I recently ran across a house in McDonald, Kansas, which looked oddly familiar. Pretty sure I’d seen this facade before… maybe a Sears kit house? So I took a photo. After some digging, I found what I was looking for. To me, the house at first appeared to be an astonishingly intact example of the “Rodessa” which was marketed by Sears between 1919 and 1929. However, the rear of the house has a different roofline than some other examples of the Rodessa I found online. And it has triangular brackets beneath the eaves which other examples do not have. And the brackets aren’t the standard Sears 5-piece bracket. And there are several other details which differ. So, I’m really not sure… it may be a knock-off. Or perhaps it’s a less popular version. Or a design by someone else which was “borrowed” by Sears. Or an interpretation by a local house builder. It’s hard to tell. Ideas, anyone?
The “Rodessa” as promoted by Sears in their 1925 catalog.
From the 12-over-1 windows to the distinctive porch and clipped gables, this house looks a lot like the “Rodessa”. But is it one?
The Rodessa was offered both with and without a bathroom… many kits were sold in rural areas.
The resemblance is remarkable. Perhaps the builder just made their own small adjustments to the supplied plans.
If that’s not a Rodessa, I don’t know what is. Those brackets could be replacements…
I’m torn on this one. It probably is a Rodessa, but it doesn’t look exactly like the catalog image. Like Seth noted above, there may have been some modifications during construction. I’ll send you the address for the database!
Here’s an authenticated Rodessa of the same design for comparison. The one noticeable difference is the roofline relative to the windows.
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.2433293,-83.700136,3a,30y,232.64h,91.03t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sXwJkSlNpva-7oEVmvwlskA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Thanks for sharing this! I hadn’t noticed the difference in the amount of space between the windows and the eaves before. That difference, along with the lack of shaped rafter tails and the addition of brackets, makes me question this one even more. I wonder if another kit house manufacturer “borrowed” this design. Or perhaps a local builder just created his own version based on images from Sears. Questions, questions…
We’ve seen kit houses customized such that they have extra height under the roofline. But typically that’s in the story and a half designs where the extra height provides more usable space in the second story. With the Rodessa, it typically didn’t have a usable second story (or access to it). Also, this view of another authenticated by mortgage Sears Rodessa shows how the side of the house looked on the regular height Rodessa roof.
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.271998,-83.7515145,3a,75y,183.48h,89.32t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sbbtQo6iI8CTg5otQoyISaQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
The more details I look at the more I’m convinced that the house I’ve posted here is a knock-off. The jerkinhead gables are not exactly the same as the authenticated houses, and neither is the method of eave construction. Thank you for the additional information and links!
Andrew, Has that one on Platt been authenticated? This blue one is not a rodessa, but the one to the left next door is a rodessa.. It’s red. I was apart of the listing team and wrote the previous description that included the language “rodessa”