Recently I took a tour of Music Mountain in Falls Village, Connecticut. Nestled in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains, Music Mountain hosts a popular summer afternoon chamber music concert series, along with evening jazz, choral and acoustic music concerts, which I also had the pleasure of attending.

But besides being a great place to listen to music, it also has an interesting history… During the 1920s Jacque Gordon was the concert master and first violinist for the Chicago Symphony. By 1930, however, he formed the Gordon string quartet and decided to locate it within a music center (concert hall and musician’s housing) in the northeast corner of Connecticut. When Julius Rosenwald, president of the symphony's board, heard of his plans, he asked how he could help. Well, Julius Rosenwald also happened to be president of Sears Roebuck. At the time Sears was actually selling kits that contained everything you needed, beams to nails, to build a complete house (installation not included). Customers actually picked out a model from a catalog, and it was delivered by rail to the site. The customer was responsible for building a foundation and getting the utilities to the site.

Back to the story, Julius Rosenwald offered to supply all of the musicians housing, and all based on the Sears houses. He modified the look of a standard model Sears house from the decidedly Midwestern style, to that of a New England Cape to better fit in with the surroundings. It worked so well that the Cape style was added to catalog and named the “Gordon.” The concert hall had to be custom designed since of course there was nothing like it in the catalog. Rosenwald hired his own architect to design it with input in matters acoustic by Jacque Gordon, but the type of construction was the same, pre-cut, bundled, and shipped to the site. By the way, on all of the structures the 2 x 4’s are actually 2” by 4” and the clapboard siding is a full 12” wide, not the 10” or 8” now common.

I can attest from the tour that the houses and the concert hall are still much the same as they must have looked when they were built in the 1930s. The music center’s limited budget may actually have helped preserve them by precluding “modernization” or rebuilding. Although much maintenance could be used, after all these years the joists are still straight as arrows, no twisting, or splitting, and no nail pops on the Sheetrock. Yes, they were ahead of the curve — they used Sheetrock, along with asphalt shingles. These “new materials” helped reduce shipping costs, as well as installation time while also reducing dependence on skilled labor. And, oh yea, I can also attest that the acoustics of the concert hall are great!

The structures are now listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings, ensuring their preservation for future generations. To find out more about Music Mountain, their website is www.musicmountain.org. For more information on Sears houses you can visit the Sears Archives at www. searsarchives.com or This Old House on the web at www.oldhouseweb.com/architecture-and-design/sears-kit-houses. Books on the subject include Houses by Mail: A Guide to Houses from Sears, Roebuck and Company, Small Houses of the Twenties: The Sears, Roebuck 1926 House Catalog, The Houses That Sears Built.