Lustron, Homes with a past and a future – WTOL

LUCAS COUNTY, Ohio As Houses go, they aren't the most beautiful on the block. They're boxy, a bit odd looking and small, and strangely...they are made of steel.

Actually it is a "porcelain enameled sheet metal" said Hannah Brevoort a museum interpreter for the Ohio History Center in Columbus.

"That why's it's a metal house and doesn't look rusty after years of use," she said.

And they have been in use a long time ago...about 70 years.

It was in 1948 that Lustron Homes, headed up by Columbus businessman Carl Strandlund birthed the idea to create prefabricated homes out of steel and to build all their component parts in a factory so they could be trucked to a home site and assembled in just a few weeks.

It was a good idea and with prices starting at around $5,000 and ranging to $10,000, the cost was not exorbitant, although a bit more than the average stick-built house at the time.

In two short years Lustron built and assembled about 3,000 homes, mostly in the Midwest. But with production and financing problems, the home of the future, became a home of history. Lustron folded.

The Ohio History Center in Columbus has one of the Lustron homes in its museum which it says it one of its most popular attractions.

"They were very much marketed as the Home of the Future" and in the post war age, it was believed that people would want a new type of home".

The History Center's model was one that came from Arlington, Virginia in 2013 when it was earmarked for demolition by a contractor.

"It was going to be torn down and the board of Arlington County decided to give it to us instead, we had been trying for years to get a real Lustron home because of the local connection."

The model is featured as an example of what the Lustron Home offered to the modern families of the 1950's.

It is set up now as a "living" exhibit and fully interactive with a full array of artifacts and objects from that post-war era. It is exhibited as if the family was still living there and just stepped out for a walk.

The vintage black and white TV set even has Ozzie and Harriet playing in the living room and in the dining room, classic dinnerware is set on retro table of the era.

The metal interior wall bookcase that looks like wood is not. A couple of knocks and on the wall, and the familiar metallic ring of steel answers back.

In the kitchen and utility room, the original Lustron homes came with a host of modern appliances for the day, which included a unique and rare combination dishwasher and clothes washer.

Of the 3,000 homes that Lustron manufactured during its two-year existence, about 2,000 remain standing and in use. Most have withstood the test of time.

About 30 were built in the Toledo area, and about 20 of them remain intact.

They appear to be rust-free, and in good condition for a 70-year-old home.

Most have not needed any remodeling and still have their original steel roofs.

While the homes are usually about a 1,000 square-feet in size, much smaller than most average size homes today, they still offer a maintenance free lifestyle for those who own and occupy them.

No painting is needed on the exterior and on the interior, the porcelain walls just need to be wiped down from time to time.

Continued here:
Lustron, Homes with a past and a future - WTOL