Aladdin kit home questions & answers.

This article series gives detailed photographic and historic clues to assist in the identification & restoration of Aladdin Catalog or Aladdin Kit homes and including references to other expert books and resources on catalog or kit homes in the United States.

FAQs about Identifying Aladdin Kit Houses & Aladdin Kit Home History

These questions and answers about Aladdin kit homes and about how we might identify an Aladdin home were posted originally at ALADDIN KIT HOUSE FAQs - be sure to review that article.

Photo: "Wall" stencil marks on an Aladdin home in Tivoli, NY inspected by the author [DF].

[Click to enlarge any image]

On 2020-02-13 by (mod) - How to search Aladdin Kit Home Catalogs to find your model

Mary

I haven't found the "Faircraft" name among the homes in several Aladdin kit home catalogs I've reviewed - you can look through them yourself at links now found near the end of ALADDIN KIT HOUSES .

You may need to clear your browser cache and refresh the page to see the updated material.

I haven't found an Aladdin catalog of residential homes between 1942 and 1947 - it appears that the company's efforts were directed towards the war effort during that period.

I also haven't found a description of the company having shipped fully-assembled houses, but of course our information may be incomplete. It sounds as if the home was constructed from a kit, uses as a model home, then the model home was sold and simply moved to its final site.

I would be glad to research further but need some help from you - you can post more photos, one per comment; perhaps you can show me

- any lumber markings or stampings in the basement or attic

- closeups of hardware on doors, windows

- any original built-in furnishings

On 2020-02-12 by mary - Possible Aladdin "Faircraft" home in Montreal

Hello, I am a real estate agent in Montreal. My clients have a 1947 1 1/2 storey clapboard house that they tell me is an Aladdin home.

The house was shipped and installed on a full concrete foundation. They say it was pre-aseembled - not a kit house - and that it is hinged.

The hinges are under the lino on the ground floor. The module opened like a book once laid on the foundation. Does this check out as a Aladdin house?

They thought it was called an Aladdin Faircraft. Apparently their mother chose this model after visiting several demonstrator homes set up in a downtown square. Any help most appreciated.

On 2019-11-28 by Pamela Kramer

Need to sell an Aladdin home not in real good repair. Dad’s 91 and it’s getting to be too much for him. Most of the problems are with the front porch and basement not the home itself.

On 2019-09-02 by (mod) -

Seems possible for Aladdin. Though the company shipped across North America, they were based in Michigan.

On 2019-09-02 by Sandie

I have a 1920 Craftsman style bungalow and am told the wood, which is extremely hard, is Georgia pine , lighter pine which is what makes it so hard, you can nail into it, you must drill...

so could Aladdin have outsourced the lumber from Georgia for a house in Florida?

And if not, would you have any idea what company might have? Thanks a bunch!

On 2018-10-15 by (mod) -

the earliest Aladdin catalog I have seen is available from The National Trust and is from 1910

On 2018-10-15 by Marilee

Do you have a catalog that has pictures of Aladdin homes of 1906? Our farm was homesteaded in 1902. Up in the attic is a stamp on wood saying Aladdin. My grandsons are the 6th generation in this beautiful home.

On 2019-01-16 by Cindy Thompson

Looking for information on small two story kit home moved from the Kingsbury ordinance plant, Laporte, Indiana.

On 2018-10-15 by (mod) - Earliest known Aladdin Catalog at the National Trust

the earliest Aladdin catalog I have seen is available from The National Trust and is from 1910

On 2018-10-15 by Marilee

Do you have a catalog that has pictures of Aladdin homes of 1906?

Our farm was homesteaded in 1902. Up in the attic is a stamp on wood saying Aladdin. My grandsons are the 6th generation in this beautiful home.

Is there a website on the National Trust with the 1906 catolog?

On 2018-10-04 by (mod) - carpenter's mark on stair riser

Not precisely, but I have a good guess. The builders initials. Many, including myself, have ave done that.

On 2018-10-04 by stephans

Has anyone seen this marking before? On riser in 1926 foursquare.

On 2018-09-17 by (mod) - Aladdin sold any homes with steel framing?

I think there were some steel kit houses although I'm not sure about the Aladdin brand.

I'll be glad to research further, but it would be helpful if you would post, at one photo per comment, images of the house, the framing, and any stamps or markings that you have found.

On 2018-09-17 by Paul in Virginia

Do you know if any Aladdin sold any homes with steel framing? My wall framing is steel, all door frames and windows are heavy duty steel throughout the house.
I have seen signs of Aladdin ladder coming from the attic.

