Montgomery Ward was not in business as long as Sears, and – as far as mail-order kit homes go – they’re most certainly not as well known as Sears, but they surely did offer some beautiful houses. But then again, I’d always had a sweet spot for the Dutch Colonial and Wardway offered several gorgeous Dutch Colonials.

The Sovereign was one such house, and it is a fine-looking thing.

A couple years ago, I started a group for kit home enthusiasts at Facebook, and that’s how I met Lara Solonickne. And recently Lara found this Wardway Sovereign in Arlington Heights, IL!

Isn't this a dandy of a house? Image is from the 1929 Wardway catalog.

Their "finest home" was also quite spacious!

Close-up of the house.

And here it is, in the flesh! And yes, it's shown here in brick, but you could pick brick, clapboard, stone, shingle or pretty much any siding you wanted for your kit home! (Photo is copyright 2011 Lara Solonickne and can not be used or reproduced without written permission.)

To learn more about Wardway Homes, click here!

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Bit by bit, I’m scanning my collection of old kit home catalogs, and last week, I scanned a few images from a 1931 Aladdin catalog. In doing so, I noticed something I’d never seen before. The cover of the 1931 catalog shows a young couple relaxing in their hammock and admiring their newly built Aladdin Madison. Dancing around in the foreground are a plethora (or gaggle?) of angels or fairies or demons.

Personally, I prefer to think of them as angels.

Nonetheless, it’s an interesting graphic.

The cover of the 1931 catalog shows a young couple admiring their Madison.

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An Aladdin Madison sits in the background.

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Yeah, they look happy, but do they know...?

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That just over their head is a whole bunch of ethereal beings...

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And one of them is playing two flutes at once, which is just downright spooky. Or it might be three, which is even more spooky.

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Did fairies help build this Madison in Bedford, VA?

To learn more about Aladdin, click here.

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The Aladdin Stanhope was one of Aladdin’s more modest homes, but it was apparently fairly popular. And really tiny.

Not one of the three bedrooms in the Stanhope had a closet. Not one. It seems they expected you to put a massive wardrobe within one of those tiny bedrooms.

And the bathroom was ten by five feet. That’s a tiny space. You’d have to step out into the hallway to change your mind.

In the kit home business, Aladdin was a competitor of Sears, but today, the name is not as well known as Sears.

Sears kit homes were sold from 1908-1940. These 12,000-piece kits were shipped by boxcar, and came with a 75-page instruction book and a promise that a “man of average abilities” could have the house built and ready for occupancy in 90 days.

Here in Southeastern Virginia, we also have many kit homes from Aladdin. They were based in Bay City, Michigan, but Aladdin had a large mill in Wilmington, NC. Aladdin started selling kit homes in 1906, and continued until 1981.

Sears sold about 70,000 kit homes during their 32 years in the kit home business. Aladdin sold more than 75,000.

Stanhope, as seen in the 1919 Aladdin catalog.

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Look at the size of those rooms! The "big" bedroom was 10 x 10.

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These were small homes, but they were well built. Aladdin promised to pay $1 for every knot found in their siding materials. Pretty strong words!

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The Aladdin Stanhope, as seen in the 1919 catalog.

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Here's a Stanhope in Scotland Neck, NC.

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And just last week, I discovered this Stanhope in Norfolk!

To learn more about kit homes, click here.

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Wardway Homes (offered by Montgomery Ward) were not nearly as popular as kit homes from Aladdin (which sold more than 75,000 houses) or Sears (about 70,000 houses) or Gordon Van Tine (about 50,000 houses). Dale estimates that Wardway sold about 25,000 houses during their years in the kit home business (1909-1931).

The Claremont was one of my favorite Wardway Homes. It was cute, practical and probably pretty easy to build.

The Claremont as seen in the 1927 catalog.

Below is a Claremont in Illinois (Lombard). Thanks to Rebecca Hunter for finding this little gem.

And thanks to Rebecca for driving me to this house to get a photo!

Rebecca is also a gem!! 

Is this also a Claremont?

The house above is in Hampton, Virginia. My husband (who’s pretty interested in this) says it’s not a Claremont.

