HISTORY ON BLOCK

BY DEBBY WOODIN

dwoodin@joplinglobe.com

Once billed as the “Yesterday House of Tomorrow,” Joplin’s sole all-metal Lustron Home needs a new owner. Named a Joplin historic landmark in 2014, the midcentury modern structure boasting porcelain enamel-clad metal inside and out will be part of an estate to be sold at auction Saturday, July 8.

In addition, items from the Connor Hotel and other antiques will be among the offerings as well as two other houses.

The items are from the estate of the late Phil Garvin and his wife, Janet Garvin. They were the last owners of the Connor Hotel. One of the items to be sold from the famous hotel is a bathroom mirror engraved with the name “Connor Hotel.”

SEE HOUSE, 6A

The Lustron House in south Joplin is going up for auction on July 8. Named a Joplin historic landmark in 2014, the mid-century modern styled structure boasting porcelain enamel-clad metal inside and out will be part of the auction.

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A bedroom in the Lustron House features a built-in vanity. GLOBE | ROGER NOMER

FROM 1A

Son Tyson Garvin said the family decided to sell the estate to pay their mother’s medical bills.

The real estate includes the Garvins’1940 Tudor home at 3544 Oak Ridge Drive, the nearby 1949 Lustron House at 3534 Oak Ridge Drive; and a neighboring Spanish style house with terracotta roof at 3540 Oak Ridge.

Lustrons were factory made and distributed as prefabricated kits. They were all-metal because there was a ready supply of metal left from World War II that was available inexpensively. The enamel finish on the outside and inside walls and the roof means that the Lustron requires little maintenance.

If there’s dust or dirt on the surface, it can be easily be wiped off, Tyson Garvin said.

“It’s not a painted house,” Garvin said.“It’s porcelain coated, which is like ceramic. It’s more like glass than paint. A hundred years from now it will look exactly like it does now and it’s nonporous, which car paint is actually porous and can hold dirt, and water can get under the car paint and rust the metal underneath. The porcelain is a nonporous surface and dirt cannot stick to it, so you can just wipe it with a paper towel.”

There were several models of the Lustron. The Joplin house is a deluxe model, features built-in bookshelves, bedroom vanities, extra closets and overhead storage. Deluxe models were sold with a Thor brand appliance that could wash both clothes and dishes and dry them, Garvin said. However, that had to be replaced some years ago and is no longer part of the Joplin house.

“In the 1940s Lustron Home, they built it for veterans to have a low-maintenance, cost-effective house,” said Corey Stinnett, who works with his father, Roy Stinnett, the auctioneers for the sale.

“Then it was cheap because of the steel was available from World War II,” he said.“They had a lot left over. But as soon as all that metal dried up, the cost of these houses went through the roof and it wasn’t a cost effective alternative for veterans.”

The Joplin house still has many original features. One is the working doorbell, and there are still several original light fixtures and bookcases.

LUSTRON HISTORY

The Lustron home was the invention of Carl Strandlund, a Swedish engineer based in Chicago who specialized in enameled exteriors. He designed the look of ESSO gas stations and White Castle restaurants.

Shortly after the war ended, he went to the federal War Production Board seeking a permit to obtain metal for his gas station projects.

Government officials declined, saying it could not justify the use of metal resources at the time for gas stations while the nation was experiencing a housing crisis brought on by the lack of resources to build during the war and the return of 12 million U.S. troops needing places to restart their lives.

That gave Strandlund the idea to apply his enameling process to houses.

In 1946, Congress passed the Veterans Emergency Housing Act, which made surplus war factories available to companies that manufacture prefab housing. That also made materials previously rationed during the war more available and opened access to government loans for housing projects through the government’s Reconstruction Finance Corp.

Strandlund intended to make 30,000 house kits a year but he and his team made a number of errors in production process and distribution and delivery systems. In addition, the national surplus of metal dwindled more quickly than anticipated and new metal quickly spiked in price.

Almost before the Lustron effort was fully ramped up, it was over.

A house first intended to cost $6,500 escalated to $10,000 and continued up to $16,000. That price was not within the reach of lower income wage earners and sales plummeted. The government foreclosed on Strandlund’s operation and he was fired. The government ended FHA and VA financing for the houses.

Carl Strandlund’s vision for the house of the future lasted only about two years.

Somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 were manufactured. Today it is estimated that about 1,500 remain.

Some were torn down as developers in other cities sought to build developments with bigger houses, said Auctioneer Roy Stinnett.

Another advantage to the all-metal house is that people with allergies can live in them more comfortably than a wood-frame house, said Garvin. The hard surfaces of the Lustron can be effectively disinfected, said Garvin, unlike porous surfaces.

“It’s very cool if somebody knows what it is,” said Stinnett. “If you just drive past it you don’t understand what the house is until you get up close. Then you say,‘Oh wow, this is a piece of history.’”

The Lustron House was put together in Joplin around 1949.

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