Several years ago, I drove through the 1920s neighborhoods in Concord, NC and found several kit homes from Aladdin on the beautiful, tree-lined streets. I was on my way to a more distant land, and it was very early in the morning. Due to the poor lighting, I could only get one decent photo. However, I remember finding several Aladdin kit homes on one street.

Now, these many years later, I don’t remember how many Aladdins that I found, but I saw an Aladdin Pomona, and an Aladdin Sheffield, and this Aladdin Shadowlawn (see below). It’s not surprising that this part of North Carolina is so loaded with kit homes, because Aladdin had a major mill in Wilmington, NC. In fact, Roanoke Rapids has one of the largest collections (and most impressive collections) of Aladdins in the country! It’s worth the trip, I promise!

Aladdin was a mail-order company that (like Sears), sold entire kit homes through their catalogs. The houses typically arrived by boxcar in 12,000 pieces and came with a 75-page instruction book that told the homeowner how all those pieces and parts went together. Today, there are about 75,000 Aladdin kit homes in the country, and about 70,000 Sears Homes in the country. More than 90% of the people living in these historically significant homes didn’t realize what they had until I knocked on their door and told them! Aladdin Kit Homes were sold from 1906-1981. (Sears, by comparison, was out of business by 1940.)

If someone could tell me the name of the street where this Shadowlawn is located, we’d also know the proximity of the OTHER kit homes (for they were very close by).

So, please leave a comment below if you know where this house is! And please look for the other Aladdins on the same street!

To learn more about identifying kit homes, click here.

To learn about the Aladdin Homes in Rocky Mount, click here.

To learn more about the massive collection of Aladdin kit homes in Roanoke Rapids, click here.

The Aladdin Shadowlawn was a big, beautiful kit home, and there's a perfect Shadowlawn in Concord, NC. Image is from the 1919 catalog.

And here it is, a perfect Shadowlawn in Concord, but what is the address?

Somewhere in Concord, I think I saw a Plaza, too.

And an Aladdin Pomona.

And I'm 98% confident I saw an Aladdin Sheffield just across the street and down a few doors from that Shadowlawn.

Aladdin also sold entire cities of their kit homes, and their mill was in Wilmington, which would explain why there are so many Aladdin kit homes in North Carolina.

Aladdin Homes were made with quality materials - first growth lumber out of virgin forests - the likes of which we will never again see in this country.

My favorite graphic from the 1914 Aladdin catalog.

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To learn more about the massive collection of Aladdin kit homes in Roanoke Rapids, click here.

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