The house was built on a slab in 1950. It is a one-story bungalow home with three bedrooms and 1 bath. Built in Norfolk, VA.
Thanks for any help you can provide.

On 2018-08-01 by (mod) - Photos of an Atkinson NC Aladdin Pasadena Kit home

Thank you for the Aladdin photos, AnnK.

If you have photographs of the stencil markings, numbering, writing on framing, hardware, or the interesting findings made while gutting the home those would be valuable for other Aladdin owners and we'd welcome them here.

DF

On 2018-08-01 by AnnK

Sorry for the typo's in my last post. I meant we found some interesting things when we gutted the house. We found old door frames hidden behind drywall, etc. It gave us a much better idea or the original layout of the home.

Sorry for the typo's in that last message. I meant that we found some interesting things about the house while gutting it.

Old door frames hidden behind walls, etc.

We have an Aladdin Pasadena that we believe is from 1919. The floor plan is flipped from the catalog.

Does anyone else know if this was something that a home owner could do with the plans?

The house is actually for sale, so if anyone wants to see the inside it's located at 220 W. Church Street, It's in Atkinson NC.

We've been here for 20 years and have redone the kitchen. While redoing the house and removing drywall etc we found the original door frames at other interesting fines.

Our home was added onto during the 1950s to accommodate a larger family. What a great home it's been.

On 2018-04-26 by (mod) - stencil markings may identify packing crate material used in home building

TK

To me that lumber looks like salvage, perhaps from packing crates, used to create a storage surface in an older home.

Notice the incomplete stencil that was probably part of a box ID or address, and the nails that were left in place.

On 2018-04-26 01:51:15.636228 by TK

Does this stamp look familiar to anyone? I'm trying to determine if my house built in 1924 is a kit house. Ty!!

On 2018-02-21 01:21:34.861839 by Anonymous

Sorry I don't recognize those numbers.

Take a camera with you into the CRAWL space, and wear appropriate protective gear. Ha me a helper nearby.

On 2018-02-19 by Jason - bathroom sink from Pacific Manufacturing

I appreciate your response, after my post I went back through the home looking for any markings or identifiers I could find and came up with the following picture from a door frame leading into the upstairs bathroom.

The markings read 2 - 8 - 6 - 8 145 - 7 (there may be another dash between the 4 and 5, its hard to tell).

There's a bathroom sink from Pacific Manufacturing but I'm thinking it was ordered from a catalog at a later date like our Kohler tub from 1919.

At quick glance our home resembled The Albany from Aladdin but upon further inspection that doesn't seem to be the case as our front room is 16x16, has stairs in between the dining room and downstairs bedroom entrances, and the most important aspect, the years are off by about eight haha. In the end it may just be best to head into the crawlspaces and see what turns up.

Thank you again!

On 2018-02-19 by (mod) -

Thank you for the photo Jason. I'll be sure to keep it on this page to invite other readers to comment.

The green crayon or lumber pencil markings might have been used in a kit home but most often those marks were made by hand by the carpenters during construction of a stick-built house.

It's quite true that it can be difficult to establish for sure that given home is a kit home unless you find an appropriate stencil mark or identify hardware such as hinges or window latches that were unique to a particular home producer.

Adding to the difficulty is that the kit home producers were no fools, the kits that they produced were for home plans that were already popular designs.

It's also the case that some of the kits, particularly earlier ones such as in your era, did not necessarily stencil the lumber so we need to look for other details in the building.

On 2018-02-19 by Jason

Really great info, unfortunately i'm still at a loss on whether or not were currently residing in a kit home. our house was built in 1908 just as the train system was really ramping up through Skagit County, WA and are just a stones throw away from the rail line.

I've attached an image [above] just in case someone might be able to give me an idea on what we have and I have many more if requested.

There is a second Dormer slightly hidden on the opposite side of the house, and a detached garage with sliding barn door.

Thanks!

On 2018-01-07 by (mod) - use the Comments Box Add Image Button to post one photo per comment

You can add photos of your house, Pat, using the picture frame icon next to the Comment button.

On 2018-01-07 by (mod) - Aladdin - The Sheffield built in stucco

RE-posting

Pat said:
I am trying to identify if this home is an Aladdin - The Sheffield. The home was originally built in stucco. Years later it was covered with brick. I have restored the house and I am in the process of selling it.

On 2017-12-04 by (mod) - Aladdin Pasadena #2 kit home built in 1951 - photos above

Anna,

What a wonderful find. If you're willing to share photos and ti name your city, state, or Province where your home is located that would be a great boon to other Aladdin home owners.

