The moderate and the modern Aladdin buildings in Delaware 1914 – 1920

Date
2010
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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.
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