Aladdin published this catalogue featuring a home named The Sunshine in the 1920s. ALADDIN ARCHIVES: Bay City's Ready-Cut Home Pioneers Made History
August 17, 2014
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Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University has finished cataloguing an expanded collection from Bay City's Aladdin ready-cut home company.
Clarke staff and interns recently finished processing, boxing, labeling, and listing approximately 18 cubic feet of an addition to the Aladdin Company Collection, the library said.
The company manufactured readi-made (kit) homes in Bay City and sold them through mail order catalogs. The addition is mostly family papers, photographic materials, journals, correspondence, scrapbooks, films, slides, and a few business records.
Most of the films are of an airshow at James Clements Airport, Bay City in 1972. One is a St. Patrick's Day parade in the region; one is of houses being built.
There is documentation here and in the main collection of a long divorce case between an official and heir of Aladdin, Will J. Sovereign, and Mary Sovereign, both of Saginaw, which was among cases that resulted in Michigan's no fault divorce law.
The Michigan Supreme Court in 1956 concluded that the defendant was entitled to and he was granted a divorce. In 1958 the Court took up the issue of custody of a minor child, Will F. Sovereign.
There is also documentation of Jeannette Lempke-Sovereign (January 19, 1899-Juy 14, 1966), the second wife of Will J. Sovereign, who was known as a pilot for the Aladdin Refining Company, advertising for Sovereign Oil. She was also a competitive flyer for national air races and was a part of the Ninety-Nines, an all-female pilot organization, for which she was later elected International President and of which Amelia Earhart and other early female pilots were members. See http://www.ninety-nines.org/ for more info on the ninety-nines.
There is WWII information on the conversion of the company to war work and Will's attempts to get into the Army Air Force. Homework and letters of children, blueprints of Will's yacht, and other architectural records are included too.
Antiquehomestyle.com comments on the company: "One of the longest lived and most successful kit home companies was the Aladdin Company, based in Bay City, Michigan.
"Started by brothers William and Otto Sovereign in 1906, the company remained solvent and family-owned until it shut its doors for the last time in 1981. Over its more than seventy years in business, Aladdin sold more than 75,000 homes. Customers included individuals and corporate clients in both domestic and international markets. Whole neighborhoods and even a town -- Hopewell, Virginia -- were developed for company employees. In a fold-out flyer sent with the 1925 catalog, the company listed by name and city more than 1000 builders of Aladdin homes as well as government and corporate customers including the State of Michigan, the president of Liberia, Dow Chemical Co., Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. and Standard Oil."
(NOTE: Bay City retired lawyer and Civil War historian Bob Sarow comments: "As you probably know, during the Siege of Petersburg, Hopewell--then called City Point-- was the location of Grant's HQ. Last fall, I toured Richmond, Petersburg and the surrounding siege area, and Hopewell. The Union HQ complex was situated on the Eppes estate on the banks of the James River. Although the Eppes family had vacated the mansion on the site, Gen. Grant chose to bunk in a log cabin (about the size of the cabin next to the Trombley House in Veterans Park) built by the Army along the river bank. The mansion is now occupied by a museum and Grant's cabin has been re-constructed on its original site. During that period the hastily built docks and wharfs on the James which served as the logistical supply base for the assault on Petersburg, are reputed to have comprised the busiest port in the world.")
"Advertised as "Readi-cut" and "Built in a Day," Aladdin and other kit home manufacturers revolutionized home buying and building for the middle class. From tiny workingman's cottages to larger homes for the thrifty investor, Aladdin homes provided a solid value and easy construction.
Bay City also was home to Liberty Homes and Sterling Homes, both of which adopted similar production methods and sold their ready-cut homes nationwide.
Unlike many of the other kit home companies, including Montgomery Ward, the history of Aladdin is readily available through its catalogs and corporate records at Clarke Historical Library in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.
The finding aid and catalog record will soon be available to researchers via the Clarke Historical Library finding aid website.
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