Lustron House is a prefabricated steel steel house developed in the post-World War II era of the United States in response to the shortage of homes to restore GIs. Considered low maintenance and extremely durable, they are expected to attract modern families who may not have the time or interest in repairing and repainting conventional wood and plaster houses.
Video Lustron house
Development
In January 1947, the newly formed Lustron Corporation announced that it had received a $ 12.5 million Reconstruction Financing Company loan to manufacture mass-produced prefabricated houses featuring enameled steel panels ( US Patent 2,416,240 ). Led by Chicago industrialist and inventor Carl Strandlund, who has been working on building a gas station, Lustron offers a home that will "oppose weather, wear and tear."
Strandlund's Lustron Corporation, a division of Chicago Vitreous Enamel Corporation, began building 15,000 homes in 1947 and 30,000 in 1948. From its factory in Columbus, Ohio (former Curtiss-Wright factory), the company eventually built 2,498 Lustron homes between 1948 and 1950. Homes sell for between $ 8,500 and $ 9,500, according to a March 1949 article on Columbus Dispatch - about 25 percent less than comparable conventional housing. In November 1949, the average selling price of Lustron was $ 10,500.
Most of the known Lustron homes were built in 36 of the United States including Alaska. However, some are built in Venezuela, South America for families of employees of the oil industry.
Billed as a way to maximize fun and minimize work, Lustron's ads argue that Lustron's house will create "a new and richer experience for the whole family," where "Mom... has more hours," the "young... has fewer worries, "and there will be" more free time for Dad. "How this can be solved only by the choice of housing is not clarified, though it may be, it is through the design of enamel steel that does not need to be painted.
The Lustron design was created to adapt it to mass production. A steel framing system is designed consisting of vertical steel studs and a roof-to-ceiling frame where all interior and exterior panels are fitted. The concept of prefabricated housing was well defined by companies such as Alladin, Gordon-Van Tine, Montgomery Ward, and Sears in the early 1900s. These companies, however, use conventional balloon techniques and framing materials in their kits. After World War II, domestic demand for steel exceeded production and the federal government exercised control over its allocations. Strandlund has an order for its porcelain-enamel panel to be used in construction for a new petrol station for Standard Oil. He made a request for steel allocation but was rejected. However, he was advised by Wilson Wyatt, Expeditor Housing during the Truman administration, that steel would be available if Strandlund produced steel houses rather than gas stations.
Wyatt endorsed the idea but could not convince members of Congress to fund the suit for Strandlund. In turn, Wyatt resigned from his post, but other influential congressmen managed to get support to finance Lustron's home production. Through a government agency, Corporate Corporations Reconstruction (RFC), Strandlund has finally received over $ 37 million in loans plus a surplus rental plant in Columbus, Ohio. This is the first venture capital loan made by the federal government. Initially, Strandlund supplied the availability of a surplus war factory in Chicago. However, due to political intrigue in government, Tucker, who proposed to produce radical new cars, acquired the factory. In turn, Tucker immediately failed in his business operations. The political consequences are equally fascinating with the engineering of the Lustron family houses. The Lustron plant has approximately eight miles of automatic conveyor lines and includes 11 melting furnaces, each over 180 feet in length. Factory equipment includes pressure for tubs and sinks. The bathtub press can stamp in a single draw and can produce 1,000 tubs a day in capacity. The specially designed trailer truck is used as the final assembly point where parts are manufactured out of the assembly line. There are about 3300 individual parts in complete homes that are loaded on one trailer. The trucks then sent home packages to the construction site.
Lustron founded the builders, who then sold and set up a house package on a concrete foundation. Within 20 months of production and sales, Lustron lost money in every home, and in turn, was unable to repay the RFC loan. The RFC was released on Lustron and production was discontinued on June 6, 1950. On the order book Lustron was a contract for more than 8000 housing units, which were never shipped.
