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Manteo’s Croatan Cottage is an original Sears catalog home that was bought as a kit by Clyde and Carola Hassell in 1923 (pictured left, photo courtesy of Dee Evans). A 1920s advertisement for an Honor Bilt Vallonia – the exact model the Hassells purchased – touts its $1,979 price tag (below).

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Mail-order homes survive and inspire on the Outer Banks BY ARABELLA SAUNDERS

From lighthouses to lifesaving stations, hunt clubs and cottages, the architectural history of the Outer Banks dates back to at least the 1800s with many distinct features that were born of necessity given this area’s once-remote, weather-beaten nature.

But that hasn’t always been true. In the early 1900s – long before Frank Stick built the fi rst Southern Shores fl at top in 1947 – a diff erent kind of architecture was starting to sweep across the nation with a concept so breathtakingly simple that it even made its way to the Outer Banks: Sears, Roebuck and Company’s mail-order houses.

WHILE SEARS DIDN’T INVENT KIT HOUSES, they were certainly the fi rst company to radically popularize them. From the time Sears’ Modern Homes catalog debuted in 1908 until it was discontinued in 1940, it’s estimated that the company sold more than 70,000 houses all across America.

Sears off ered a number of diff erent models at various price points over the years (many with evocative style names, such as the Plymouth, the Queen Anne or the Mary Washington), but the basics mostly remained the same: In a single coordinated order, Sears could supply everything needed to build a home – from blueprints, nails and screws to staircases and light fi xtures – all of which could be boxed and shipped to the buyer’s nearest railroad station.

But that also might begin to explain why Sears houses were never really a common sight on the Outer Banks. In 1924, at the height of the Sears home craze, the only hard-surface road on the barrier islands ran between Manteo and Wanchese, and a bridge connecting Kitty Hawk to the mainland didn’t even exist until 1930 – which meant that the fi rst real attempts to make the Outer Banks more accessible had the misfortune of coinciding with the start of the Great Depression.

THOUGH IT’S HARD TO SAY FOR SURE, it’s likely that at least a few Sears houses were constructed on the Outer Banks prior to World War II. Depending on who you ask, you may hear rumors about one or two of them still standing on a backroad in Kitty Hawk or some other private wooded area – but even the most faithful Sears home enthusiasts are just guessing when they estimate that about 70% of those original houses are still in use nationwide.

At least one local Sears home has been preserved, though. On Roanoke Island near the downtown Manteo waterfront, the Croatan Cottage is a perfect example of the Vallonia, one of Sears’ bestselling designs. Purchased by Clyde and Carola Hassell in 1923 for $1,979, the Craftsman-style bungalow isn’t only remarkable for its condition – it’s also noteworthy for how it got to the island in the fi rst place.

Clyde – who was a boatbuilder long before that became an Outer Banks industry – knew the importance of quality materials, so the Hassells opted for the top-grade “Honor Bilt” version of the Vallonia from the start. The lumber for the house was cut in Indiana before being sent by train fi rst to Norfolk, Virginia, and then to

Elizabeth City. From there, the only option was to send the kit by boat the remainder of the way to Manteo via Shallowbag Bay – chandeliers and all.

But widespread economic uncertainty was just on the horizon. Between the advent of the Great Depression and WWII – when blackouts and submarine patrols became regular events along the coast – the idea that the Outer Banks could be turned in to a prosperous vacation destination seemed increasingly unlikely. The Hassells managed to make do, however, and when tourism fi nally began to show promise during the late 1940s after the war ended, they even began renting out a few rooms to Roanoke Island visitors at a fairly reasonable going rate of $3 to $6 per night.

EVEN AFTER HER HUSBAND’S DEATH, Carola Hassell remained in their Sears bungalow until she also passed away in 1972. Today, the property is owned by nonprofi t Outer Banks Conservationist founders Bill Parker and John Wilson, and it’s seen surprisingly few changes since the Hassells called it home.

Local homebuilder and third-generation Kitty Hawk resident Matt Neal of Neal Contracting is someone who can attest to that. While he’s seen his fair share of changes to this area over the past few decades, his uncle Briggs Neal owned Croatan Cottage for a time prior to Parker and Wilson, and Matt has fond memories of the property.

That includes historic moments such as the landfall of Hurricane Irene in 2011 when the house’s fl oors were covered in two inches of standing water – which luckily didn’t cause much damage because the storm swept out so quickly – as well as quieter moments refi nishing the fl oors and restoring the cottage’s deck alongside his uncle in the early 2000s.

“The interesting thing – and it’s true for all Sears homes – is the effi ciency and the history of them,” Matt says. “They have these very simple profi les that aren’t heavily ornamented – but also aren’t at all bland.”

PERHAPS UNSURPRISINGLY, a lot of today’s conversations about Sears homes are centered around our collective fascination with the past – particularly when that past can feel much simpler than the comparative busyness our modern-day lifestyles.

That’s certainly true for longtime Outer Banks resident Dawn Trivette. When asked about the subject, one of the most immediate memories that comes to mind is driving around her Richmond hometown as a teenager while daydreaming about one day owning her own Craftsman-style Sears house. Years later – and with the actual means to make that dream a reality – Dawn began her search in earnest.

“I even got three or four books that told the history and had copies [of order forms] from the actual Sears catalogs,” Dawn recalls. “I loved how you could just buy one, and it came with the plans and every single thing you needed.”

What Dawn soon learned, however, is that modern needs have changed quite a bit since the Roaring ‘20s. Enlisting the help of Matt and his wife, Rachel, Dawn set out to build a version of her dream home that took its cues from those original Sears designs rather than replicating them exactly.

“We defi nitely have a segment of clients that appreciate a vintage look,” Matt says. “But Dawn was the fi rst person to specifi cally request that traditional Sears catalog style.”

The result was a fi ve-bedroom beach road home called “Another Point of View” in Kitty Hawk. Unlike other local ocean-facing houses that typically utilize reverse fl oor plans, Dawn’s house was designed to align with its predecessors by sticking to a more standard layout with the kitchen and living room located on the fi rst fl oor – alongside other Craftsman-style details such as tapered front porch columns, basketweave tiling and Sears-replica hardware like crystal doorknobs.

Acknowledging the diffi culties of building a truly faithful Sears-inspired house along the coast where it’s a practical necessity to build on stilts, the Neals made up for that by paying a tremendous amount of attention to the details – and, at times, being open to changing things on the fl y.

“I would say it mimics that Craftsman look more than anything,” Matt says. “But it was fun because in many ways, Sears homes cemented an American style, and opened up the idea of homeownership on a larger, more accessible level.”

Rachel agrees, and points to last-minute additions like the gold-shadowed house numbers they decaled on a small transom above the front door as an example of those subtle whispers of the past – because, unlike the houses it takes its inspiration from, Another Point of View didn’t come with a ready-made set of instructions.

“It was one of those ‘aha’ moments, because it’s almost impossible to fi gure out everything at once,” Rachel explains. “And that little detail was just one of those things that really brought everything together.”

Top to bottom: A Sears Modern Homes catalog from the 1920s details the Vallonia model’s interior features; Matt and Rachel Neal of Neal Contracting designed Another Point of View in Kitty Hawk by drawing inspiration from old Craftsman-style Sears houses (photo courtesy of Elizabeth Neal).