The “Westly”, a popular kit house by Sears, was offered throughout the ‘teens and 1920’s. Its overtly Craftsman porch supports and balustrade make it memorable and easily recognizable. The following Westly, built in Holdrege, Nebraska, had lost its original balustrades at some point as seen in an image from 2013, (second image below).
Earlier this year, I photographed the house. Its porches have been restored with balustrades replicating the originals… it looks so much better now!
A period Sears catalog page depicting the Westly.
This image dated 2013 from Google Street View shows the house without its distinctive balustrades and a with pair of modern sliding glass doors in the dormer.
This is how the house appeared earlier this year! SO much better. Now, about those sliding glass doors…
Wow that’s really nice. I guess these people know they have a Westly!
Definitely refreshing to see people actually restoring a house as opposed to remodeling it! For owners of historic houses that pre-date the kit house era, finding documentation to accurately guide a restoration can often be problematic – conjecture is often implemented. But with the abundance of documentation for kit houses, their lucky owners have a wealth of material to answer their questions. I’m very glad that the owners of this house did the right thing!
Wow.
Congrats to the owner!
Hi all! I am the current owner of this house. We have verified this as a Sears house by finding boards with stenciled numbers in the attic and the kitchen wall. The garage also has number lumber, not sure if it was a Sears or not.
I have located two other Westly’s in Nebraska, one in Bassett, looks pretty nice, and one north of Gothenburg, in a sad state of disrepair. I am sure there are more. We have a similar Sears house (not a Westly) a couple blocks south of me.
When we moved in the upstairs balcony railing was not “correct” and the downstairs was missing completely. I designed the new balusters in CAD and made them on a friends CNC router.
The house layout is like the left side of the advertisement posted, BUT is a left-handed version of that.
I have located an original type door for the upstairs and two side windows, I hope to complete that next summer, good bye sliding glass door!
We are trying to keep this as original as possible, but as we get older, I’m sure those stairs are going to be a problem. We may need to do an addition to get the bedroom on the main floor.
Boy, was I surprised someone had this on their website, I’m sure glad to find people that appreciate these houses!
Great work, Kevin! It’s very rare to see a kit house restored with sensitivity; crass and unsympathetic remodelings are far more commonplace. If you do add on to the house, I’m sure your work will be respectful.
Please let us know when you replace the sliding glass doors with the salvaged door and windows — it will be a vast improvement! I would have replied sooner but have been without internet access for almost a week. Thanks for restoring an important part of American history! Fortunately awareness of the significance of these houses continues to grow after they languished for decades in obscurity.