Aladdin Kit Homes
The Clarke Historical Library's collection of Aladdin Company records is one of the Library's largest and most used manuscript acquisitions. The collection was discovered in an abandoned Bay City warehouse in 1994 and donated to the library in 1996. A grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities made possible substantial restoration and re-organization of the disorganized and sometimes moldy material before it was made available to the public.
The Aladdin Company of Bay City, Michigan, was one of America foremost and longest lived manufacturers of mail-order "kit-homes" (second only to Sears Roebuck). The company was founded in 1906 by two brothers, Otto and William Sovereign, and remained in operation until 1981. During the course of the firm's long history it sold over 75,000 homes to both individual and corporate customers, such as the Pomona, which was offered for sale in 1919.
The almost complete run of company catalogs, wide-ranging set of sales records, over 15,000 post-World War II architectural drawings, and various other company records create an extraordinary historical resource and provides a unique insight into the workings of a prominent, family-run Michigan Company and the public it served. From a scholar's perspective, the collection provides insight into the houses and lifestyles of America's typical home purchasers.