Recent Past Preservation Network

Residential - Suburban
Alice Ball House, by Phillip Johnson, 1953, New Canaan, CT. Listed as one of the Connecticut Trust's 2007 Most Important Threatened Historic Places in September, the Alice Ball House is in jeopardy of being lost. The owner of the property, Cristina Ross has applied for a demolition permit. Concerned preservationists including the Connecticut Trust have registered a formal objection to the application and have asked the town's Historical Review Committee to impose a 90-day demolition delay in order to work out alternatives to demolition. This could include finding a new owner for the property, as the house is currently listed with William Raveis agency in New Canaan.
Geographic Listings
Arizona	Modern Phoenix Neighborhood Network. Details a number of mid-century era residential neighborhoods in Phoenix, Arizona.
California Eichler home Photograph courtesy the Eichler Network. Neutra cottage	The Eichler Network. Since 1993, the Eichler Network has been dedicated to supporting the lifestyle of the nearly 11,000 folks in Northern California who own an "Eichler" home. Eichlers are the innovative, Modernist-designed homes that were created by merchant builder Joseph Eichler between 1949 and the early 1970s. Celebrate Eichlers! In November 2002 the Eichler Historic Quest committee honored the nominations to the National Register of various Eichler homes, the 50th anniversary of the founding of Joe Eichler's company, and the publication of the new book, Eichler: Modernism Rebuilds the American Dream with a two-day event. About 3,000 Eichler lovers attended. See photos of the event and get more information on these historic suburban houses. Read more about the Eichler nominations to the National Register at the Eichler Network. Information submitted by member Adriene Biondo. Eichler Balboa Highlands: Voted one of 'The 10 Best Neighborhoods You've Never Heard Of' by Los Angeles Magazine in 2003. Balboa Highlands is currently being considered for a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone [HPOZ] by the City of Los Angeles. Built in 1963-64 by innovative Bay Area developer Joseph Eichler, it is the only Eichler tract in Los Angeles County. For more details and fantastic photographs of these unique homes, visit the Balboa Highlands website. X-100 Experimental Research House, San Mateo, 1956, by A. Quincy Jones. "The celebrated X-100 -- the all-steel Eichler 'home of tomorrow' of the San Mateo Highlands -- will once again open its doors as an exhibition house, according to its new owners, who have an ambitious new plan in the pipeline. "Because the X-100 was designed by Case Study architect A. Quincy Jones as experimental research, it is the perfect vehicle to help educate people about modern architecture, steel housing, and the innovative materials that came out of that crucial postwar building period," pointed out Adriene Biondo, one of the X-100's three incoming owners. A modern-architecture preservationist, Biondo, along with film director John Eng and Eichler Network director Marty Arbunich, recently formed the X-100 Partners when the threesome purchased the historic house together in July." Read more of this story at the Eichler Network \| See the original opening brochure Urgent: Neutra Cottages Threatened with Demolition Stafford/Clayton/Johnson Houses. Richard Neutra with Otto Winkler Assoc. 180 & 184 Marvin Avenue, Los Altos, California, 1939. From 1936 to 1939, Neutra designed a grouping of "three small houses in an orchard" for three friends in the flats of neighboring Los Altos. The street-side cabin was demolished some twenty years ago, but the other two buildings stand by themselves in the now separated rear half of the original lot. More information on our Neutra Cottages page.
Colorado	Arapahoe Acres, Colorado The first post-World War II residential subdivision listed as a historic district in the National Register of Historic Places. Arapahoe Acres Historic District. This website is being developed as part of a two-year community historic preservation project in partnership with the State Historical Fund and Historic Denver. Nifty Fifties: Arapahoe Acres Celebrates Modernism in Colorado, by Niki Hayden, September 2002 "Arapahoe Acres includes 124 houses built from 1949 to 1957. A brainchild of Colorado builder Edward Hawkins and Czech-born architect Eugene Sternberg, the pattern of homes marries European modernism and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian style with bold and brash flourishes. The neighborhood is like a laboratory, showcasing exciting new architectural ideas of the time. A post World War II optimism encouraged breaking away from vertical and ornamented buildings, experimenting with the most basic of forms--whether horizontal or cubed."
