I grew up in a Lustron home. When I was little, my folks really wanted a Lustron home. It was around 1952 they drove down to Des Moines to visit the Lustron model and liked it very much. So they put down a $50 deposit and put in an order. Some time later, Lustron went bankrupt and my parent's order was canceled and their $50.00 was returned. They were very disappointed. Then one Sunday my uncle called saying there was an ad in the paper about a Lustron for sale in Cedar Rapids. Someone had bought one and put all the parts in storage while waiting to get land for it. But the land deal did not work out, so he was selling the "kit." My dad called the seller and was told several people were interested. But the first one to show up at the door with $10,000 could buy it. My folks scraped together the money, showed up at his doorstep and bought the Lustron.

All the parts arrived one day, and were spread out all over the front yard. It was a corner lot just down the road from Iowa State University. Amazingly no one disturbed all the parts or took any. They lay there for several weeks while my father and two Lustron installers from Cedar Rapids put the home together on weekends. It took about four weeks. During the week my father had time to think about how where he wanted electric outlets and other things.

The lot was a hillside and initially they were going to set it into the hillside. But my dad knew some engineers at the university who figured out a way to build a basement and support the Lustron on top. So that's what they did, and this gave the family lots of extra room for the laundry and storage. This is one of the few Lustrons with a basement.

This Lustron wasn't a standard Lustron model, but rather a custom layout with three bedrooms and an extra large dining and living room. The living room had not one but two large picture windows. The dining room was an extra seven feet wide.

The home has no porch cutout and is dove gray inside and out. The kitchen wall panels were damaged originally and so that wall was painted right from the beginning. Some of the ceiling panels in the dining room were missing and the company sent out replacements, but they were not the 4x4 but rather, a 2x4 foot size.

I moved back home with my children when my parents were much older. The downstairs was finished off so we could live there. We love the overhead radiant heating and have used it all these years until about 2007. Because some of the children had allergies, not having moving air worked out nicely.

My mother, Irene Warner Swanson, was very involved in the Lustron organization in this area for many years. She loved that house so much--people around Iowa called her the "Lustron Lady." She had groups of people over to look at the house. And when they would first enter and see the extra large dining and living area they could not believe their eyes. It was so unusually large compared to the standard Lustrons. Tom Fetters came here and interviewed my mom for his book on Lustron Homes. In memory of my mom, who loved the Lustron so much, I want to share our story and pictures about our unusual Lustron home.

See photos of this uncommon Lustron home in the Iowa Lustron Photos section, Ames, Iowa.

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