I took some photos of Muncie’s old Aladdin Manufacturing Company property on the day after Christmas. As it turns out, I did that just in time- someone told me that the place is being demolished! I headed back for some final pictures before the southeast corner of Hackley and 18th becomes bare ground and open sky. By the time I made it there, old warehouse to the north was completely gone. An excavator was ripping down the rest.
I told this story yesterday, so I’ll make the background brief: the phenomenally-named Overton Sacksteder, Jr. came to Muncie to become manager of the Highlands Manufacturing Company in 19171. Three years later, he formed the Aladdin Manufacturing Company with George Spencer and W.F. Spencer, Jr2.
Aladdin didn’t just make one thing- it made everything. If it could be stamped or assembled, chances are Aladdin gave it a shot3! One product outshone the rest, though: the company’s electric lamps. By 1935, Aladdin employed 150 people making them4. Unfortunately, the factory moved to Elwood in 1941. Other businesses like Muncie Gear Works, Brady Air Controls, and Muncie Precision Hard Chrome cycled through the buildings over the decades5, but momentum slowly faded. It’s been years since anything was manufactured at the corner of Hackley and 18th.
Unfortunately, Aladdin’s story is typical. Muncie’s been home to tons of factories over the years- sitting smack-dab straight in the rust belt, it almost has to have been! Giants like Ball Brothers, Chevrolet, Warner Gear, and Westinghouse put thousands of people to work. Entire neighborhoods were built around their shifts and whistles! Sadly, most of those places are gone now.
Soon, Aladdin will join them as one more name in the long list of Muncie factories that helped shape the city before they physically slipped away. I have mixed feelings about that, but there’s no sugarcoating the reality: by the end, Aladdin had crossed the line from historic to hazard. From a practical standpoint, demolition makes sense.
That said, history isn’t always pretty. Even in its roughest final days, stories still clinged to the buildings’ metal walls. Clearing the site might make progress, but it’s also erasure. For better or worse, another piece of Muncie’s industrial memory is disappearing into a pile of rubble and dust.
Sources Cited
1 Greene, D. (1976, March 11). Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 6.
2 Will Manufacture Lamps (1920, April 6). The Muncie Star. p. 4.
3 Album of yesteryear (2002, July 14). The Muncie Star Press. p. 24.
4 Gerhart, L. (1985, January 5). New-old mayor came in 1935 New Year. The Muncie Evening Press. p. 8.
5 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana (1954). Sanborn Map Company. Web. Retrieved February 11, 2026.
