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82:, which started producing kit houses and other domestic buildings in 1906. Aladdin sold large orders of kit houses to companies in the extraction and manufacturing fields who used them to create neighborhoods of kit houses for employees of those companies. By 1918, 2.4% of all US housing starts could be credited to homes purchased from Aladdin.
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The lumber for early
Aladdin homes was provided by the Lewis company of Bay City. In 1913, Lewis began to produce their own line of kit houses. In 1915, the International Mill & Timber Company of Bay City began selling kit houses under the Sterling brand. The presence of three major manufacturers
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Unlike other kit house manufacturers that went out of the kit home business due to the Great
Depression or the advent of World War II, all three Michigan-based companies continued to manufacture kit houses for a number of decades, with Lewis and Sterling closing in the 1970s and Aladdin being the
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Aladdin, Lewis and
Sterling were all based in Bay City and the city's neighborhoods feature many kit houses from all three companies. These include some of the largest kit house models from these companies that were built for executives of the kit house manufacturers. Other communities that have
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models, these kit houses quickly evolved into full-size homes that were based on the architectural styles of the period. Unlike pre-fabricated homes, these homes were shipped in thousands of individual parts that had to be constructed on-site. The introduction of pre-cut lumber pieces helped to
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nominations. A number of kit houses in
Michigan were featured in the sales catalogs of the various kit house manufacturers, and many of these "testimonial" homes still stand today. While most kit homes are privately owned, a couple are publicly accessible. These include:
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expedite the construction process. Shipping pre-cut home parts across the United States, these companies turned
Michigan into the "center of kit-home manufacturing". Examples of the homes manufactured by these companies and other kit house manufacturers like
70:, Gordon-Van Tine and Wardway can be found in communities across the state of Michigan. These include clusters of homes and rare models that are notable in the history of kit houses, the oldest of which are now over 100 years old.
130:. Later identified by comparison with their original manufacturers' catalogs, a number of homes have been chronicled by the Washtenaw Historical Society and Ypsilanti Historical Society and have been the subject of
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relation to the timber industry. This capacity to process large amounts of timber allowed these companies to easily supply the volume of lumber necessary for kit houses.
58:, who had sales "in every part of the world, from Saskatchewan to Tahiti". Lewis and Sterling, two other major manufacturers of kit houses, were also based in Michigan.
25:
Excerpt from an
Aladdin Company brochure demonstrating how a kit house could be shipped from their Bay City headquarters in a single railway box car (1952).
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last to close in 1982. Several smaller companies including the McClure
Company of Saginaw also produced kit houses that were sold around the country.
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Michigan manufacturers and their competitors produced "streets lined with houses" in
Ypsilanti, outside of the architectural norms set out in
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Putting Sears Homes on the Map: A Compilation of
Testimonials Published in Sears Modern Homes Catalogs 1908–1940
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On Frank Lloyd Wright's
Concrete Adobe: Irving Gill, Rudolph Schindler and the American Southwest
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America's Favorite Homes: Mail-Order Catalogues as a Guide to Popular Early 20th-century Houses
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The Houses That Sears Built: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sears Catalog Homes
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Montgomery Ward's Mail-Order Homes: A History and Field Guide to Wardway Homes
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Finding the Houses that Sears Built: A Guide to the 60 Most Popular Designs
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American Nightmare: How Government Undermines the Dream of Homeownership
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throughout the first half of the 20th century. Michigan was home to the
78:
Among the first kit house companies was the Aladdin Company, based in
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were a type of housing that was largely developed in the US state of
28:
621:
Houses by Mail: A Guide to Houses from Sears, Roebuck and Company
376:"Mail Order Kit Homes: More and More Examples Identified Locally"
169:"Built in a Day: Capturing the era of catalog architecture"
325:
587:
Ann Arbor in the 20th Century: A Photographic History
103:notable collections of existing kit houses include
681:Wolicki, Dale Patrick; Thornton, Rosemary (2010).
618:Stevenson, Katherine Cole; Jandl, H. Ward (1986).
584:
561:Mail-Order Homes: Sears Homes and Other Kit Houses
454:Schweitzer, Robert; Davis, Michael W. R. (1990).
347:Shackman, Grace; Schweitzer, Rob (January 1991).
408:"Ann Arbor: An Impressive Ensemble of Kit Homes"
512:"The Devonshire: Charming Home of Many Gables"
328:. Center Avenue Neighborhood Association. 2013
54:, the first and longest-lived manufacturer of
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282:Schweitzer, Robert (August–September 2009).
666:(2nd ed.). Gentle Beam Publications.
115:, Detroit, Pontiac, Waterford, Flint, and
256:Linvell Bund, Sally; Schweitzer, Robert.
487:"The Fullerton House at 111 East Forest"
20:
514:. Sears Modern Homes. February 21, 2013
167:Roth, Ronica (September–October 1998).
159:
611:"Bay City, Michigan, Kit Home Central"
430:"Homes by Mail: Kit Houses in Clawson"
181:National Endowment for the Humanities
7:
132:National Register of Historic Places
485:Phillips, Marcia D. (Spring 2005).
410:. Sears Modern Homes. March 7, 2013
284:"Magic in a Box: Aladdin Bungalows"
14:
86:of kit houses was due in part to
128:American Architecture Since 1780
225:Johnson, Donald Leslie (2013).
61:Starting with Aladdin's simple
1:
687:. Gentle Beam Publications.
645:. Gentle Beam Publications.
462:Wayne State University Press
432:. Clawson Historical Society
305:"McClure Houses in Cheverly"
258:"The House that Lewis Built"
639:Thornton, Rosemary (2004).
56:kit houses in North America
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385:. March 1991. pp. 2–5
16:Type of house construction
713:Architecture in Michigan
583:Shackman, Grace (2002).
537:Hunter, Rebecca (2004).
291:Cottages & Bungalows
194:O'Toole, Randal (2012).
349:"Ann Arbor's Kit Homes"
263:. Historic House Colors
609:Shepherd, Sue (2008).
141:Roseland Park Cemetery
44:Kit houses in Michigan
40:
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603:grace shackman sears.
383:Washtenaw Impressions
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150:- Sterling Senator B
718:Housing in Michigan
491:Ypsilanti Gleanings
354:Ann Arbor Observer
233:Ashgate Publishing
126:'s quintessential
88:Bay City's history
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33:Aladdin advert in
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591:. Arcadia Press.
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148:Hatchery House
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566:Shire Books
518:October 23,
496:October 23,
436:October 23,
414:October 23,
389:October 23,
360:November 6,
332:October 23,
310:October 23,
267:October 23,
146:Waterford:
723:Kit houses
707:Categories
673:0971558817
652:0971558825
631:0471143944
598:0738520101
550:0976209608
471:0814320066
173:Humanities
155:References
63:knock-down
624:. Wiley.
139:Berkley:
117:Ypsilanti
105:Ann Arbor
293:: 72–76.
98:Examples
80:Bay City
48:Michigan
113:Clawson
109:Berkley
74:History
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326:"Home"
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39:, 1908
379:(PDF)
287:(PDF)
261:(PDF)
179:(5).
68:Sears
689:ISBN
668:ISBN
647:ISBN
626:ISBN
593:ISBN
570:ISBN
545:ISBN
520:2014
498:2014
466:ISBN
438:2014
416:2014
391:2014
362:2013
334:2014
312:2014
269:2014
237:ISBN
206:ISBN
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