When I learned that I was going to be writing a new book on the Sears Homes of Illinois, I called Cairo Historian Richard Kearney and asked if he could spend a day with me when I traveled to Southern Illinois.  I needed his help to find a few more Sears Homes near the site of the old mill in Cairo. Richard readily agreed to help out, which was a huge blessing, for I could not have done this without him! He and I spent an entire day traipsing around Olmstead, Tamms, Mounds City, Urbandale and many other little towns near his home in Cairo.

As we drove along bucolic country roads (some of which didn’t even show up on my GPS!), Richard was the perfect tour guide, providing an amazing bit of color about the region and its fascinating history.

A few hours into our fun day, we came to Mounds, home of this interesting old Glendale. Yes, it’s in rough shape but it is (or was) a fine old Sears Glendale. Obviously, the house has been vacant for years and years. As is evident from the photo (see below), the front porch is long gone, so I asked Richard, “Hey, you want to go around back and get inside?”

Richard, who could best be described as the consummate gentlemen with a pinch of adventurer and a heaping helping of intrigued historian, replied without a moment’s thought.

“Sounds like fun!”

So off we went, eagerly traipsing into the back yard, preparing to enter a vacant house in a run-down section of this economically depressed city. The basement windows were missing and as we walked past them, I thought I saw something move in the dark, scary basement.

“Must be a raccoon,” I thought to myself.

Richard took the lead and I was close on his heels, eager to get inside the old Sears House. As he rounded the bend and entered the backyard, a ferocious and large pitbull lunged at us, barking and spitting and snarling, and with teeth bared. Almost like a cartoon caricature, the lunging beast struggled to snap at Richard’s face but was held back by a very large chain.  Richard came to such a fast stop that I almost ran right into his back. We both took a few steps backward and one of us (I’m not sure who) said, “We need to get out of here, right NOW.”

In retrospect, I don’t know what was going on at that very deserted-looking house, but I do know that the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I *felt* danger. Richard and I turned and ran back to my car and took off.  As we were trotting back to my car, I remember thinking about that old song, “The things we do for love…”

“Like walking into an abandoned, vacant house in the middle of a not-so-good section of town…”

Thinking about this in the calm of my pretty pink bedroom in Norfolk, Virginia, I’ve no idea why there was a vicious, angry pit bull tied up on a huge chain in the back of a long-time vacant house. I’ve no idea who or what I glimpsed in that basement. However, I’m glad that both Richard and I lived to tell the tale!

Next time you read a book on Sears Houses, remember, history has a price! 

Recently, I traveled to southern Illinois to re-visit the site of the old Sears Mill.

In late 1911, Sears spent about $1 million to build a state-of-the-art mill just outside of Cairo, Illinois. The mill was actually located in a tiny burg called Urbandale. The Sears Mill was an impressive operation, covering 40 acres and employing about 80 full-time workers. About 20 acres were “under roof.” In other words, the site had 20 acres of buildings.

That’s a lot of buildings.

Each day, the railroad cars brought enormous quantities of yellow pine and cypress into the mill, right out of the virgin forests in Louisiana and Mississippi. Each day, those workers turned those logs into 10-12 kit homes. You read that right:  Hard-working men, using powerful saws and planers and other massive machines, carved those trees into kit homes. Kit homes with 30,000 pieces. That’s a lot of lumber.

In 2003, when doing research for my book, “The Houses That Sears Built,” I traveled to the site of the old mill. Not much to see there, but a couple little Sears Homes and a lot of woods and a couple bean fields.

Fast forward seven years to 2010.

Now I’m writing a new book about Sears Homes, and I decided it was time to dig a little deeper.

This time around, I contacted Richard Kearney, a local historian, long-time Cairo resident and all-around Smart Cookie and good man.

I asked him if he might have time to spend a day with me, helping me navigate the back roads of southern Illinois. To my delight, he readily agreed. Our day together could not have been any more delightful. With Richard’s fantastic knowledge of the area, I learned so much more about the old Sears Mill and its connection to local history.

One small example:  Soon after entering Urbandale, we turned onto “Sears Road” (the site of the old mill), and Richard spoke up and said, “You know, this used to be known as ‘Sears Roebuck Road.’”

I replied, “You’re kidding!”

He said, “It’s true. This road went all the way through, and when the Interstate came through, it cut the road right in half, creating two dead end streets on either side of I-57.”

This is the kind of quirky history that I just adore. I was enthralled.

“On the other side of the interstate,” Richard said, “you’ll find the other half of this road. It’s now called “Roebuck Road.”

Now I’ve been writing about Sears Homes for many years and I’ve been to Cairo many times and I’ve spent many hours learning more about Sears and Cairo and the mill, but I’d never heard any of this.

I asked Richard to show me where Roebuck Road was. He gladly obliged.

And there it was - Roebuck Road. And there was yet another bonus! Behind the Roebuck Road sign was a perfect little Sears house. It was a Sears Wexford.

A Sears House on Roebuck Road. Or maybe it’s a Roebuck house on Roebuck Road?

Either way, Garmin apparently never got the memo that Sears Roebuck Road had been sliced into two pieces.

Sears Road - in Urbandale

Note the little Sears Wexford in the background!

Someone needs to tell Garmin that Sears and Roebuck are now divorced - thanks to the Interstate!

Richard - thank you so much -  for sharing your knowledge and being such a good sport and giving up an entire day of your life to help me find my way around the southern-most tip of Illinois. You’re a real trooper and a treasure-trove of knowlege!