Many Midwestern cities have streets lined with houses full of familiar features. My hometown of Muncie, Indiana, has a great slate of historic dwellings, but few stand out like a Lustron. From their iconic pastel hues to their sleek, steel panels, the unique homes represent a bygone era’s vision of the future! Believe it or not, five Lustron houses still stand within the city limits.

The United States was gripped by twin spirits of innovation and optimism in the years following World War II. After the halt in housing construction was lifted¹, returning soldiers eagerly sought to establish families in the burgeoning suburbs. This surge in demand for new homes played a pivotal role in turbocharging the American economy².

Amidst the fervor, the Chicago Vitreous Enamel Product Company seized an opportunity to set the stage for a revolutionary approach to home construction. It appointed Carl Strandlund, a Swedish-born inventor, to lead a new division known as the Lustron Corporation. With Strandlund’s expertise and a substantial $12.5 million loan from the government, Lustron began producing modular homes of enameled steel from an old airplane factory in Columbus, Ohio.

Lustron houses came with a price tag that ranged from $7,000 to $9,000³. They promised significant savings compared to traditional homes of similar size. After partial assembly at the plant, the steel homes arrived by truck and were swiftly erected atop a concrete slab by a local team of builders. It was a tricky job: each Lustron house used more than 3,300 individual components⁴! Occasionally, pieces went missing in transit⁵.

Once workers assembled the steel walls and trusses, they affixed porcelain steel panels to the frame with screws. Unique joints and gaskets guaranteed a weatherproof seal. The Lustron Corporation proudly promoted its homes as maintenance-free, boasting they resisted “weather, wear, and time⁶.” Company literature further lauded the homes as fireproof, lightning-proof, rodent-proof, and rustproof⁷. From 1948 to 1950, nearly 2,500 of the steel marvels were erected.

Lustron offered four distinct models of homes: the Westchester Standard, the Westchester Deluxe, the Newport, and the Meadowbrook. Available in pastel finishes like Surf Blue, Dove Gray, Maize Yellow, and Desert Tan, the homes ranged from 713 to 1,140 square feet. Most models featured an integrated porch and a trellis adorned with a distinctive squiggle design⁹.

Inside, each Lustron home featured metal walls and ceilings. Want to hang a painting? Use magnets! Need to clean house? Use a hose and some automotive wax! Many featured seven closets, pocket doors, and a weird dishwasher-washing machine-sink combination. Westchester Deluxe models, the most popular by far, even featured built-in metal bookcases, china cabinets, and vanities¹⁰.

Lustron’s promotional materials were pretty spot-on. Seventy-five years after they were built, many of the homes still exist! Muncie’s best-preserved is a two-bedroom Westchester Deluxe model on South Mulberry Street. Originally Dove Gray, the repainted house stands out in the South Central neighborhood, where most homes date to around 1910.

Three-and-a-half miles northwest, a cluster of Lustron homes sits nestled in the University Heights addition. The neighborhood was platted in 1946, just a few years before the first Lustron home rolled out of the factory. Among the three, one on West Devon Road is the most prominent. It’s a “surf blue” Westchester Deluxe model constructed in 1949.

Another Lustron Westchester Deluxe awaits discovery nearby. It’s covered in siding, but the home’s bay window, roof, and distinctive squiggly trellis reveal its Lustron origins. Believe it or not, this is the same home featured in the 1949 Muncie Star advertisement near the top of this post! You can find the house on the north side of Devon Drive, just west of North Alden Road.

A third Lustron house in University Heights started its life as a regular Westchester, sans bay window. It’s been altered substantially since then, but the porcelain steel roof gives away its Lustron heritage. The house sits on Amherst Road just west of Riley. I wouldn’t be surprised if the garage behind it features steel panels under its modern siding!

The home on Amherst Road got me wondering about Lustron garages, which the company offered as part of an optional builder’s package. Instead of a steel skeleton, they were constructed with Lustron’s enameled steel panels mounted onto a traditional wooden frame. The nearest Lustron garage to Muncie is just outside Delaware County in Redkey. There, a paneled breezeway connects the building to a Dove Gray Westchester Deluxe.

