Some Assembly Required: The Story of the North American Kit Home

In this course, we will step inside the fascinating world of kit homes and explore their history and cultural impact across North America, especially during their peak from 1905 to 1945. We will learn how to identify these mail-order houses and understand their cultural impact. We will dig into the industry’s rise and decline, industrial developments of kit homes, and their connections to race and gender in the early 20th century. By examining both the kit home industry and the people who lived in them, we will uncover why they remain an important part of the architectural and cultural landscape.

Nigel Tate

Nigel Tate is an urban planning student at Michigan State University and an architectural preservationist and historian. Tate has studied kit homes for more than a decade, delivered talks across mid-Michigan, and created a guide to kit homes in Grand Blanc, MI. His interest began with a childhood discovery and has grown into ongoing research and advocacy focused on identifying and documenting these distinctive homes.

Wednesdays, September 30 through November 4

9/30/2026
10/7/2026
10/14/2026
10/21/2026
10/28/2026
11/4/2026
10am–11:30am