You can send photos by using the page bottom contact link or you can add individual photos one at a time in the comments box above by beginning a comment and then clicking on the little tiny picture frame to the right of the comments button

On 2017-12-04 by Anna

I have an Aladdin Pasadena #2 kit home built in 1951. I am the second owner and nothing was remodeled from the light fixtures to the kitchen counter. I found all of the instructions, floor plans and receipts for the building of this home when I moved in 15 years ago. A true gem to quality.

On 2017-09-18 by (mod) -

I'll review my notes to see what else I can find

On 2017-09-17 by Sarah Mullane

Nice article. I research mail-order homes and since I am in Buffalo, NY I concentrate on Ray H Bennett, though I do think I found an Aladdin home today in Niagara Falls, NY.

My question is: can you point me in the direction of the online Bennett discussion about the house in Clarence?

Also, I believe Bennett offered house through the 60s and I think through the mid-1970s. I'll have to check. They had at least three incarnations over the decade.

Thank you. Sarah

On 2017-06-19 23:00:33.614124 by Dianne

We found the blueprints to our 1927 Craftsman home. It is labelled, "Westmount". We live in Southern Ontario. I would like to learn more.

On 2017-03-14 22:11:59.250400 by (mod) -

Ben
starting at KIT HOMES, Aladdin, Sears, Wards, Others - https://inspectapedia.com/Design/Kit_Houses.php you'll see a series of articles that discuss typical markings and where you may find clues to ID a kit home manufacturer;

We look at

- architectural style

- age

- lumber stampings

- hardware

- window details

for example. See the Sears Kit Home articles for detailed examples of clues.

On 2017-03-14 20:17:58.283101 by Ben

I have a kit home built in 1964/65 and have no clue how to go about finding out what manufacturer it is from. I've seen markings on beams with "f.j. 190-3".

On 2016-06-07 by (mod) -

Nice, Kim, you can use the page topaper or bottom contact link to send a log photos of the home and it's photos to share if you like.

On 2016-06-07 by Kim

I have one in Meadville, PA! It was built in 1911.

On 2015-11-27 by (mod) -

Please use the page bottom CONTACT link to send me photos of the exterior, all sides, interior hardware, any lumber markings, and a floor plan sketch and we will research further.

On 2015-11-27 by brian

I have what I believe is an Aladdin "The Albany", but the Floorplan is much different and there are no obvious markings on the framing materials.

I'm in Bay City, MI. We're buyers able to drastically change the Floorplan on site, or should I be seeking another model?

On 2015-09-08 by (mod) - door knocker from an Aladdin home

Thanks BJ - please use the page bottom CONTACT link to find my email and send along some sharp photos of both sides of the door knocker and I'll post them for research - and perhaps you'll find someone who needs an Aladdin door knocker. I haven't found an age catalog on Aladding hardware.

On 2015-09-07 by B Johnston

I have a door knocker from an Aladdin home where my mother was born in 1913. It is of a Genie
inscribed with "Aladdin". How long did they feature this hardware and would it have value to a museum
or collector?

Question: help me identify this kit house as Aladdin - similar to Sears Simplex Sectionals or the Sears Starlight

Dear Moderator:

Described below, in an e-mail attempting to establish provenance and historical importance for the Aladdin kit rental house I live in, are my house's technical similarities to the nineteen-teens-and-later Sears Simplex Sectionals, for instance, the interior and one exterior version of a Sears model called "Starlight."

If there is any way you can help me in this matter, I should be extremely delighted to have found a way to save the house from a bad future. Here follows the e-mail to Sears. Not incidentally, I'm a little over 15 years younger than the house.

- L.H. Subject: Sears Simplex Sectionals My 1910 (King County, WA, county record) rental cottage, very small, exactly matches some of the Sears Simplex Sectional specifications--2-1/2-inch-thick walls made of panels 36" on center, bolted together, same room dimensions, window placement, interior fittings, chimney placement, hip roof, house-wide front porch, dormer at the front (since removed by my now-foreclosed landlord--he said "It might leak.").

But it is not a Simplex Sectional, instead having in 1910 come out from Michigan in a railroad flatcar package, numbered parts, detailed instructions, evidently before the birth of Simplex Sectionals. It is an Aladdin kit house, and may be the last extant pioneer specimen of the type in the Pacific Northwest or maybe anywhere.

It is historically significant in several ways, standing within ten minutes of downtown Seattle, at the northern crest of the last visible remnant of the once commercially and sociologically important route between "suburb" Renton and the flourishing new city.

I have rented here for nearly twenty-eight years, in an old-timey, diversely populated, historically significant area. To save the house from destruction, I very much want to establish it as a candidate for historic preservation. It has passed from bubble-loan landlord to the Bank-lender, then to Fannie Mae, and lastly, by "repurchase," back to the Bank.