District of Columbia Capitol Park Apartments Pavilion, 2002	Capitol Park Apartments (Potomac Place), Washington, DC, by Cloethiel Woodard Smith, 1959. The 30-acre Capitol Park residential community was the first and largest development built as part of the 1950s and 60s urban renewal efforts in Southwest Washington, one of the nation's largest redevelopment efforts. Daniel U. Kiley, the dean of American landscape architects, designed the park that links the 9-story Potomac Place residential tower at 800 4th Street, SW, formerly the Capitol Park Apartments, to the townhouses to the east. he District of Columbia Historic Preservation Review Board granted landmark status to Potomac Place and its adjacent park on April 24, 2003, the first time in decades that a structure less than 50 years old had been so designated. The next day, construction crews continued their demolition of remaining structures in the park until they were stopped by police and preservation authorities. Read More Here
Florida	Paul Rudolph's Florida Houses Paul Rudolph began his career designing residences on the west coast of Florida. There are nearly sixty buildings dating from 1941 - 1962 in this collection. Includes the following buildings in Sarasota: Umbrella House, Cocoon House, Revere Quality House, Cohen House, Deering Residence, Burkhardt Residence, Walker Guest House, Hook House, Harkavy House, and the Sanderling Beach Cabanas (listed on the National Register of Historic Places). For more information see: Paul Rudolph: The Florida Houses, a 2002 Princeton Architectural Press publication by Christopher Domin and Joseph King or contact the Sarasota Architectural Foundation, which has an excellent documentary on the subject, available on DVD or VHS for purchase or loan for research purposes: SarasotaArchFndn@aol.com.
Illinois	National Trust for Historic Preservation wins auction - new owner of Mies' Farnsworth House The Trust won a contentious auction with a final bid of $6.7 million ($7.5 million after fees to Sotheby's) thanks to a number of last minute contributors. Read the full story at the Washington Post. The Trust still needs funds to create an endowment for the house. See more details at the Farnsworth House site.
Kansas	The 1950s All-Electric House, Shawnee, KS. Tour with photographs and story. Kansas City Power and Light Company (KCPL) built this model home to showcase a new device "the year 'round air conditioner…known as the heat pump." KCPL portrayed it as a "house of many new applications and developments in electrical research…a home for modern American family living - comfortable and up-to-the-minute in every respect." Spectacular lighting and electrical features were located throughout the home. Remote control panels operated the lighting and temperature systems for the entire house. The house was relocated from its original site in Prairie Village to the Museum of History in 1994. More information at the Johnson County Museum of History.
New York	Levittown. In 1953, builder William Levit's innovative and controversial "assembly-line" method of home construction turned the dream of home ownership into a reality for thousands of people and changed the American landscape forever. Visit our special Levittown page for more information.
North Dakota Fiberglass Round House, Bismark, N.D. by Fiberglass Concepts, Inc. Erected as a residence with an attached round garage. Original color. Photograph by Jill Blair.
Ohio The Garrett House	The Garrett House, 2225 Stine Rd., Peninsula, Ohio ca. 1951, by Max Ratner. Now owned by the National Park Service - future status unknown. Link for more photos and information on the architect. Frank Lloyd Wright in Ohio: Oberlin College's Weltzheimer/Johnson House is a late example of Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian houses. Begun in 1948, and completed in 1950, it is the first Usonian house in Ohio. See also this detailed site by David A. Wolfe on the Weltzheimer-Johnson House. All-Wright Site: Frank Lloyd Wright's 12 Buildings in Ohio Visiting Hours: A Brief Guide to Wright's Ohio Buildings by David Gerst OhioOnline correspondent. Frank Lloyd Wright's Westcott House. Now owned by the Westcott House Foundation and undergoing restoration. Due to be completed July 2004.
Texas 311 Electra, 1958 by W.N. Floyd	Memorial Bend, Houston, Texas, 1955. Home to one of the largest concentrations of mid-century modern homes in Houston. Builders Howard Edmunds and Robert Puig paid $3,000 an acre for a 200-acre plot of land off of Memorial Drive. One investor was William Norman Floyd, an architect whose work helped define the residential look of Houston from the 1940s until the late 1960s. Floyd designed over 500 houses and commercial buildings in the Houston area, several of which are located in Memorial Bend. Other architects such as William R. Jenkins, Harwood Taylor and David Brooks also placed their mark on Memorial Bend. Site maintained by Michael Brichford and Mark Green. They are seeking more information--please contact them if you can help with their documentation effort.
A home in Glenbrook Valley, from an original Park Forest, Illinois, design featured in Parents' Magazine 1956. Architect E. Kelly Gaffney.	Glenbrook Valley, Houston, Texas, ca. 1950s. This website is devoted to one of Houston's most unique neighborhoods, Glenbrook Valley. Developed in the 1950's , Glenbrook Valley boasts some of the areas finest examples of mid-century modern & atomic age ranch style architecture. This is definitely not a community of 'cookie-cutter' homes! The neighborhood's close proximity to downtown, the Medical Center, universities, & Hobby Airport continue to make it a great choice for the urban professional. Home designs by E. Kelly Gaffney, William Floyd, and A. Carroll Brodnax. Site sponsored by Robert Searcy.
Residential Types, &c.
	R. Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion House (1920s to 1945) Restored and displayed at the Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, MI. "Explore the Dymaxion House - the only surviving prototype of Fuller's vision for mass-produced, affordable housing - and learn more about the restoration in our special online exhibit."
