Kit house

Cover of the 1916 catalog of Gordon-Van Tine kit house plans
A modest bungalow-style kit house plan offered by Harris Homes in 1920
A Colonial Revival kit home offered by Sterling Homes in 1916
Cover of a 1922 catalog published by Gordon-Van Tine, showing building materials being unloaded from a boxcar
Illustration of kit home materials loaded in a boxcar from a 1952 Aladdin catalogue

Kit houses, also known as mill-cut houses, pre-cut houses, ready-cut houses, mail order homes, or catalog homes, were a type of housing that was popular in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere in the first half of the 20th century.[1] Kit house manufacturers sold houses in many different plans and styles, from simple bungalows to imposing Colonials, and supplied at a fixed price all materials needed for construction of a particular house, but typically excluding brick, concrete, or masonry (such as would be needed for laying a foundation, which the customer would have to arrange to have done locally). Some house styles, like log cabins and geodesic dome homes, are still sometimes sold in kit form.