The idea of building the shell of a house in a factory has entranced American home builders for decades. Hodgson Houses claims to have made the first prefabricated homes in the U.S. The Aladdin Company, out of Michigan, was building kit houses as early as 1908. Sears offered them, too. In mid century America, we’d say this fascination was as strong as ever. The country was focused on scientific production methods… There was sheet metal and factories to put to work… And most importantly, the biggest housing boom in American history was “on.” Put these factors all together and: Lots of experiments in factory-built housing. So it’s great fun to look at today’s catalog — 28 pages of houses manufactured by Lincoln Homes in 1955. They were based in Belle Vernon, Penn., and it looks like they sold into Pennsylvania, Ohio, and a bit of West Virginia. These houses are such classic mid century modest houses … and inspecting the illustrations, you can get lots of ideas for siding, masonry, shutters, and other features to improve the curb appeal of a small house.
Above: Photographic proof that Lincoln Homes go up quickly. Seems like they gave you everything for the shell, plus the kitchen cabinets. You then used subcontractors for the rest.
A few of our favorite factory-built houses:
Now the only problem is deciding which one of these delectable styles would be the most wonderful to inhabit. I’m calling out just some of my favorites — there are even more in the slide show at the end of this story.
Above: The Carol has a nice long and low profile with just enough interest — generated by stone built in planters and a two-leveled stone knee wall — to be a quintessential mid century ranch.
If your taste is a little more traditional — why not go for this lovely cape cod style two story. The gabled windows, jutting entry and possible sunroom or breezeway between the house and the garage make it particularly charming.
The Heather is a much more modernistic style for the time — though it gets a breezeway, too. Notice how the front, plant lined walk creates a small patio next in front of the wall of windows.
The Betty is a ranch that looks like it’s designed to fit on a narrow lot. Its hip roof masks its narrow profile (versus having you look at the side of a gable end, as you see in many southern shotgun cottages.) Also notice how the home designer has made the stone wall at two different heights on the front of the house — which in turn makes room for a large picture window on one side and smaller bedroom windows on the other. Balanced asymmetrical design details like this are very true to mid century style – the challenge was to figure out more, novel ways to make a small box not look so much like a small boring box.
The Patricia is such a sweet ranch — a built-in planter and cute ladder support greet visitors as they approach the front door. The house is very balanced — the ratio of darker brick to white siding is spot on. The strong horizontal lines of the roof and brick facade are balanced by the verticals in the board and batten siding. Very nicely done. We love vertical board and batten on a long low ranch — keeps your eye moving.
hmmm. Design critic here. It might be that Janice has a leetle too much going on when it comes to varieties of siding and masonry. Maybe keep it to just four — even three key materials? And, the more materials you use, dial down the color combos? Even so, this house has much fundamental charm.
And here is Marge — don’t you just love the front door, the bumped out stone and picture window combination, the built in planters, the gently sloping roofline?
Factory built vacation houses, too:
Lincoln Homes also offered several small, factory-built vacation houses — like this cute Sportsman model, above. Even the miniature house plans are big on style.
Who wouldn’t want to take a holiday in this cute little ranch? An exposed chimney adds interest to the porch that runs the entire end of the house — a perfect place to line up the metal lawn chairs and enjoy a cocktail. When the weather tuns chilly, head inside and warm up by the fire in this cozy and quaint house.
Thanks to MBJ Collection, contributor of this catalog via archive.org for sharing and making this catalog available via Creative Commons License.
Tips to view slide show: Click on first image… it will enlarge and you can also read my captions… move forward or back via arrows below the photo… you can start or stop at any image:
So cute and so cheap – a small one for $1500!
I’ll take the Heather!!
ohhhh..that is my favorite too!
I LOVE archive.org! They have a great online resource library (and consequently, so do I now).
The long low looks of the Heather and the Patricia models, with the board and batten vertical siding, remind me of smaller versions of some of
the homes designed by Donald Scholz in the 1950s.
Heather is too cool!
These houses are sprinkled throughout my neighborhood in State College, PA. Adorable houses! Thanks for the fun research, Pam!
Oh yes, a Heather please! Those are wonderful! Someday I plan to do research into our house. There are a number of ranch styles in my general area of Chicago that you see over and over. For example, our house is identical to our neighbor’s from the outside and nearly identical to the other house on our block, except they have an attached garage. Even though they are brick, I’ve often wondered if they were factory built or kits, or what their story was.
If you uncover anything about your neighborhood, I’d love to hear about it. Architectural history is fascinating.
very kewl. the company for whom I work made pre-fab homes starting in 1944 thru the end of the 1950s. It was a small part of the overall product line. The first ones were shipped to England to house folks displaced by war bombing.
I have similar time line photos as you show above.
Hm, there’s a little development around here (in PA) called Lincoln Park and many of the homes there look very similar to these. I wonder if this is the origin of its namesake?
I am in love with the Heather, but wouldn’t say no to any of them!
Mexico Beach, FL used to have a couple of factory built vacation houses from this time period (I say used to because most have been torn down for beach McMansions). I learned this when I caught a rerun of pre-Bob Barker The Price Is Right and the prize was this specific factory built vacation home.
I like the Heather too but I think I prefer the Susan with the hipped roof variation. I’ve got a real soft spot for split levels.