Boarded up Lustron ready for disassembly, photo by FEMA.	Lustron In 1946, Carl Strandlund, vice president and general manager of Chicago Vitreous Enamel Product Company, visited Washington, D.C., in search of steel to build five hundred gas stations for Standard Oil of Indiana. He contracted instead with the federal government to produce housing for returning GIs. The all-metal prefabricated house cost only $7,000 retail; more than 2400 Lustron's were produced. (text courtesy Jean Nabors, Indiana Historical Society) Go to our special Lustron page for more links and information.
	The Ranch House Ubiquitous, pervasive ... cool? Ranch houses predominated during the post-WWII housing boom between the 1940s and 1970s. Built in every conceivable configuration, the ranch outnumbers, by far, any other residential housing type in America. Check the links below for more information: Atomic Ranch : Midcentury Marvels. A new quarterly dedicated to appreciation of the ranch and modernist tract homes.
photo courtesy The Disneyland Source	Monsanto House of the Future, Disneyland, 1957. In June of 1957, Disneyland opened Monsanto's House of the Future. It remained for 10 years, finally closing in 1967 with the remodeling of Tomorrowland. In it's short run, more than 20 million visitors got a glimpse of what the future home may include. Such innovations included insulated glass walls, picture telephones, plastic chairs, microwave ovens, speaker phones and electric toothbrushes. The Disneyland Source. Website with audio. Disneyland's Home of the Future, by Nina Wasserman. Yesterland, House of the Future.
	Futuro House, Hatteras Island, North Carolina, 1968 by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen. Only 20 of these "ski cabins" or vacation homes were built. Each could accommodate 8 people in modern comfort. One is beached on Hatteras Island, N.C.; years ago it was operating as an ice cream stand, now it is only occasionally open; the owners sell retro "space age" items. Link: The Futuro House Visit this comprehensive site with interior and exterior photos of Futuro Houses in the desert, on the Thames in London and in the air -- transported by helicoper! Plus blueprints, scale models, and on-line movies. Photograph courtesy member Sally Greene.
FLW Weltzheimer/Johnson House, image courtesy Oberlin College	Usonian Houses & Frank Lloyd Wright The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy including Wright Chat, and Wright on the Market.
Photograph by Alan Malatesta, 2003.	Xanadu Houses. Details courtesy roadsideamerica: "Xanadu was a white-domed home of the future, with franchises in Kissimmee, Florida, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The Xanadus promoted an environmentally sensitive sci-fi lifestyle, offering a peek at Tomorrow's do-it-all domiciles. Xanadu championed a novel method of home-building — wet polyurethane foam sprayed over gigantic balloons to form the frame of this low-cost, energy-efficient structure. As J. Thomas Gussel, proponent of foam construction for the layman explained, 'It's like turning over a Styrofoam cup and living in it!'" roadsideamerica.com Xanadu page Last we heard, the Xanadu home in Kissimmee, FL, was for sale. Listed at Florida's Lost Tourist Attractions and also on our own RPPN Xanadu page.
	Bungalows. The term comes from an Indian/Hindustani word which became part of the English vocabulary by the late 17th century. The building type proliferated worldwide, but reached a particularly recognizable form in the first half of the century in the U.S. "The Bungalow and Square House--Des Moines Residential Growth and Development, 1900-1942" by Jim Jacobsen. National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form. Read also: Anthony D. King, 1973. "The Bungalow: the Development and Diffusion of a House-type", Architectural Association Quarterly, 5, 3, 5-26. Anthony King, The Bungalow: The Production of a Global Culture, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984.
	Suburbs. National Park Service Bulletin "Historic Residential Suburbs: Guidelines for Evaluation and Documentation for the National Register of Historic Places." One of the largest NPS bulletins--136 pages in its print form, with almost 100 photographs. You may choose from two electronic versions of this bulletin: one with photographs and one without that is easier to print.
Links:	FabPreFab: Modernist Pre-Fab Dwellings. Those of you interested in acquiring an all-metal Lustron Home for its non-allergenic qualities may find similar features in one of these all-new homes. Extensive site for enthusiasts. Aladdin Homes "Homes Built In a Day" - Catalog Exhibit sponsored by Central Michigan University, Clark Historical Library. The Aladdin Company of Bay City, Michigan was one of America's most long lived manufacturers of mail-order, "kit homes." Begun in 1906 by two brothers, Otto and William Sovereign, the family-owned firm continued to manufacture houses until 1981. Over the firm's long history it sold over 75,000 homes to both individual and corporate customers.The records of the Aladdin Company were donated to the Clarke Historical Library in 1996. The almost complete run of company catalogs, full set of sales records, over 15,000 post-World War II architectural drawings, and various other company records create an extraordinary historical resource.