The Bank wants to raise the rent by $240, not an option for me. It is on a non-conforming-use lot said to be 7600 sq. ft., and to be worth $260,000 to $278,000. Does this indicate an immanent odor of bulldozer?

Here is what I need from Sears. By e-mail [or for forwarding to the original reader who asks for this information contact InspectAPedia.com using our CONTACT link at page top, left, or bottom], could you please send some early Simplex Sectional plans with pictures, floor-plans, and interior views that might corroborate my findings.

The reason I know that the house is by Aladdin Kit Homes is because the house came from Michigan (Bay City), and Sears Simplex Sectionals did not exist until later than 1910. Years ago an archivist told me that even back then everybody latched on to available good ideas (hence same dimensions and procedures), and that Aladdin records had been donated to the University of Northern Michigan.

Unfortunately, those records did not pre-date 1915, though Aladdin had been in business for much longer than that. I will be very thankful if you can be of help.

- Louise Hotaling, 3811 Renton Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98108. tele 206-723-3811. Email: hotsdl@mindspring.com

Reply:

A competent onsite inspection by an expert usually finds additional clues that help identify the origin of a home and its manufacture.

That said, if you missed our article on identifying Aladdin kit homes, take a look

at ALADDIN KIT HOUSES and our other kit house references and identifcation aids in the ARTICLE INDEX at the end of this page.

The same process described

at SEARS KIT HOME IDENTIFICATION can help identify the origin of other kit homes.

I'm doubtful you'll find someone at modern Sears Roebuck & Co. that can answer your identification questions about your home, but there are several published authors on Sears Kit Houses, as we cite in our references

at SEARS KIT HOUSES

- and also at Books on Sears and other Kit or Catalog Houses. you might try contacting Rosemary Thornton, for example.

Follow-Up:

I'd like to be identified. Somebody who knows more than I do about the Aladdin provenance question may catch my name at your site and tell me what he/she knows. I have already said that I talked to a Sears-interest archivist who directed me to Northern Michigan University.

Nothing further back than 1915 had been donated to NMU. This house is documented 1910. I'm sending you a photograph of it when I can get it to go.

This very night I'll write to Rosemary Thornton. I found out only today that she also has some interest in Aladdin houses. I read her book on the Sears houses many years ago when I still believed the house was a really early Sears Simplex Sectional.

I tried to get Sears to investigate it--same panel measurements, hip roof, dormer, window and door placement, same livingroom and diningroom configuration, as the Sears "Starlight" (Thornton, page 76, fig. 75). But I was told that Sears had lost their 1910 catalog, and that seemed to be that.

Until researcher-archivists told me that it was probably an Aladdin. Do you know of anyone here who might be considered an expert onsite inspector? It's too late for my informant, lifelong Seattle resident Steve Potteiger, the foreclosed landlord's former factotum, who died of old age more than several years ago.

He knew everything there was to know about early Seattle and its environs and history and denizens.

Comment: Aladdin home in Pittsburgh, PA. 1948 Brewster

(May 15, 2014) LORRy Harbaugh said:
We own an Aladdin home in Pittsburgh, PA. It is the Brewster and was built by my father-in-law in 1948. It's a perfect small home and we love it.

Reply:

Wonderful Lorry. If you like, you can send along some photos (use the CONTACT link at page bottom) we'd be glad to add them to the publication above to assist other readers.

References for Identifying Aladdin Catalog Homes and other brands

See references now found at ALADDIN KIT HOUSES

...

Continue reading at ALADDIN KIT HOUSES or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see these

Recommended Articles

• AGE of a BUILDING, HOW to DETERMINE for references on identifying and determining the age of buildings
• ALADDIN KIT HOUSES
• BRICK LINED WALL CAVITIES - determining the age of older homes by bricks in wall cavities.
• BUILD YOUR DREAM HOME 1950 guide to building a modest home, from site selection through finish painting
• HOME CONSTRUCTION CATALOGS 1950
• KIT HOMES, Aladdin, Sears, Wards, Others
• LEAK DIAGNOSIS & CURE in LOG HOMES if you are reading our log home article series
• SEARS KIT HOME IDENTIFICATION

Suggested citation for this web page

ALADDIN KIT HOUSE FAQs at InspectApedia.com - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice.

Or see this

INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES: ARTICLE INDEX to BUILDING ARCHITECTURE

Or use the SEARCH BOX found below to Ask a Question or Search InspectApedia

Or see

INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES: ARTICLE INDEX to BUILDING DAMAGE, DISASTER, REPAIRS

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