As with so many military bases in Northern Virginia the need to improve older base housing often means tearing down outdated housing to make way for homes that meet the needs of today’s families. At Quantico that meant getting rid of the largest collection of pre-fab Lustron homes found in the US.
Unlike a stainless steel refrigerator, owners and residents of Lustron homes could hang their children’s art work with magnets. In fact you could use magnets all over the house because the homes were entirely pre-fabricated out of porcelain enameled steel. The other unique feature of these homes was their exterior colors. Unlike typical military housing which is fairly bland (loads of brick) Lustron homes came in maize yellow, dove gray, surf blue, desert tan, flamingo pink, sea blue–green.
Over the years families who lived in the Lustron homes either loved them or hated them. They were originally thought to be the answer to the post war housing booming by creating pre-fab houses that could easily be built on a poured slab foundation. Built-ins were a big component of the houses with built-ins found in the living room, dining room and bedrooms. All of the houses had sliding pocket doors to save the room that swinging doors needs. Since the houses could be assembled in just a few months the military with a need to beef up base housing as quickly as possible after WWII purchased 58 of the Lustron homes at Quantico MCB.
In the early 1990's while running education programs for the military I spent one day a week on Quantico. A couple of the Marines I worked with invited me over to take a look at their unusual Lustron homes. They were small but as a fan of mid-century modern and unique homes they were an interesting example of how an idea to use left over materials from WWII might have changed our entire housing industry. Unfortunately the idea failed and instead of 25,000 Lustron homes rolling off the assembly line the plant only turned out 1500 before it closed down.
Fortunately when the decision was made to build new housing at Quantico the developer realized that the Lustron homes should not just be razed to make way for the new houses. In mid-2006 applications were taken from interested parties who might want to dismantle one or more of the homes and relocate them to another site. A few of the homes were dismantled to be used for Katrina housing and at least two of the homes will remain on Quantico as part of the National Historic Register.
So with the change in housing needs of the military a little piece of history leaves Quantico but at least many of the homes will find new lives to house another generation of young families.
Related Posts for Military Relocation to Northern Virginia
Marine Barracks DC
Pack Your Bags for Northern Virginia
Welcome to the Pentagon
Is A Move to Fort Belvoir in Your Future?
Military Relocation to Northern Virginia
© Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. Cindy Jones
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
As an Associate Broker with RE/MAX Allegiance in Northern Virginia and native of the area I can assist you whether you are buying, selling or renting a home anywhere in Northern Virginia. For more information about the area or my services you can check VaRealEstateTalk or my Northern Virginia website.
Search all homes available in the Northern Virginia area.
No Hassle-No Pressure-Just Straight Talk About The Northern Virginia Real Estate Market
Military Relocation Specialist serving military families relocating to and from the Pentagon, Fort Belvoir, Quantico MCB and all of the Military District of Washington installations.
Licensed in Virginia
Kenny-Q town is a funny little place in the middle of Quantico. The new housing at Quantico is nice as well as all of the new housing that has been built at Ft. Belvoir as well.
John-the website for the first batch of houses awarded last year has closed down. You might try and track down Bereket M. Selassie, development executive for Clark Realty Capital who was working with the preservation team to try and save some of the houses. I'm going to be going back to Quantico next week to catch up with some folks so I'll check then to see if I can dig up any more information.
How old were these properties? If we took affordable housing serious we could be successful.
Many construction projects are under way in countries like Dubia which was formed from a desert. We have to be willing to make housing a prioroty and not just lip service.
Nothing is impossible if that is a national priority, money, labor or land.
In all honesty, to me these buildings look really inefficient concerning the energy consumption. Do you have any facts on this topic? The buildings also seem not to be very quiet, an inhabitant told me, you can hear it, when cars drive outside. Is that true?
These homes were not built when energy consumption was a concern. These buildings are now gone replaced with new housing. You can find a good deal of information on Lustron homes on the web as they are considered "collectors" items by some.