I Want a Lustron Home

When my Mom would say, "Your Uncle Jimmie and his family live in a metal house," I didn't realize the novelty at the time. In fact, I'd forgotten about it for years until my sister reminded me recently, and I had a sort of epiphany.

photo attribution below

Who lives in a metal house? And why? Was it just to put magnets on the walls or ceiling, like my Aunt Donna did? (Mr. Ginley would LOVE that, by the way. You'd understand if you saw our refrigerator.)

But I digress.

My curiosity sufficient piqued, I went to my friend, the Google and inquired. Here's the rest of the story.

Lustron was a Columbus, Ohio manufacturer in the late 1940s that came up with an ingenious idea for prefab homes. It was perfect timing, given the post-war building boom was in full swing and the demand for new homes was at an all-time high. 

Lustron homes were made of an enameled-steel design and could be assembled in 360 hours. (That's 15 days, I did the math for you). The houses had a solid steel frame and were built on a concrete foundation. Most didn't have a basement. Unlike their bricks-and-mortar counterparts, Lustron homes required almost no maintenance. The roof never needed to be replaced. No painting was necessary. All that was required was to hose the thing down every now and again to get the schmutz off the siding. 

Truly, the Lustron home was way ahead of its time. Like today's tiny houses, it was compact and functional. Everything was right there at your fingertips and there was built-in-storage for your stuff. 

About 2,500 Lustron homes were built before the company went kaput. They weren't able to pay back their start-up loans and were shut down.

Fortunately, there have been some folks who see the beauty and fabulous mid-Century vibe of these tidy little domiciles. 

The Ohio Historical Society has a video of a Lustron house that was moved from Virginia back to Columbus and is now a museum there. The YouTube video is definitely worth the 4+ minute watch.

Ohio Magazine did a more in-depth article about the Lustron house and the company that created it. 

And one ambitious soul made a Lustron home locator that shows where the remaining homes are situated. They cover a wide swath of the country, from the east coast to New Mexico. 

I'm thinking it's time for a road trip to the past! 

Photo attribution: BFDhD, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons