Architect Hired for Historic Lustron House

In the leafy Bergen County burg of Closter N.J. sits a Lustron home that was built to be affordable to veterans returning from World War II and remains in good condition today. It is about to be restored. North Jersey.com reports:

The historic Harold Hess Lustron House, which once faced demolition, now has an architect to guide its restoration.

Albany, N.Y.-based Lacey Thaler Reilly Wilson Architecture & Preservation LLP was awarded a contract for architectural historian services by the Borough Council this month.

Inventor Carl Strandlund created and marketed Lustron homes to fill a need for inexpensive housing for veterans returning home from the war. They were prefabricated and clad in porcelain enameled steel panels.

The two-bedroom, 1,000-square-foot home on Durie Avenue, built in the 1950s, is one of two remaining Lustron homes in Bergen County; the other is in Alpine. Both are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Nationwide, as many as 1,500 Lustron homes exist today out of the 2,500 that were manufactured in Ohio from 1948 to1950 at a former aircraft plant; only nine remain in New Jersey, Jennifer Rothschild, a member of the Closter Historic Preservation Commission, said in December.