The postwar era, mainly the 1950s, was sort of the heyday of modernism in suburbia.

 

Two examples from Centerville of well-known modern icons (well, perhaps well known to architectural historians, not so much the public).

 

First, Ohios own Lustron Homes. ..."The home everyone has been waiting for"....

 

 

 

 

One of the attempts at prefabricaiton, manufactured at this a plant in Columbus

 

 

...shipped....

 

 

..and erected on site.  All steel,

 

 

...with a porcelin enamel skin...you can clean it by housing it down.

 

 

..even the roofs had metal tiles

 

 

They came in two and three bedroom models.  This is the two bedroom model..

 

 

..with build-in kitchens.

 

 

... and shipped all over the US (including as housing at the Marine base at Quantico VA!).  I briefly lived in a Chicago suburb, Lombard, that supposedly has the highest Lustron concentration in the US, so these are vaguely familar to me... One of the Lombard Lustron owners has a website on her experience living in one...Living in a Lunchbox

 

According to an online registry there are (or were) number in the Dayton area...most in Dayton proper, but a few in suburbs.

 

The one known to me is on a prominent location on OH 725, Franklin Street, at the edge of the old part of Centerville, before 725 turns into a big commercial strip.  When this house was built (or "installed"?) this was the edge of town.  It looks mostly intact, and probably a two bedroom model based on the facade and the floor plan upthread.

 

 

 

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Another Centerville house is not famous itself, but is by a famous architect and his firm.

 

Walter Gropius was a pioneer of modern architecture in Europe, and director of the Bauhaus, a pioneer modern design school in Germany before WWII (also the name of new wave band from the early 1980s)

 

 

Gropius was moving toward a very stripped-down aesthetic even before WWI, contemporary with Frank Lloyd Wright in the USA....as illustrated by this 1911 factory design:

 

 

He desgined the Bauhaus academic complex and masters houses in Dessau, which became an icon of modernism.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

...and one of the masters houses.

 

 

With the rise of the Nazis modernism fell out favor to large degree, and many of the German modernists fled to the USA in the 1930s.  This emigration was a big boost of the USA as it fostered Americas replacement of Europe as a center of modern architecture (a similar thing happened in modern art, with New York replacing Paris). 

 

Gropius was one of these exiles, and became the director of the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD). Gropius made GSD into a transplanted Bauhaus in terms of how it taught design.  Gropius didnt confine himself to acadmia and did start a practice in the US; his early US buildings resembled his German buildings somewhat, as in the 1950 Harvard Graduate Center/Harkness Commons:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gropius also desgined houses.  The most famous was his own house here in the US, designed in the 1930s shortly after he emigrated here.  This design, along with some of the other transplanted Europeans like Marcel Breuer, are maybe more responsive to US ways of building...frame and wood construction...

 

 

 

 

Gropius, along with some students from the GSD, formed "The Architects Collaborative" (TAC).  TAC was more a "big building" practice working on institutional buildings and the occasional skyscraper, but they also designed houses.

 

The largest collection of Gropius/TAC houses is Six Moon Hill in Lexington, Mass.  Shortly after Six Moon Hill Gropius and TAC designed this house in (at that time) exurban Washington Township, west of the villiage of Centerville.  This is the only Gropius house that I know of in the area.  The nearest larger building by the firm (AFAIK) is the art galleries in Huntington, WVA

 

 

 

..the location is on a lane just off Miamisburg Centerville Road, adjacent to Oak Creek South (Carrabas is on the corner).

 

 

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There are other examples of midcentury residential modernism in Dayton and suburbs.  Given that we are in this overblown sprawl/McMansion era, its refreshing to look back on occasion at the very early days of suburbia to see these clean and simple houses and their green settings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting, I had never heard of those prefab houses. The webite is neat also. I can't imagine living in one. My only fear is how terrible those tiles looked. I think they used the same thing on the Fitton Center in Hamilton and I don't want it looking like that. Do you think it is the same material?

 

 

Yuck.

thx so much for posting that. my in-laws live across the street from centerville hs so i'll get to check them out someday. i've seen the lustron, but not the gropius.

The Fitton Center is a postmodern/modern hybrid.

 

Sorry, I'm just not a fan of modern architecture.

Sorry, I'm just not a fan of modern architecture.

 

I'm not too big on it either, but I like to see a couple of examples in every city just for diversity and to have something that appeals to everyone. Cincinnati doesn't have to worry about any more.

These attempts at pre-fab homes are really interesting...especially compared to the blandness of today's subdivision colonials and big box stores with taped on 'details'.  Even though the Lustron was kind of ugly, it was at least forward thinking for the time.  And you could hang pictiures with a magnet!  Anyone interested in this type of thing should also check out:

 

Eichler homes of Southern CA

http://www.eichlersocal.com/

 

Or closer to home...visit these in the Indiana dunes...5 homes from the Chicago Century of Progress fair are still there (mostly rotting).  They were brought to Beverly Shores by a developer to stir interest in a new development there.

 

http://webpages.marshall.edu/~brooks/HOT/

I dont think Eichlers where prefab, but they were really good designs.

 

The fascinating thing about the Beverly Shores moderns is that they where actually shipped across Lake Michigan by boat!.....from the CofP. 

 

Beverly Shores also has a neat little spanish colonial RR station on the South Shore Line, part of which is used as a community art gallery.  Ironically you can take the train from that station and end up going right by the CoP site....

 

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(Stay tuned for some more Dayton goes Modern/Suburban pix from me in the near future)

Oh yeah sorry, the Eichlers weren't prefab, but were an attempt to bring an affordable, progressive and modern home to the middle class....similar to the goal of the others.

 

Yeah, those Beverly Shores homes are cool.  Last time I was out there it looked like someone had done a lot of work to the 'Florida Home' and the 'RoseStone Home'.  The train station is cool too...and I think you have to flag down the train for it to stop...which is kinda funny.

 

Love the good modern stuff!  It is hot everywhere right now, including 60's high rises.  Euclid may regret tearing those things down someday.

 

Driving through Middletown today, I spotted a house just like this one. The thing was as ugly as sin.

I've seen a few of these in Ann Arbor as well.

 

The one in Middletown looks remarkably in good condition.  It's still ugly though.

I forgot to mention that a lady was spraying it with a garder house.

wow - great stuff.  Thanks for posting.

 

It's interesting to see the mid-century prefab projects in light of how much attention is directed toward prefab in architectural circles today.  Here in Phoenix, AZ, (land of major post-war auto and suburban growth) there is pretty large concentration of prefabricated houses in Maryvale, just west of downtown.  I had never seen the complete metal cladding, however...

 

 

Neat stuff. There are at least 4 Lustron houses in Fort Wayne; a former co-worker owns one, and loves it.

I forgot to mention that a lady was spraying it with a garder house.

 

The lady was also wearing a dress and high-heels while doing this.  I always wear dresses and high-heels when I clean my house.

 

Just kidding!  :laugh:

fun stuff... I too laughed at the lady in heels hosing down the house, and the 2 perfect little kids playing with the perfect little puppy (wonder if they were metal too? :) ) 

 

Most on this site probably know that Sears also created 'prefabs', but they used regular building materials and I think started even after WWI.    Google "Sears Catalog Homes" for a bunch of sites.

I second the Yuck.