I’m still undecided.

Opinions are welcome!

Another view of the Claremont, from the 1927 Wardway catalog.

To learn more about Wardway Homes, click here.

To buy the book on Wardway Homes, click here.

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Some houses have a facade that only a mother could love. The HB J-6 is one of those houses, and yet, it was immensely popular kit home in the early 1910s. By 1916, Harris Brothers could boast that they’d already sold more than 1,000 of these kit homes.

There were six companies selling kit homes on a national level, and Harris Brothers was probably the least well known. (In addition to HB, there was Sears, Gordon Van Tine, Sterling, Aladdin and Lewis Brothers.

Harris Brothers (Chicago), started out life as a house-wrecking company. Today, we use another name to describe “house wrecking;” it’s “Architectural Salvage.”.

According Rebecca Hunter, Harris Brothers got their start when they were awarded contracts to demolish exhibitions at the 1893 World’s Fair (also known as The Chicago World’s Fair). That same year, they were first incorporated as The Chicago House Wrecking Company. In 1913, they changed their name and their image: Harris Brothers.

Rebecca‘s research shows that Harris Brothers issued their last mail-order pre-cut house catalog in 1931. From then until 1958, the company remained in business, selling millwork and building materials through mail order catalogs.

Harris Brothers had some really "homely" designs, such as this J-6. Even the names were blase.

This HB house is in Camp Hill, PA and it's been "fixed up" with substitute sidings galore. You can just hear this poor old house asking, "Does this fake half-timbering make me look old?" However, note the distinctive turret with its two gable peaks. This is an easy house to pick out in a crowd! (This photo is copyright 2011, Rebecca Hunter and can not be used or reproduced without written permission.)

Floorplan of the HB J-6.

Lots of people bought the J-6.

To learn more about Wardway Homes, click here.

To buy Dale and Rose’s newest book, click here.

In the mid-1800s, Aaron Montgomery Ward was a traveling salesman who was growing weary of selling his wares from a horse and buggy. He decided that there must be a better way to earn a living, and in 1871, he invested his life savings in a radical new business idea: Direct sales, via mail order, to farm families. His first Chicago-based business was short-lived.

On October 10, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire wiped out four square miles of that town. In less than 24 hours, the fire destroyed much of Chicago, including Ward’s brand new business. While Ward labored to save a friend’s business from the fast-moving fires, he lost his own business, lock, stock and life savings.

According to The Story of Montgomery Ward, he was ready to begin again by the summer of 1872. His first catalog had only one page and 163 items and most of them were priced under $4. Business was slow but showed steady growth and much promise. In January 1874, “Catalog #10″ was issued, with four pages and 394 items. The first bound catalog appeared in Summer 1874, with 32 pages and one year later, it had almost doubled in size, reaching 72 pages.

Ward practiced a rigid sense of economy that would cause an uproar in modern times. According to The First 100 Years Are The Toughest, if a garment weighed “over four and under eight pounds, it was cut in two and shipped separately in halves…with a needle and thread” (p. 7).

In 1895, the United States Postmaster reported that the “largest patron of [our country's] post office is Montgomery Ward & Co” (The History and Progress of Montgomery Ward and Company, p. 19). Four years later, the Spirit of Progress, a 17′ weathervane/statue, was set atop the Tower Building on Michigan Avenue, making it Chicago’s highest point at 396 feet (ibid, p. 19). The Spirit of Progress became the company logo, appearing on Montgomery Ward’s storefronts and catalogs.

By the turn of the 20th Century, Montgomery Ward & Co. had claimed its high place in Chicago’s skyline and it was now America’s number one retailer.

The above was excerpted from Montgomery Ward’s Mail-Order Homes. To buy the book, click here.

Aaron Montgomery Ward (circa late 1800s)

Inside the Chicago-based offices of Montgomery Ward, early 1920s

Another view of the Chicago-based offices of Wards.

Montgomery Ward storefront in northern Illinois. Note the "Spirit of Progress" emblem at the top center of the building.

To learn more about Wardway Homes, click here.

To buy the book, click here.

