File:Robert W. Ingersoll House, Buffalo, New York - 20220428.jpg

English: The Robert W. Ingersoll House, 16 Tillinghast Place, Buffalo, New York, April 2022. It is believed that this is one of some 70,000 partially prefabricated "kit houses" purchased through Sears, Roebuck & Co.'s "Modern Homes" catalog and shipped by train in pieces to its construction site, a popular innovation in home construction in the early 20th century. There were 370 separate models offered by Sears over the 32 years its catalog was in operation, and this one is a quintessential example of Craftsman bungalow architecture with its squat dimensions, widely overhanging eaves, prominent front porch, and combination stone and stucco façade. An identical Sears catalog house stands just a short distance down the street at 39 Tillinghast. The house was built in 1911 for Robert Walker Ingersoll (1882-1948), a native of Cattaraugus County, New York with a most interesting biography: he grew up a fruit farmer but while only a teenager was hired by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie as his personal assistant, chauffeur, and confidant. This set Ingersoll off on a long career in the automotive industry: he came to Buffalo upon being hired as manager of the local branch of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, but only two years later left to accept a position as sales manager of truck manufacturer Stewart Motors. Though a rising star at the time, his career didn't reach its zenith until after decamping for Detroit some time in the early 1920s. There, after continuing to rise rapidly through the ranks of various automobile manufacturers, he parlayed his local fame as an early promoter of a never-realized rapid transit system into a candidacy in the 1945 mayoral election.