Lustron House

About Lustron House

The Lustron houses were prefabricated steel houses developed in the post-World War II era United States in response to the shortage of houses for returning GIs.

In 1947, Chicago industrialist and inventor Carl Strandlund, who had worked with constructing prefabricated gas stations, obtained a multi-million-dollar Reconstruction Finance Corporation loan to manufacture steel houses with enamel-coated panels. The steel in the houses was an original design, including both steel framing and steel interior walls and ceiling, while most houses were constructed with wood framing and plaster walls on wood. The promise of steel included sturdier construction, reduced maintenance, and ease of pre-fabrication. In addition, the houses were pitched as rodent-proof, fire-proof, lightning-proof, rust-proof and maintenance-free.

Strandlund's Lustron Corporation constructed 2560 Lustron homes between 1949 and 1950 in an adapted aircraft plant in Columbus, Ohio. (The plant would later be returned to aircraft production by North American Aviation as Air Force Plant 85.) The houses would sell for between $8500 and $9500, according to a March 1949 article in the Columbus Dispatch, about 25% less than comparable conventional housing; by November 1949, the average selling price had come up to $10,500.