Maurice Clifton and Kathryn Foster Joyner created quite a stir in the summer of 1949, when their prefabricated Lustron house arrived in Louisburg by truck. “People thought they were crazy,” said longtime resident Myrtle King, a neighbor of the Joyners who still lives on Main Street.

The Lustron Corporation of Columbus, Ohio, manufactured enameled-steel prefabricated homes between 1948 and 1950. Headed by Carl G. Strandlund, the company was heavily financed by the federal government’s Reconstruction Finance Corporation. The National Housing Administration embraced the Lustron concept as a way to provide much-needed housing for returning war veterans and their families.

Lustron houses were made entirely with steel panels covered in colored enamel. These panels were attached to steel studs and sealed with special plastic gaskets. The enameled steel shingles were attached to metal roof trusses. Interior walls were also made of enameled steel, and the heating system located in the attic space provided radiant warmth through steel ceiling panels. The houses were easy to clean and required little maintenance.

The homes were sold by regional distributors. The homeowner was responsible for providing a concrete pad for the structure, which arrived on a specially designed truck that minimized the possibility of damage to the house’s components. These pieces were spread out on the site or taken from the truck as needed, and local workers assembled the components in an average of two weeks.

Buyers could choose from several models, but the vast majority of them purchased the two-bedroom Westchester home. Approximately 1,000 square feet of living space included a living room, dining area, kitchen with pass-through opening to the dining area, utility room, bathroom, and bedrooms with sizeable closets. The living room featured a bookcase in one wall, and the master bedroom included a built-in “dressing table” with drawers and cabinets; no dresser was needed. The home was entered from a small engaged side porch. Large picture windows allowed ample light to enter the living room, dining area, and master bedroom. The total cost of the home varied, depending upon the distance from the factory in Columbus and the local cost of pouring the concrete slab and hiring laborers to assemble the structure. In North Carolina, the final bill might approach $9,000 or more, which in the late 1940s was a lot of money for a small house.

By the end of 1949, the Lustron Corporation had shipped 1,970 homes, including 39 to North Carolina. Unfortunately, congressional leaders became impatient with the pace of production and sales, given the enormous amount of money invested by the government in the venture. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation in early 1950 instituted foreclosure proceedings against the Lustron Corporation. The company ceased production that year.

The owners of Louisburg’s sole Lustron house had deep roots in Franklin County. Maurice Joyner was the grandson of Dr. James Beverly Clifton, whose family lived in a two-story home that still stands at the corner of Main and Clifton Streets in Louisburg. Joyner married Mary Kathryn Foster, the daughter of Peter Stapleton and Ethel Collins Foster, in 1943. They lived in the Clifton home as well as in a small bungalow just up Main Street, across from Myrtle and John King. Maurice was employed by First Citizens Bank and Trust Company.

The Joyners learned about Lustron homes from Maurice’s sister, Louise, whose husband, the Rev. Frank E. Pulley, was the chaplain of the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. The Joyners traveled to Wilson, North Carolina, to see a model home erected by the regional distributor, Jones-Whitehead Homes. They liked the house and decided to purchase a two-bedroom Westchester Deluxe model. On March 21, 1949, Joyner’s mother deeded him a .38-acre lot on the northwest corner of her property. The Franklin Times announced on July 22 that “the first all metal home to be built in Louisburg is now under construction ….” On August 12, the paper reported that Joyner, “local representative for Lustron,” would have the house open for inspection on Sunday, August 14, from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. A week later, the editor commented that the home presented a “very neat and pleasant appearance.”

The Joyners enjoyed their new home and continued to live in it for many years. According to Kathryn’s nephew, Bill Harris, they built a frame addition to the house for her mother, who died in 1959. Maurice Joyner died in 1991. In 2003, four years before her death, Kathryn Joyner sold her home to Mollie B. and C. Morise Evans, who used it as a rental property. Mrs. Evans lovingly maintains the property, which retains most of its original features. It is one of approximately forty Lustron houses known to have survived in North Carolina.

Published in The Franklin Times on October 19, 2017.

Maury York is director of the Tar River Center for History and Culture at Louisburg College. He wishes to thank Mollie Evans, Myrtle King, Norma White, and Dru York for their assistance. Information about the Lustron Corporation can be found in Thomas T. Fetters, The Lustron Home: The History of a Postwar Prefabricated Housing Experiment (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2002.