Maps Lustron house
Model
Arguably the most popular Lustron house is a two-bedroom, 1,021 square foot (94.9 m 2 ) "Westchester Deluxe" model. In total, there are three Lustron "models": Westchester, Newport, and Meadowbrook. With the exception of Esquire (which is the name of the prototype) each type of Lustron is available as a two or three bedroom model.
Model comparison
Design features
Prefabricated houses existed before Lustron houses appeared in the market. However, it is Lustron's promise of modular assembly and modular construction that sets it apart from its competitors. The houses were designed by Morris Beckman of the Chicago company, Beckman and Blass, and probably based on the design of Cemesto homes in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. With enamelled steel panels inside and out, as well as steel frames, the houses stand beside the traditional houses made of wood and plaster.
Lustron houses are usually built on a concrete slab foundation with no basement. However, about 40 Lustron homes have been reported to have a basement. Their sturdy steel frame was built in place and the house was assembled one by one from a special Lustron Corporation delivery truck. The assembly team, who works for local Lustron coaches, follows a special guide from Lustron, and is supposed to finish a house in 360 hours of work.
Color options
The Ohio Historic Preservation Office recognizes four exterior colors: "Blue Surf," "Dove Gray," "Maize Yellow," and "Desert Tan." Reported errors over the years is that Blue-Green, Green, Pink, and White are available. Window surrounds are mainly ivory, although the early models use yellow trim on the "Surf Blue" model.
Interior
The interior is designed with an eye toward modern times, saving space, and ease of cleaning. All Lustrons have metal-paneled interior walls that are most often grayed out. To maximize space, all interior spaces and cabinets feature pocket doors. All models feature metal cabinets, service and storage areas, and metal ceiling tiles. In the Westchester Deluxe model, the living room and master bedroom feature a built-in wall unit. As an additional option, customers are served with a unique combination of Thor-brand and dishwasher, which incorporates a kitchen sink.
Window type
There are two main window types in the Lustron house: "tripartite" and trusses, all produced by Reynolds Aluminum. Tripartite consists of a central light flanked by two windows of four lamps. Three-light casements and/or aluminum square with interior screens are standard on all Lustrons. Additional storm windows are available for residents in cold climates.
The two-and three-bedroom Westchester Deluxe models are unique in that they boast a tripartite window in the living room area: no other Lustron tracks incorporate this feature. In the two-bedroom Westchester Deluxe model, an additional tripartite window is located in the dining room and bedroom. For the Westchester Deluxe three bedroom model, tripartite windows are found in the dining room and two bedrooms, as well as the living room bay. Although the Westchester Standard line has no windows, there is a tripartite window in the same room as the two-bedroom Westchester Deluxe model.
Newport's two and three bedroom models, which have no windows, offer tripartite windows in the dining/living room. A Meadowbrook house model shows that the design will provide two tripartite windows, either in the dining room/living room, similar to the one on the Newport line.
Roof, floor, and other details
The roof also consists of porcelain-enamel steel tiles, which are shingle-style fitted. The front and rear doors feature a translucent light, corrugated glass. As seen in the chart above, the floor in the Westchester Deluxe model is asphalt tile, but in other models (Westchester Standard, Newport, and Meadowbrook), the floor is installed as a "builder" option.
Temperature control
In most models, the house is heated with an oil-burning furnace that directs hot air into the enclosed space above the metal ceiling. The wall contains a one-inch blanket of fiberglass wool insulation. The next production model from Newport uses an air-forced system.
Identify sign
Among the notable Lustron exterior features is the side comprising a square segment of material, followed by a zig-zag down-out trellis in the front and rear corners of the building. In a two-bedroom Westchester model, the downspace sticks through the trellis to the pillars that support the open terraces. Rust often causes removal of trellis by the owner.
End of Lustron Corporation
The Lustron Corporation declared bankruptcy in 1950, though a highly funded, well-publicized company, backed by a government that desperately needed the product. Production delays, lack of viable distribution strategies, and increased prices for finished products all contribute to failure. In addition, local zoning codes also play a role. In some municipalities, for example, a regulation prohibits houses with steel chimneys. Some accounts indicate the organized effort of the existing housing industry to stop Strandlund, comparing it to Preston Tucker (ironically, since Strandlund's first choice to build the Lustron factory, the Chicago Dodge Chicago Aircraft Engine Plant, was actually given to Tucker for building the car).
