Norma Wiard lives in what may be the original manufactured home. In fact, she was born there.

The manufacturer? Sears and Roebuck.

When you walk into Wiard's old house you don't get the same feeling you do when stepping into modern manufactured housing.

The first thing you notice is the size. The house is two stories tall with a large front porch. Then you get inside the Wiard house and all you see is wood.

You notice the wooden baseboard running throughout the house. Your hand glides up the solid wood banister when you head up to the second floor. To top it off, the doors to the eight rooms are solid wood.

On Nov. 6, 1918, her grandfather, Cyrus Wolf, bought the Sears home, already constructed, from Lydia Copper.

The house has been in the Wiard family ever since.

The purchase price for the house on the Warsaw lot wasn't available, but a page out of an old Sears catalog, circa 1912-1917, puts the price of the kit between $934-$2,193. According to an old Times-Union, a Chevrolet cost around $850 in 1917, and houses advertised in the real estate section listed for $2,000-$3,000.

Today, a new, small car comes in around $12,000, and a manufactured house can start around $28,000. From there the prices run upward depending on options the buyer prefers.

Some of the options area builders offer are fireplaces, skylights, whirlpool tubs, bay windows and log siding. Besides these, buyers can decide to add crawl spaces, basements, decks, porches or garages - plus the cost of the lot, well, sewage and septic system.

Wiard discovered that her home was a Sears and Roebuck home circa 1912 when a friend sent her a page from an old catalog.

The ad boasts: "Eight rooms and one bath, full front porch with stucco Piers, hipped-gable dormer, front door glazed with beveled glass, fireplace in living room, and pantry off kitchen."

But that was when the house was purchased in the '20s. Since then there have been changes and repairs along the way.

"I've worked hard to keep this place up," Wiard said. She has taken care of many repairs herself, including tiling and grouting the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms.

Over the past few years she has replaced several windows in the house. "I had more in those few windows than the house was worth when we first bought it," she said.

The well-cared-for house holds family memories for Wiard.

On January 17, 1925, she and her twin brother, Norman Lee Wiard, were born in an upstairs bedroom. Her mother was a school teacher in Burket who died when Norma and Norman were only 2.

The twins graduated from Warsaw High School in 1943 and Norma attended Anderson College for a semester before returning to Warsaw.

When Wiard first returned home she worked as a clerk for a local hardware. After the hardware she worked for United Telephone in revenue accounting for 36 years, retiring in 1982, shortly after a stroke. She is a member of the Church of God on Rozella Road, Warsaw. [[In-content Ad]]