Does anyone know the legality of taking these old images and getting an architect to produce plans for new construction? Are there any kind of copyright issues with that?
Consult with a pro on that question…
I love the names!!! These are just fantastic. I enjoyed looking at these and at the Aladdin catalog links you posted a while back. Supposedly there are tons of kit houses in this town. There certainly are a lot of houses that look similar to these.
The model names are great. They sound like the gals in my mother’s old bridge club. Can’t imagine a developer these days dubbing his model home “The Marge”…
I live in a house very similar to the Carol. I wonder if mine was a kit – I am in Ohio. However, my layout on the inside isn’t even close to theirs. My garage door is on the end of the house, also. The house is trimmed in Cedar and blue/green Tennessee Fieldstone. The long expanse of that blue/green rock between my picture window toward the garage is gorgeous!!! It’s verrrry 1950s! I will say, though, that the high windows and the big overhang from the roof makes the house very dark inside. I loved seeing these, thanks!
I just love these vintage drawings. I have been trying to find some history on my tract housing built in the ’50s. I came across a newspaper article by a carpenter describing the housing boom here and how fast they built the houses with hand hammer & nail. He said even ‘tho they built them quickly they built them very sturdy…and, so far thru some major earthquakes they proved it.
I grew up near Dayton, OH. The original floorplan of our next door neighbors house is identical to the Carol alternate plan no.6. I know that house was built in the mid to late 1950s, but don’t know if it’s a Lincoln Home. I’ll have to ask around & see what I can find out.
Another great catalog, Kate!
Love this! I’m leaning towards a Carol or a Marge.
The Heather is two doors down from me! OK, not the exact Heather. But pretty darned close. I do love a breezeway! Although the Holiday is just a sweet little sugar!
I think I have an addiction to house plans. I could play with them for hours at a stretch. I really love the way the garage on the Heather comes off from the middle with the breezeway that I’m sure practically everyone closed in.
Our house, built in 1967, is very similar to the first alternate for the Carol. One of the things I love about ours is having that hallway off the entry so you can go by the bedrooms into the kitchen, or through the living room and dining room. Really hate houses designed so you have to traipse through the living room to get anywhere.
Heather in a butterfly roofline would be perfect!
Heather is great but I prefer Marge. I love the stone work and the cute doors.
The Heather is sooooo perfect! I once lived in a Sears and Roebuck kit built house on a farm in Illinois.
I love the “Jane” The price was a 1955 price, $1500 was a lot of money for the average middle class family. We so so very little middle class now, it is what the country needs.
Well, I’m a bit of an authority when it comes to kit homes, but I had never heard of “Lincoln Homes.”
Very cool. And the houses are sweet!!!
Thanks for posting all those pages! Now I’m wondering if “Lincoln Homes” migrated as far as Norfolk, VA (where I live).
BTW, despite the fact that I am immersed in studying and researching early 20th Century architecture, I’m the proud and happy owner of a 1962 brick ranch, replete with the world’s most perfect (and all original) pink bathroom!
Rosemary Thornton
author, The Houses That Sears Built
author, The Sears Homes of Illinois
co-author, The Mail-Order Homes of Montgomery Wards
I think I agree with everybody else, the Heather is definitely my fav!
I like Heather, but I really think me and Marge would get along just fine! It looks alot like my parents’ first home in Indiana, built in 1963. I don’t think it was a kit, but you never know, I guess!
Speaking of knowing whether a house was a kit, I’d like to know if there is some archives somewhere that has documentation on where all these kit homes were built. I’d sure like to know where some of them are – especially in northeastern Ohio – so I could go gaze at them (or see if they’re still there)!
A little late to the party, but…
More mid century modest kit homes fabulousness:
http://archive.org/stream/TheKeyToYourFutureMurphySwiftHomes
If newspaper ads of the time are any indication, there was some fierce competition between (Gordon, Murphy) Swift and Lincoln Homes in PA. You will note that Swift insists that their were homes are pre-CUT, not pre-fab… Hm.
Readers who are now wondering whether their home might be one of these may consider looking inside their attic. The “asphalt insulation boards” exposed inside my gable ends proudly display the Swift Homes logo. One Westbrooke, confirmed. What might the Lincoln telltale signs be?
Thanks, cat!
Very cool resource. I live in the Pittsburgh area in a typical mid century modest home. By looking at his catalog, my house as well as every other house on my street look like the “Deborah” style.
Don’t know how in the world I missed this when it was first posted. I live in a kit home (not a mid century cutie unfortunately, mine was built in 1939). My home, alone with quite a few homes in my town was built by the Aladdin company of Michigan. They were a big player in the kit home building business, and one of the few to survive World War II. Here is a link to the 1954 home catalog, complete with ideas for furnishings and all the floor plans. http://www.cmich.edu/library/clarke/ResearchResources/Michigan_Material_Local/Bay_City_Aladdin_Co/Documents/1954_annual_sales_catalog.pdf
Also a list of all the years catalogs, and links about the company and how to research your own house for evidence of being mass marketed. http://www.cmich.edu/library/clarke/ResearchResources/Michigan_Material_Local/Bay_City_Aladdin_Co/Catalogs/Pages/default.aspx
Yes, we’ve featured the Aladdin catalogs before. Thanks for the reminder about them. And lucky you, for living in such a storied house!