When Tom Fetters travels for his job as a consultant for packaging company Crown Cork & Seal, he makes a point of seeking out Lustron homes. Some 2,500 of the one-story enamelized-steel houses went up around the country between 1948 and 1950, and Fetters can usually spot them by their distinctive roofs–which resemble the ones that came in Lincoln Log sets–and their luminous pastel exteriors: pink, surf blue, maize yellow, dove gray, desert tan. A few years ago he came across one in Madison that had been converted into a three-story house, making it virtually unrecognizable. He nevertheless added it to his list.
The Lustron story begins in 1947, when U.S. soldiers were returning from overseas to a housing shortage, while the steel that had been waiting for use in submarines and tanks was sitting around in factories. Carl Strandlund, vice president of the Chicago Vitreous Enamel Product Company, wanted to use some of that surplus steel to construct gas stations nationwide; he envisioned crisp, enamelized white service depots. The federal government had other ideas. It agreed to supply Strandlund with steel if he would help build homes for the returning GIs.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Half a century later, the surviving Lustrons have acquired a certain charm, even if it’s accompanied by a few dents. At a 50th-anniversary celebration in Columbus three years ago, more than 150 devotees gathered to hear a speech by Richard Reedy, who was once one of Lustron Corporation’s top executives.
When Fetters first realized he wanted to turn his obsession into a book, he approached numerous architectural publishers. “Most of them were in New York and were devoted to ‘stick and brick’ architecture,” he says. “I learned of a North Carolina publisher, McFarland & Company, that did obscure books like The Charlie Chan Film Encyclopedia and knew that they might find the subject interesting.” They did.
“‘What’s the attraction?’ I was asked. ‘It’s a bit like visiting mecca,’ I told them.”
