A Sears Love Fest on Love Road

When Sears, Roebuck ceased their mail-order home operation around 1940 (the year of their last mail order kit-home catalog), that didn't mean that they left the housing market all together. They just shifted focus. I'm not going to go into the history here but will send you over to Sears Homes of Chicagoland and to the blog post, Yes, Virginia, Sears Homes Were Built After 1940. 

The Niagara Frontier was one of the numerous areas chosen for a new Sears, Roebuck Home Club Plan community, specifically the sub-division Grandyle Village in the town of Grand Island in Erie County. 

Not a history nor geography lesson but opposite North Buffalo and up to Niagara Falls and Canada, the Niagara River splits in two and voila! you get a 33.3 square mile island before the Niagara reconnects further north. That is Grand Island. Most of Grand Island remained underdeveloped for decades (my husband says that he only remembers Fantasy Island, an amusement park, and sand flies on Grand Island when he was a kid). To this day there is no ferry or boat service connecting it to the mainland. In 1935, however, a bridge was built on the southern end of the island connecting it to the Town of Tonawanda and rapid development or planned development of the area started and in 1936 the sub-division Grandyle Village was born.

Buffalo Courier-Express February 2, 1936

Buffalo Courier-Express October 24, 1937

Development didn't happen over night and Sears, Roebuck got involved in 1940-1941, choosing Grandyle Village as a perfect location for its "Sears-Home-Club-Plan". (Full page advertisement in the Niagara Falls Gazette 1941 — click here to see full-page ad).

Buffalo Courier-Express May 11, 1941

Buffalo Courier-Express May 12, 1941

Ad in Buffalo Courier-Express August 10, 1942

That perfect location is a 2 block stretch of Love Road between East Park Road to Stony Point Road. Out of 56 planned houses, one has to presume that all 50 houses advertised were built. Not all of them survived the march of time.

Google view of Love Road. All of the houses with the exception of one are the Sears-Club-House-Plan houses.

There were about 8 styles offered and Love Road seems to have about 5 different style built. 

1520 Love Rd. Photo by Sarah Mullane.

{A very old woman came out of the 1520 Love Road when we were there. DH and I spoke to her. It was her parents' house and I was trying to get more information from her, but she would only talk about property taxes (too high) and wanting to move someplace cheaper.}

1519 Love Rd. Photo by Sarah Mullane.

1608 Love Rd. Photo by Sarah Mullane.

1626 Love Rd. Photo by Sarah Mullane.

1619 Love Rd. Photo by Sarah Mullane.

1518 Love Rd. Photo by Sarah Mullane.

For more photos of all of the Sears, Roebuck houses on Love Road, Grandyle Village, please click on the link below or under "Photo Albums to the right.

Love Road Grand Island Photo Album