In downtown Hopewell, not too far from the water, there’s an impressive collection of early 1910s Aladdin Kit Homes. While the city of Hopewell has put its focus on their eight Sears Homes in Crescent Hills, they’ve well-nigh ignored these many blocks of little Aladdin Homes.

The eight Sears Homes in Crescent Hills are fine-looking residences. The cluster of Aladdin homes are definitely more modest, but they also have a story to tell. They tell about Dupont coming to Hopewell in the early 1900s and building a factory and creating jobs and investing in modest homes for their workers.

And it’s a part of Hopewell’s history that’s getting lost – quickly. Judging by the landscape in this neighborhood (where the Aladdin Homes are located), countless numbers of these modest homes have already been leveled. Perhaps as people become aware that this is a piece of Hopewell’s history, the rest of these houses might be spared.

Part 1 (click here) focused on the many Aladdin Edisons in this part of town. In Part 2, we’ll focus on the Aladdin Plymouth and the Aladdin Burbank. This area has countless examples of both houses, but due to heavy traffic, late afternoon sun and general malaise, I was only able to photograph a handful. If you know of the location of other houses in Hopewell that look like these, drop me a line.

As mentioned in the prior post, this large collection of houses was ordered by Dupont, as housing for their many workers.

Aladdin promoted itself to companies as a supplier of industrial housing. It was believed that providing housing for workers created a more stable workforce. And that was probably true. (1919 Aladdin catalog)

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A close-up of the text from the 1919 catalog.

Aladdin Plymouth, as seen in the 1919 catalog

This Aladdin Plymouth does not have a fireplace (as shown above), but fireplaces were optional extras, and cost extra, too!

Floorplan for the Aladdin Plymouth shows it was also a fairly small house, but bigger than the Edison! Note, there is only one bedroom closet, and it's 2'6" by 3'. Not very spacious!

The Aladdin Burbank is another Aladdin kit home in this downtown section of Hopewell. There are countless "Burbanks" in this part of town.

The Burbank's floorplan shows it to be a much larger house than the Edison or the Plymouth.

Close-up of the Aladdin Burbank

It's a little rough around the edges, but there's no doubt that this is an Aladdin Burbank. Note the original windows!

Another Burbank in downtown Hopewell.

Some day, I’d love to go through Hopewell slowly and do a proper tally of all their kit homes.   THere are about 50 of these houses in and around the downtown area.  That’s a lot of kit homes!

To read Part III, click here.

To read Part I, click here.

To learn more about Hopewell, click here.

To learn more about Sears Homes, click here.

To buy Rose’s book, click here.

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