Any Folks Near Taucoma Want To Do A Favor For Me In The Name Of History?

There's a free book in it for you.

I write about the kit houses sold by Sears, Aladdin, Montgomery Ward, etc. You can read all about it here or watch a video here.

Well, now I'm trying to research a group of houses out there in Dupont, Washington (13 miles from Taucoma) that were apparently ordered by Dupont - and it's very possible these homes were ordered from Aladdin (another company - like Sears - that also sold kit homes.

This town of Dupont was built BY Dupont to manufacture black powder and high explosives.

Here in Norfolk, we have 16 houses that are identical to the houses there in Dupont, Washington. The Norfolk houses are also suspected to be Aladdin kit homes, and they MIGHT HAVE come from ANOTHER Dupont factory town near Hopewell, Virginia.

So here's the question. I'd be SOOOO grateful if some kind soul could snap a few pictures of these houses there in Dupont. I need photos so I can compare the two houses, and I also need photos of the OTHER houses there in Dupont. There seem to be three basic styles of house.

Here's a vintage picture of the houses there in Dupont. http://www.dupontmuseum.com/PhotoViewer.aspx?id=DE23

And here are pictures of the 16 identical twins we have here in Norfolk.





If some kind soul would do this, I'd happily send him/her a signed copy of any one of my books. I just need a few nice digital photos...

And it's all in the name of history!



Any takers?

is this good enough? try google street view, you'd be surprised where they've gone and how good the picture quality is.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=dupont...223.81,,0,1.52

Thanks for the link, but I need something with higher resolution. I've already spent WAY too much time driving the streets via google.

I'm looking for good quality photos where I can really focus on the details.

I've seen so many beautiful photos posted at this site, I thought I'd give a try and post the question!

Rose

Hey, if you ever need help with this in Wisconsin I'm all in. My wife and kids would be happy to jump in the truck and go hunting for you.

Mike

You know, I keep waiting for you to post some pictures! Wisconsin is lousy with kit homes!

I'm just itching to see a good quality photo of these houses in Dupont, Washington. It's an amazing story, and I'm still trying to figure out WHERE these little houses came from, and how we ended up with 16 identical houses here in Norfolk, VA - 3000 miles away!

This must be SOMEBODY'S kit house, and Dupont turned to Aladdin to supply their houses again and again and again.

Anyway - I hope someone in Taucoma is within the sound of my desperate voice!

Rose

Bueller? Bueller?

Just hoping there's someone here from Tacoma...

Dupont Isnt very far from me. Its near a big military base and is a pretty shady, run down area. How would you go about findng these houses your looking for? Just drive around? You have any addresses or street names?

I have street names!!!

The main street with the preponderance of these houses is the 200, 300 and 400 block of Barksdale.

There are THREE models of houses, and I'd be so grateful for photos of the three models, and the more original the better.

The main house I'm looking for is going to look like this (minus the second floor addition).

WHen you get out there, you'll see dozens of these houses - looking just like this. They have this notched, inset porch, and they have that oversized hipped dormer with "an oriental flare" or bellcast roof.

It'll also have those rafter tails, and I'd love to have photos of the rafter tails, too.

Back in the day, I took pictures for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, and we were told that as long as you're standing in a public right of way, you can snap all the photos you want.





I'm trying to figure out if these houses came from Aladdin, or Sterling Homes or maybe some other company.

Thanks so much!!!!!

And if you click on the link above, you'll see an example of this model (as it appears now) in Dupont, Washington.

As mentioned, the closer the house is to its original design (no replacement windows, no substitute sidings), the better.

I just looked up Barksdale. Its just off I-5, I'll see if I can get that way over the weekend.

From what I've been told in the 66 years I've lived here in St. Petersburg, FL, we have a slew of kit "knockdowns" all over the city.
Sears, Aladdin (even some Redi-Cuts), Montgomery Ward, etc. In fact one whole historic neighborhood is named "Kenwood".

I'll get out soon and see what I can find. There are supposed to be a lot in Gulfport (South St. Petersburg)

I'll talk to my girlfriend, we could do it maybe next Monday, Wednesday or Thursday, also gives me an excuse to visit Cabelas! I see that you have found the street for us.

How many pictures, and what size are you looking for? My server balks at sending anything over about 1 mb as a attachment. If I take the photos, you'd get "quite a few", if my girlfriend does it, she could go overboard easily

This is what I found. Very nice well-kept neighborhood. It was raining when I was there, if you see anything in these pics you like, I'll go back for some better pics when its not raining.

This style is all over the neighborhood