‘Lee Grove’s Place’ may be Sears Home
When Robert Lee Grove lived at what used to be called the “Lee Grove’s Place” on Dark Hollow Road, he could see winter’s purple haze of the mountains while standing at any of the home’s three porches.
The home has been handed down through generations of the Grove family and is currently undergoing extensive renovations by current owner Lee Curtis, who is the great grandson of Grove. Curtis inherited the house from his father, Charles Curtis. His grandmother, Bettie Grove Curtis, married Abe Curtis, which is how the names changed over the years.
Lee Curtis can still enjoy the view, but can also verify first-hand that at least four generations of his family have lived there. And what also makes the place unique is the family’s suspicion the home is a Sears Home.
The homes, which were packaged in kits and shipped almost exclusively by rail, are popular in areas such as Carlinville and Wood River, Illinois. Sears sold about 100,000 kit homes from 1908 to 1940.
The Grove home dates back to at least 1914 because Curtis’ great aunt, Wavie Grove Martin, who is 90 today, was pictured at the home when she was about 2 or 3 years old.
Curtis, however, thinks the home is older than the circa 1914 photograph. Technically, if the home dates to before 1908, according to the Sears Modern Homes web site, it would not be considered a kit Sears home, but the home may have still contained building supplies sold through Sears, Roebuck and Co., which sold the supplies from 1895 to 1900.
Some of the Sears homes have names, while others have model numbers and the web site notes the Sears homes are sometimes difficult to research because Sears did not foresee the future interest in the homes. Although the Grove house is said to date to before 1908, it had a plate attached to the home with the inscription “Continental New York,” which the family has retained and appears to be a name for the house.
The family lore is that the house is a Sears house, and a Sears web site notes that is one way to verify the home is a Sears house. In any case, Curtis said he is grateful the home has remained in his family for so long.
“I’m proud to have it,” Curtis said, adding he can trace his family history back to before the state was established and to the time of the Indians. “My family may be a little different. It’s always been one from the other,” he added of the house.
Curtis has spent some time researching his family and noted the passage from a book about the Grove family, written by J.G. Grove in the 1960s, makes note of the view from the house.
“Anywhere you want to look, there’s a view,” he added, noting one day, his children will inherit that view. “It will be to one of my young ones. I’ve got three girls and a boy, so one of them will have it.”
As a side note, Curtis’ family and his wife Gail’s family knew each other. Gail said her grandfather used to come to the house and actually helped to build a barn on the property long ago, but Gail and Lee Curtis didn’t really know each other growing up.
Gail said it is a rarity the house has stayed in the family for so long and noted the way things worked out.
“My grandfather would hang out at this house. It’s like fate – full circle,” she added.
The last family member to live in the house was Curtis’ great uncle, Smith Grove, and the Curtis family plans to move into the house in about a month, Curtis added.