#316/Lustrons: Virginia Faust + Mark Siebel + Musical Guest Monika Ryan

In 1946, Carl Strandland asked for $15 million worth of emergency loans to build small houses for GIs returning from WWII. Strandland was not an architect, but his idea that metal neighborhoods could be prefabricated and swiftly built was persuasive, and Lustron prefab house was born. To manufacture the ten tons of steel that went into each two-bedroom Lustron, Strandland bought a 25-acre factory in Columbus OH which was used during WWII to build fighter planes. A few years and only about 3,000 Lustrons later, the company declared bankruptcy but thousands of these unique houses survive.  Joining us is USModernist's resident Lustron expert, Virginia Faust, and new Lustron owner Mark Seibel. Later on, returning jazz vocalist Monika Ryan.