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During one of Dale’s summertime fun trips to Springfield, Ohio, he found this Gordon Van Tine Bristol, a kit home offered in the late 1920s. Some people visit vacation hideaways when they take a respite from their workaday world. But that’s not Dale. Nor me. Nor our dear friend Rebecca.

We go looking for kit homes. In fact, in early 2004 we took a road trip to some distant city and – true story – we drove around IN THE DARK looking for kit homes. The sun had set on our fun day and despite the fact that we’d had nothing substantial to eat or drink for 12 hours, we didn’t want to stop looking at houses.

But back to Dale’s amazing find. The Gordon Van Tine Bristol has several unique features that make it jump out. Some kit homes are so simple they’re nearly impossible to distinguish from stick-built homes. That’s not true for the Bristol.

It’s a real beauty and one of its most notable is the flying flared floople on the home’s front.

There are all kinds of flared flooples on early 20th Centurry kit homes, such as the French Flared Floople and the Faint-hearted Flared Floople (typically smaller thaan both the Flying Flared Floople and the French Flared Floople. The Faint-hearted Flared Floople is also known (mainly up north) as the Feckless Flared Floople.

The Sears Hammond is a rare example of a kit home with Flying, French, Feckless Flared Floople. Extremely unusual.

Dale is always floored and flabbergasted and flummoxed when he finds a house with a Flying, French, Feckless Flared Foople. I wasn’t in the car with him when he found this one, but I can only imagine what his response must have been!

And what is a floople? It’s that long decorative wall that sweeps down in the front of the rounded entry.

Next time you’re out and about with the kids, point out the houses with flared flooples. They’ll be dazzled by your knowledge!

To learn more about Wardway homes, click here.

To buy our newest book, click here.

Gordon Van Tine Bristol in Ohio .

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As my dear husband says, “different people like different things,” but this house has a facade that only a mother could love.

It’s a kit home, sold by Harris Brothers of Chicago. This was one of the six national companies that sold entire kit homes through a mail-order catalog.

House Design #5010 was offered in 1915 and gone by 1916, so it didn’t last long. I’ve only seen one other #5010 and it was in Louisville, Illinois. There’s a photograph of #5010 (the one in Louisville) in our book, The Mail-order Homes of Montgomery Ward.

The house below is in Buckhannon, West Virginia, home of Melvin Wayne Ringer, Senior, father of one of my favorite people (Melvin Wayne Ringer, II).

Do you have a Harris Brother’s #5010 in your neighborhood? If so, please take a photo and send it to us. It’s a pretty unique house and not one you’re likely to miss!

To learn more about Wardway Homes, click here.

To learn more about Harris Brothers, click here.

To buy Rose and Dale’s book on Wardway, click here.

Harris Brothers House #1505 as seen in the 1915 catalog.

Close-up of the house

Here it is in Buckhannon, WV., Harris Brothers Kit home #1505.

Another view!

Floor plan

To learn more about kit homes, click here.

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Why, he spent it looking at kit homes, of course.

One of his many remarkable finds was this Wardway Allerton in Hartleton, Pennsylvania.  Dale first learned of this house through a  testimonial in an old Wardway Homes catalog. Being the indefatigable researcher and traveler, he donned his safari jacket and matching cap and set out in search of this Allerton.

And it’s a beauty!

First  the original catalog image from the 1927 catalog.

To learn more about Wardway Homes, click here.

To buy Rose and Dale’s newest book on Wardway Homes, click here.

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Or so they promised in the early 1920s. I recently won this little item on eBay and was fascinated to see that it was just a little promotional magazine by Aladdin, sent to the potential homebuyer to let them know that their Aladdin catalog was on its way.

It’s a fun little item, and has only eight pages, and lots of fun graphics!

Your Aladdin Catalog is following on the next mail...we hope!

Love this guy on the horse. Not sure what the subliminal message is though.

Page 3 shows inside and outside shots of the Aladdin office.

Part of the joy of playing with old houses is studying this accompanying literature and ephemera. And part of the fun of studying the literature and ephemera is sharing it with others!

To learn more about kit homes, click here.

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