Aladdin Kit Homes – A Little History

In Birmingham England there is a bit of Americana that you might never guess. 200 Kit Homes from Aladdin Homes of Bay City, Michigan sit in a cluster. Built during World War II, the English have placed these homes in the British Historic Register.

I came across this photo of a 1917 ad while looking through an interesting site, Vintage Ad Brower, that has over 100 years of advertisements. It started me on a search to learn more about Aladdin Homes.

In 1917, you could buy the kit home below for $687. Aladdin began business in 1906 when two brothers figured that if boats could be built from a kit, so could homes. Over the ensuing 77 years, Aladdin sold over 50,000 home kits.

1917 Aladdin Home Kit

Over 450 home styles were available from the Aladdin catalog at their peak. The home kits came with simple instructions and number pieces that the company claimed could be assembled in a day. They also provided details instructions on how to built a foundation or basement.

I haven’t been able to determine if any Daytona Beach homes were built from Aladdin kits. I would sure like to see the results. Well, maybe next time I’m in Birmingham.

Sears, Roebuck & Company were also in this business from 1916 until 1940, but took a beating during the depression when home owners could not pay back the mortgage money that Sears loan them. Unlike most corporations today, Sears absorbed the losses because they didn’t want to appear as an evil corporation. When they continued sales without loaning money, the business stalled.

There are a number of Sears kit homes in the community named Bungalow Park which is in Daytona Beach in the area US1 and Fairview Avenue.

Interesting.