The moderate and the modern Aladdin buildings in Delaware 1914 – 1920
Date
2010
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The sales of the Aladdin Company, one of the leading manufacturers of
mail-order buildings, reflect emerging architectural and cultural trends during the early
twentieth century. This study of Aladdin orders in Delaware from 1914 to 1920
provides insight into mail-order housing within Delaware, especially bungalows and
cottages in the suburban communities near Wilmington. The survival of the Aladdin
Company’s national sales records, both sales indexes and detailed order forms, grant
the opportunity to researchers to study the mail-order housing industry using the
details of individual purchases of Aladdin Readi-Cut buildings as the basis of analysis
for local and regional studies. The primary sources of research for this thesis were the
Aladdin sales records that identify Delaware as the delivery destination, as well as the
U.S. Population Census records associated with the name of the purchaser.
Building on existing published scholarship, this thesis establishes
Aladdin’s role in the mail-order housing industry and provides a context for
understanding the Aladdin purchases in Delaware. In the study of these purchases,
specific factors examined include railroad station delivery locations, distribution
patterns, architectural models and styles, and motivations and demographic
characteristics of the purchasers. This thesis is organized around these factors, with
separate chapters addressing the history and strengths of the Aladdin Company, the
delivery locations and models of Aladdin buildings ordered in Delaware, and a
methodology to examine the motivations and demographic trends of Delaware
purchasers.