Lustron at naval base
Lustron's largest assembly in a geographical location is in Quantico, Virginia, where 60 are installed at the US Marine Corps military base. All the Westchester Deluxe models, all of which have four colors. "The great re-modeling of the 1980s resulted in some of them painted pink and lime green.In January 2006, it was announced that homes, which had grown" too small for most families, "would be eliminated from basic housing and would Fifty-eight Quantico's Lustrons were offered free of charge (with applications and deposits of $ 8,000) in 2006, but only one person who advanced and acquired homes, dismantled and transferred for storage in Delaware. Twenty-three of Quantico's Lustrons were destroyed in the year 2006, and an additional thirty-four houses were demolished in 2007. The two remaining houses at the base are on the National Register of Historic Places, and are currently used as building maintenance.
Preservation
About 2,000 Lustron homes still exist in 36 states. Many have been modified with additional, renovated kitchens, vinyl windows, composite roofs, new heating systems, interior walls of stone sheets, painted exteriors and wallcoverings. Some have been dismantled, relocated and rearranged.
A restored Westchester Deluxe from Arlington, Virginia, reinstalled in the Ohio History Connection in Columbus, Ohio, in 2013. It has been partially assembled (no bedrooms) for several months at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in Manhattan. The house was on display until December 2018 in Columbus.
A small group of Lustron owners preserves the original condition of their home and urges others to do the same, and a large number of original Lustron homes are fully in existence. Over time, Lustron owners often remove the brand "Thor" washing machine/dishwasher, and in cold areas, the ceiling radiation heat system is often replaced.
Threat
Demolition continues to threaten Lustron where rising property values ​​attract buyers who want larger homes with newer construction. Other major threats to the integrity of Lustron homes include: bad weather (tornadoes, hurricanes), the effects of vehicles or other, and the absence of local zoning/preservation/aesthetic regulations.
Current status
Lombard, Illinois, in Dupage County has the most Lustron house in 36. In Mount Morris, IL, 13 of 18 Lustrons towns are located on Sunset Lane, First Street and Hannah Avenue, within walking distance of each other. There is one Lustron house included as a property that contributes to the Euclid Avenue Historic District in Bristol, Virginia.
See also
- List of Lustron homes
- Dymaxion House
- Hobart Welded Steel House Co., which manufactures steel houses
- White Castle (restaurant) whose subsidiary Porcelain Steel Buildings produces similar commercial buildings
- housing produced
- prefabricated house
- Leisurama
References and notes
External links
- LustronPreservation.Org displays history, photos, locations, preservation guides, and construction drawings. Initiated by US National Trust for Historic Preservation.
- Lustron Discussion Groups Join Lustron owners, future owners and historians from this Steel House and discuss their past, future, and conservation. Includes news items, repairs and maintenance, photo sharing, Lustron ownership discussions.
- The Illustrious Lustron: A Guide to Demolition and Preservation of Modern American Marvel Metal Available for Download. Includes photos and historical information. Based on the demolition of "Krowne Lustron" from Arlington, Virginia.
- The Arlington Lustron House. The story of Arlington, Lustron Virginia, and their "Krowne Lustron" donated, dismantled, stored, and then partly reconstructed in the New York Museum of Modern Art for a three-month exhibition in 2008.
- The Lustron.Org website for the 2003 winning Emmy movie "Lustron, American House Already Waiting."
- The Price Makes This Model House To Steel. A 2006 news article about Lustron's Quantico marine base.
- Lustron On-Line (2008-02) by NCPTT of the National Park Service An article that explains the need for, and the development of the website www.lustronpreservation.org; links are displayed separately at the top of this list. This article is prepared under the National Center for Preservation Technology & amp; Training - Architecture & amp; Technique.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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