Andrew Mutch has made a habit of finding kit homes across America, but until recently hadn’t found too many in Wyoming.
Now he’s found a gem — 100-plus-year-old Pomona No. 1, that was mail-ordered from Aladdin Readi-Cut Houses of Michigan, where Mutch lives.
Sales records show the house, which now stands at 1000 10th St. in Wheatland, was bought by a J.R. Mason in 1919, and shipped by rail to Wheatland.
Using the U.S. Census tract, Mutch found a J.R. Mason in Wheatland,and was able to verify he lived in a rental home on Spruce Street in 1920. By 1930, though, he had relocated to his new home on 10th Street, the one he’d purchased from the Aladdin company.
Finding these Aladdin homes is nothing short of magical to Mutch, who stumbled into his hobby after visiting a friend’s home in Michigan, who owned a Sears catalog home.
Right off the bat, Mutch knew he had walked into something special.
“It was 95% original, and I was like, ‘Wow, like what is this thing,’” he told Cowboy State Daily. “It still had all of its original windows and doorknobs from 1926. It had all these things that you looked at the Sears catalog, and it’s like, ‘Oh, there they are. These are the same things.’”
Even the fireplace still had that distinctive, Sears-catalog pattern, and Mutch instantly fell for the home, telling his friend if the home ever went on the market, Mutch wanted to buy it from him.
Eventually that indeed happened, giving America’s House Kit Hunters the perfect home. But in the meantime, the discovery started a brand-new hobby. Tracking down the dream homes of a by-gone era and recording as much history about each one as possible.
Aladdin Was First and Outlasted Sears Kit Homes
Kit Homes were at their height from 1910 through the 1950s. They traveled across the country on an ever-expanding wave of middle-class Americans, whose rising incomes gave them the means to own their own homes, their own American dream.
While most people are more familiar with Sears catalog homes than Aladdin homes, the latter was the first in America to sell bonafide kit homes. Sears started out selling lumber and other housing materials but didn’t offer an actual kit home until 1908.
Aladdin’s started off simply in 1906 with what they described as a “knockdown” boathouse. But it wasn’t long before Aladdin had a beautiful, 100-page, full-color catalog full of options — 450 different models of the American dream to choose from.
Aladdin homes ranged from tiny bungalows to giant Georgian Colonial Revival homes, with the Pomona No. 1 that Mutch found in Wheatland being somewhere in between.
“Sears actually got out of the kit house business when World War II started,” Mutch said. “But Aladdin got back into selling them after the war ended. And they continued to sell houses up until like, the early 1980s. They were the last of the original kit house companies to stay in business.”
Aladdin was one of three major kit house companies in Michigan at the time. The other two were Sterling Homes and Lewis Homes.
“They were all big players in the kit home business, along with Sears, right up until World War II,” Mutch said. “It’s been interesting to see how Aladdin evolved over the years. Because after the war, people weren’t buying arts and crafts bungalow houses anymore. They were buying like ranch houses and split levels.”
This Aladdin Readi-Cut kit mail-order house was bought in 1919 and built on a lot in Wheatland, Wyoming. It's still there more than 100 years later. (Courtesy Andrew Mutch) 
This Aladdin Readi-Cut kit mail-order house was bought in 1919 and built on a lot in Wheatland, Wyoming. It's still there more than 100 years later. (Courtesy Andrew Mutch) 
This Aladdin Readi-Cut kit mail-order house was bought in 1919 and built on a lot in Wheatland, Wyoming. It's still there more than 100 years later. (Courtesy Andrew Mutch) 
This Aladdin Readi-Cut kit mail-order house was bought in 1919 and built on a lot in Wheatland, Wyoming. It's still there more than 100 years later. The garage was ordered separately, and is still in good shape. (Courtesy Andrew Mutch)
Just Get In Your Google Street Car And ‘Drive’
Mutch loves tracking down these pieces of Americana all over the country and belongs to a close-knit Facebook group with about 10 people actively researching and finding kit homes in America. They share resources and newspaper clippings and other clues about the homes they’re seeking.
Wyoming has been a particularly challenging state to find them in, Mutch said.
“It’s a very small and still very rural state, and not a lot of the houses that are in the sales lists that we have actually went to Wyoming,” Mutch said. “And, unless it ends up in a city or town at the time, it can be challenging, because, and this is true of Sears and some of the other companies where we don’t necessarily have sales records, a lot of farmers or families who had agricultural concerns would buy these houses.”
That meant the town where a building kit shipped to wasn’t necessarily its final destination.
