Jacob Klein House - Drake Avenue, Beverly Shores, IN
N 41° 41.921 W 086° 57.727
16T E 503152 N 4616322
The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore acquired three Lustron houses during its land acquisition process. This one was located in an endangered habitat and was moved to the east side of Drake Avenue in Beverly Shores and placed atop a dune.
Waymark Code: WMTQHR
Location: Indiana, United States
Date Posted: 12/30/2016
Views: 3
Todd Zeiger is most recently associated with this house. The following text excerpted from (
visit link) gives an interesting account of his efforts to restore the house.
As a preservationist for Indiana’s Historic Landmarks Foundation, Zeiger oversees a unique program that pairs rundown historic properties with volunteers devoted to fixing them up. Oh yes, and they must pay for all of the work out of their own pockets. In return for this labor of love, they get a 30-year lease to live in the structures. Zeiger’s Lustron—located in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, a state park—is one of these buildings.
Lustrons are made of porcelain enameled steel—11 tons of it molded into 30,000 parts, all of which fit together like a giant, three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. Although Zeiger had lectured on the houses for years and visited hundreds of them, restoring one has been a challenge.
That’s because all those Lustron components were engineered to piece together in one specific sequence, and they only come apart the same way. In practical terms, this design means that for every house part that needs repairing, many more must be dismantled to reach it.
A copy of the original construction manual has helped. The 207-page book, delivered to each house site along with a truckload of parts, is one of Zeiger’s favorite aspects of Lustrons. “They were engineered so the average person could put them together. You’d just get your manual and a screwdriver and go to it.” Of course, it’s not entirely clear how long it might have taken an average homeowner to put up one of these houses. A 1948 Consumer Reports magazine naming Lustrons as the best buy prefab house reported that construction time averaged three to five days—and that was for a professional contractor.
Unfortunately, some of Zeiger’s house parts aren’t covered in the manual. A huge screened porch, original to his house but not standard to Lustrons, has been a real problem area, thanks to the unforgiving Indiana lakeshore winters.“The porch had leaked for a long time,”says Zeiger. Because the porch is considered historically significant, it must be restored to its original appearance, and Zeiger is still seeking out period-appropriate fiberglass panels to fix it.
Overall, the house has held up remarkably well, especially considering the rough weather it has endured. The original roof tiles lasted 50 years without major repairs, just small fixes on areas damaged by fallen trees, and the whole house has proven easy to maintain, which is one of the things Zeiger’s wife, Terri, appreciates the most.