Area less than one acre Architectural style Lustron House Added to NRHP 24 February 2000 | Built 1949 Opened 1949 | |
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MPS Lustron Houses in Alabama, MPS Similar Birmingham Zoo, Oak Hill Cemetery, Sloss Furnaces, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Temple Beth‑El | ||
The John D. and Katherine Gleissner Lustron House is a historic enameled steel prefabricated house in Birmingham, Alabama. Designed and constructed by the Lustron Corporation, this example is one of three confirmed to have been built in Birmingham. Another, the Bernice L. Wright Lustron House, is just one house over from the Gleissner Lustron House.
Lustron houses were only produced during a two-year period, with 2,495 known to have been made. Only roughly 2,000 of these are still in existence. Many of those that do remain have been altered significantly. Twenty Lustron houses are known to have been ordered in Alabama, although it is not clear if twenty were erected. Only eleven remained in 2000.
The house forms part of the National Register of Historic Places' Lustron Houses in Alabama MPS. It was placed on the National Register on February 24, 2000, due to its architectural significance. The house was slated for demolition in 2015 to make way for a condominium development.
Architecture
The Gleissner Lustron House is an example of Lustron's "Westchester" 3-bedroom model. It retains the original enameled steel roof, wall panels, and "zig-zag" support column, although a wood-frame porch extension has been added to the original porch and all of it screened in. Lustron houses came in several exterior colors. The Gleissner Lustron is in the company's "Desert Tan" color.