Back in Muncie, the city’s fifth Lustron house is two and a half miles north of University Heights at the corner of Everett Road and Grace Lane. The Dove Gray Westchester Deluxe model is part of Brewington Woods, an addition platted in 1941. Like the rest of Muncie’s Lustron houses, it was assembled in 1949. Unfortunately, trees and brush make it difficult to see throughout the year. This is the best photo I could nab.

I’ve heard rumors of another Lustron house in Muncie. Some claim that a house on the east side of Tillotson, between Paligraf and Bowan, originally began as a Lustron before it was transformed into a multifamily home¹¹. I’m skeptical, but I can confirm another Delaware County Lustron in nearby Albany. The three-bedroom Dove Gray Westchester Deluxe was built in 1950 and sits at the east edge of town on State Road 28.

Lustron homes showed great promise, but the company’s journey proved short-lived. Despite ample funding and acclaim, production lagged behind its ambitious goals. By the time Lustron declared bankruptcy in 1950, it only delivered about five percent of the 45,000 houses Strandlund promised. Various factors, including the rising cost of materials¹² and resistance from the traditional construction industry¹³ played significant roles in the company’s downfall.

The Lustron Corporation may have been short-lived, but locals got their money’s worth. With five homes and a sixth nearby, Muncie’s Lustron legacy remains robust! That said, Ohio takes Lustron love to another level. The homes hailed from there, remember, and the Ohio History Center in Columbus features a full-sized Lustron home as the centerpiece of its 1950s: Building the American Dream exhibit.

There’s a lot of Lustron left to see in Muncie. Whether you’re a fan of history and architecture or just curious about Delaware County’s hidden treasures, it’s worth keeping an eye open for one. Lustron homes have a knack for popping up where you least expect them! Part of me would love to live in one. Would you?

Read more about the Lustron exhibit at the Ohio History Center here. See a variety of Lustron houses in the Indianapolis suburb of Broad Ripple here.

Sources Cited
1 HUD’s Historical Timeline 1930-2020 (n.d.).Office of Policy Development and Research. The United States Department
2 Freeman, T. (1999, September 30). The 1950s: POST-WARW AMERICA HITCHES UP AND heads for the ‘burbs. WealthManagement. Informa USA, Inc. [Washington, D.C.]. Web. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
of Housing and Urban Development [Washington, D.C.]. Web. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
3 Potter, B. (2021, March 31). The Lustrous Home. Construction Physics. Web. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
4 Danaparamita, A. (2013, July 29). Lustrons: Building an American Dream House. The National Trust for Historic Preservation [Washington, D.C.]. Web. Retrieved March 14, 2024.
5 Davis, R. (1993, March 7). Some Lustrous ‘dream homes’ remain intact. The Muncie Star. p. 3.
6 “Compact, Beautiful Lustron Homes: Newport Two-Bedroom and Three-Bedroom Sizes.” Lustron Corporation [Columbus]. Brochure. 
7 Emmons, B. (2008, September 13). ‘The house America was waiting for’. The South Bend tribune. p. D1. 
8 Croyle, J. (2020, May 29). House of the Week: Billed as ‘home of the future,’ this DeWitt Lustron is one of just 2,500 ever built. The Syracuse Post Standard. Web. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
9 Halliwell, A. (2018, November 8). The Luster of Lustron. The Rochester Post- Bulletin. Web. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
10 Heuchert, E. (n.d.). Lustron Homes. Minneapolis Historical [Minneapolis]. Web. Retrieved March 13, 2024. 
11 Smith, R. Lost Muncie (2014, January 11). Jeff, there is one right across the street from me here on Tillotson. It has survived several lightening strikes [Comment]. Facebook.
12 Martinez Euklidiadas, M. (2023, April 4). Lustron, The Failed Initiative To Create Prefabricated Homes Made Entirely From Steel. Tomorrow City. Web. Retrieved March 14, 2024. 
13 Reiss, R. (1978, July 23). When Lustron Lost its Luster. The Columbus Dispatch.