Craftsman vibe. Thanks so much for sharing this!
There are issues with the Rockford house, for sure. Two things working in favor: Rockford has tons of GVT/Wards houses and must have had an active sales office; and the newel post resembles the ones GVT sold but tough to see in the photo.
Maybe I’ll hear from the owner one day and we’ll get an answer…
I would not be surprised at all to find that the house in Rockford is an earlier version of the Hampden… the kit plan may have been streamlined and updated over time just as Sears did with some of their houses. I was not aware that Rockford had a concentration of GVT houses. I hope the owner will have some answers! The Hampden is seen in the 1924 Wardway catalog but the house does not appear in the 1917 catalog. I have not been able to reference any others. Now I’m really curious! Please let me know if/when you find out more… I’ll be looking, too!
It’s not in the 1919 GVT catalog, but it is in the 1920. Same floor plan.
A lot of people overlook these gable-fronted houses as Foursquares, but they are often essentially the same inside. There seems to have been regional variation between the gable roofs and hips. In Omaha the majority of Foursquares had the traditional hip roof with dormer, with only a few gabled roofs (generally the more Craftsman-styled versions). Here in Aurora, IL the gable-fronted versions are much more prevalent, even in the more neutral teens/twenties post-victorian style with a single arched window in the gable and basic Tuscan Order columns on the porch.
That’s a simple, but classy place. Aside from the built-in linen closet, it seems pretty sparse inside, though. These look really great with more millwork inside (larger door/window casings with cornice molding), and a more ornamental stair and colonnade would really dress it up. It’s probably a good example of a “base model” without the more costly add-ons that would have been optional.
The dark-on-top is the reverse of most recommendations I’ve read for two-tone houses. It’s nice to see some documentation and examples that it wasn’t always done that way, as later generalizations and opinions can so easily replace the original facts (Queen Anne’s being painted in bright contrasting colors, for instance). I still think I prefer the dark bottom, light top, but this looks good too.
There are some Romance Revival houses in our area (French Eclectic, Tudor Revival, English Cottage, etc) clad in limestone, with brown wood trim and dormers, etc. The two colors are very similar to this house, and look very good together. One owner recently repainted in a current trendy gray, though. It looks terrible in comparison to the original brown.
Yes, the Hampden is pretty sparse inside, but it was marketed as an economical house for “the conservative buyer who wants good appearance in his home without expensive trimmings…” Given that, I think it is quite amazing that the house has remained relatively unaltered. Aside from the kitchen, the house is not that different from when it was new! Simple can indeed be classy.
We purchased the Russell house in June 2019 from the original family. It was included in the estate of a twin daughter born in 1924. It had been a rental since the mother died in the 1970s. We are currently restoring and updating the house. I just stumbled on this site after spending hundreds of hours looking at kit homes over the last 2.5 years and not finding a match to our house.
I see similarities with the Hampden but also with the Mesa. Our house seems to be a mix of the two plans. Examples being the front porch and verticle lite windows are Hampden. The size and placement of the windows are the Mesa. The stairs location and coat closet are the Mesa as well as the window between the two. Our lack of the newel post shown in the Hampden but the Mesa design seems to mirror what is in our house (would love to see a picture of that wall in the Mesa. The location of the linen closet upstairs is the Hampden. The porches are the Mesa due to the location of the stairs on the first floor. However, both porches were originally closed in and are different widths but both wider than 6 feet. They are also longer than these plans and extend over a foot past the center of the house. The oak floors in the downstairs porch match the rest of the house as do the windows. Neither of these Wardway designs had both porches closed in. The chimney location is the Hampden but we have a laundry shoot next to it. The bathroom layout according to the original plumbing we replaced was the Mesa without the linen closet and chimney.
We also have several other built-ins. One in the small front bedroom over the stairs and then the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, laundry shoot doors, and what has been a spice cabinet in the kitchen but might have been the original ironing board cabinet. The other big difference is the two west bedrooms. The closets are the Mesa (split into three) with the closet closest to the hallway being just a door between the two rooms. There is an additional built-in tall cabinet in this walkway located in the smaller room.
Any idea if there is another model similar to the two but includes some of the features that we have in Russell? Or did individuals make this many changes to a kit home? The rear porches are the most structurally different of everything that I listed.