The low, well-constructed stone wall in front of the house at 6 Cobb Terrace is like a neat essay: perfectly level, each stone fitting into the next. And the house itself, towering, austere, box-like — its blue paint chipping — appears well-aged from sturdy construction.

The house once belonged to the late Joe Herzenberg, a former Chapel Hill Town Council member who died in October 2007. In need of repairs, it sold in late February for $435,000.

Ironically, its most unique and charming characteristic is that it was mass-produced.

Constructed from yellow pine, red cedar and Huron pine, Herzenberg’s house — “The Rochester” — is a kit house that was ordered from a catalog from the Aladdin Compan y of Bay City, Mich.

“In design,” says a catalog ad from 1919, “The Rochester is truly American — simple, strong, and substantial … being square in shape which always expresses massiveness and strength … Grouped in pairs, (the windows) add strength to the design of the exterior and provide an abundance of light to all rooms… Housewives in general have placed their stamp of approval on the interior. The arrangement is ideal — convenient and comfortable, minimizing housework.”

It is listed in the catalog for $2,402.55.

“It was an interesting idea,” said Bill Bracey, the real estate agent in the house’s most recent turnover. “All the wood came pre-cut. Back then it was the new, modern way to build a house ... You can almost imagine a guy in a white suit going door to door selling these things.”

Aladdin and Sears, Roebuck & Co. originally sold the kit houses as vacation homes, but didn’t stop there. The idea appealed to many Americans because the houses could be constructed quickly, the architectural styles were a la mode, and the companies promised big savings on labor because on-site cutting and fitting was minimal.

By the 1950s, Sears and Aladdin had sold 165,000 units, significantly changing the architectural landscape of the 20th century.

They were popular nationally as well as in Chapel Hill.

“Kit houses reflect the growing prosperity of Chapel Hill in the 1920s,” said Ernest Dollar of the Chapel Hill Preservation Society. “When the university was getting going, the demand for these pre-made houses was unbelievable.”

Although architects, real-estate agents and historians can all agree that there are plenty of kit houses in Chapel Hill, no one can say for certain how many.

“The records for kit houses aren’t good,” said Nick Tennyson, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Durham, Orange and Chatham Counties.

But why so difficult to tally?

For starters, there is no official count or registry of them in Chapel Hill.

And, according to Bracey, kit houses have a kitsch appeal. This means that newer home designers have tried to emulate their style.

That mimicry complicates matters — as copies are often mistaken for the originals.

Moreover, as in the Cobb Terrace neighborhood, many kit-house owners over the years have made improvements and added on to the original houses, making them less like their pictures in the old magazines. For instance, the house next door to 6 Cobb Terrace is also a “Rochester” but barely looks it on account of subsequent additions.

“Everybody who’s owned that house [next to Herzenberg’s] has made additions,” said Iris Schwintzer, a long-time Cobb Terrace resident.

Scott Herman-Giddens, who has lived in a kit house in Cobb Terrace for his entire life, said he has a feel for what a kit house is, “but a lot of it is intuitive.”

Both Sears and Aladdin were based in the North, so many of their houses were constructed for cold weather. A dead give away is a house in the South with an antechamber (sometimes described as an airlock or mudroom) in the front to keep cold air from gusting in.

Finally, according to Bracey, if one looks closely at the original wood-beams, say in the attic, one might find a brand of the company’s insignia.

Herzenberg never made any additions to his house —making it an architectural relic. “Home improvement wasn’t high on his list of priorities,” Herman-Giddens said.

Aladdin, originally a boat company in lumber-rich Bay City, lasted into the early 1980s. They eventually expanded their catalog to 450 models.

The Sears line was just as extensive but less of a success story. The Sears kit house empire died out in the late ‘40s because many of the company’s houses — ranging in price from $500 to $3,000 — were bought on loan. After the stock market crash in 1929, most buyers could not pay off the house mortgage. Not wanting to be seen as the “bad company” known for taking people’s houses from them, Sears liquidated nearly $11 million in mortgages.

According to an article in the South Coast Today newspaper, “in various areas of the country, the kit-house label adds to the price of the house, in some ways, because it provides a real history to the structure that everybody wants.”

“This was the precursor to the McMansion,” Dollar said.

There are still companies that make kit houses, but they have not acquired the same vintage appeal (and price tag) as those of the original companies.