“The actual farm might have been 5 or more miles down the road,” Mutch said. “And it’s now 100-plus years on in many cases, so is the home even still there?”
In the case of Wheatland’s Pomona No. 1, Mutch was fortunate in that it was a small town, so it was relatively easy to research. Mutch found the purchaser of record on the Census tract for Wheatland, so he knew the man lived somewhere in town, even if the record didn’t say which street.
“So, then I said, OK, let’s just get in my Google streetcar,” Mutch said with a chuckle.
The Google streetcar he’s referring to is really just him and his computer, taking a virtual drive using a tool on Google maps, which will let users seea street view. It’s like walking in downtown Wheatland, without ever leaving home.
“I got really lucky,” Mutch said. “Because I think it was like the first street I went on halfway through town, and I’m like, ‘There it is,” Mutch said. “But you know it’s a very popular model, so I kept looking just to make sure that one was it.”
Aladdin Homes More Common In Wyoming
Aladdin for many brings to mind magic. And for Mutch, Aladdin homes are just that. They are magic, opening a door on American history that has captured his imagination.
The Aladdin home in Wheatland is a particularly fine example. Based on a real estate listing for the home dated 2020, the home appears to retain some of its original character. The listing says the home has six bedrooms and three bathrooms, with numerous windows, 9-foot ceilings and plenty of “character” throughout.
There’s a gas fireplace for the living room, which is open to the dining room. French doors lead to an office, while the bright and sunny kitchen offers a breakfast nook and the family room a wet bar. Upstairs, there’s a bedroom, bonus room, and bathroom.
Aladdin homes are much more common in Wyoming than Sears catalog homes, Mutch added. He believes that had to do with distance. Sears had its headquarters Chicago, and its lumber mill was in Cairo, way down in the southernmost tip of the state.
“The further you have to ship something the more the shipping costs,” Mutch said. “So, the further West you go, the more expensive that became.”
Nonetheless, he has found a Sears home over in Newcastle, a model called the Betsy Ross, as well as a model called the Argyle over in Riverton. In Riverton, his records actually show two people buying kit homes, a C. Wimpenny and an E. Wimpenny, though, so far, he’s only found one of the two homes.
Mutch said he hopes to one day get in an actual car and drive around visiting some of the kit homes he’s identified all over the West in South Dakota, Wyoming, and beyond. But, in the meantime, the spark that keeps him finding these homes are the stories these houses can tell, not just to their owners, but to America at large, about its own history.
Andrew Mutch of Michigan loves 100-year-old kit homes, and uncovered the story behind a 1919 mail-order house in Wheatland, Wyoming. (Courtesy Andrew Mutch) 
Along with the mail-order house, the Wheatland home has a mail-order garage, which cost $246 in this undated ad. (Courtesy Andrew Mutch) 
How the Pomona model house appeared when advertised. (Courtesy Andrew Mutch) 
This home was just under $2,000. (Courtesy Andrew Mutch) 
The base price of this model was $1,995. (Courtesy Andrew Mutch) 
A cataloge showing examples of kit homes, which were popular more than a century ago. (Courtesy Andrew Mutch)
Letting Out The Genie Of History
When it comes to letting out the magic genie of history, Mutch believesAladdin homes are just a bit better than all others, because its sales records have all been preserved, and it was still producing kit homes right up to the 1980s.
“The sales records are fascinating to look at because they’re very, very detailed,” Mutch said. “It will have things like which railroad the house was shipped on. Because all this stuff got shipped out by rail across the country. And obviously, coming from Bay City to Wyoming, it traveled quite a distance.”
The records also include how much was paid for the home, what paint colors came with it, and any modifications the owner asked for. In the case of the Wheatland home, Mason also ordered a garage.
“Very few people get a chance to have that kind of information about their house,” Mutch said. “So, it’s a really kind of cool resource.”
In some cases, letters between new owners and the Aladdin have also been preserved, making the Aladdin historical record particularly rich and fun.
But it’s not just sharing the history with the owners that’s neat. It’s realizing how each house is a unique thread in an American tapestry of history, weaving manufacturing and dreams and resilience together.
“Just the whole, do-it-yourself aspect of it,” Mutch said. “People took on a big challenge and made it happen, and that work they did is still here, 100-plus years later. It’s kind of a testament to their industriousness and the ingenuity of the times to make that happen.”
In the end, it’s where America’s magic has always come from. A little ingenuity, and a lot of hard work and determination, and the evidence of it lives on in every kit home across Wyoming and the nation.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
