Saturday, May 23, 2009

More lustron photos

As promised, here is another group of Lustron photos. These are from the north side of Milwaukee. I hope the Lustron preservationists do not get too upset. Some changes have been made to the exteriors.

Above, Lustron House at 3535 W. Marion. The Lustron Registry incorrectly lists it as 4276 N. 36th Street, which is the correct coordinates (approximately) but the wrong number. The house is now sided.

3825 W. Marion, above. Yellow. Incorrectly listed in the registry as blue-green.

Above- 4433 N. Sherman. Tan.

5520 W. Philip, above - listed in the Lustron registry as simply "55th & Phillip (sic) Place." It is well kept and neat.


5861 N. 74th Street, above. Please don't cry. It looks nice. The bones underneath are Lustron with a whole new skin. Even the decorative zig-zag accent has been changed to a simple rectangular support.


Many, many thanks to Mike for getting out in the city with me to get these shots!

11 comments:

mikemiller34 said...

Anytime :-)

Rick Allen said...

I have noted your corrections and made changes to Lustron Registry. Thanks for taking the time to go out and see these homes. I have enjoyed seeing current photos of the Lustrons in Milwaukee. The only change I am not ready to make is the color change you suggest for 3825 W. Marion which remains questionable. The trim around windows looks painted dark yellow too where originally it was white. Plus this dark yellow doesn't look like a Lustron yellow. Is it possible the whole home was painted over and might have been a blue Lustron...? I can't tell for sure.

Lustron Registry.Org is a volunteer website that welcomes corrections and updated information. Some of the adress information at Lustron Registry dates back 59 years and is based on Lustron Corporation records. I believe that in some cases, adresses were adjusted due to street development in the days when streets were being added. So it is possible that 3535 W. Marion was back then 4276 N. 36th Street. A similar situation I found for a Lustron here in Loudonville New York on Osborne Road. But this is all detail stuff.

The photos are great here, thanks!

Rick Allen
Lustron Registry.org
Lustron Connection.org

The River Otter said...

Rick- I agree, the address of 3535 Marion has probably been changed by the city- the grid coordinates are correct (plus 3535 is just a way cooler number, its factors being 5, 7, and 101). Now that you mention it, it does seem likely that 3825 W. Marion has been painted. Its surface looks "funny," in addition to what you mentioned. Now, the registry says "21" for Milwaukee but only 15 addresses are listed- since I would like to photograph them all, does that mean that six addresses are not on the list? Or something else? Please advise. This is a fun project!

Rick Allen said...

Hi Mike: That 5535 is a cool number, I never thought of that.

The 21 for Milwaukee shown at Lustron Registry website is the number from old Lustron Corporation and/or Lustron dealer records on units installed or planned to be installed in that city. In some cases all the installations did not occur. And sadly, there were demolitions as early as the 1970s when homes were replaced with larger homes or commercial structures / buildings. But potentially as many as 21 were built in Milwaukee. This data came from Lustron Author Tom Fetters' list and I recall that is his explanation of these numbers...I hope I got it right. Also, in some locales we have seen more Lustrons discovered than this "number."

Someday if you ever expire this page, you are welcome to transfer/submit your photo collection to lustron Connection for permanent display on the Wisconsin page--undedited, full size digital images preferred.

You're getting nice images and I look forward to seeing what else you might come up with.

-Rick

The River Otter said...

Hi Rick-
As soon as I have all the photos, I will definitely submit them. The only editing I did was cropping (the ones on N 27th I did brighten a bit though). Thank you for the info. I am just wondering if there might be a few more out there. If the list of 15 is complete, I just need five more.
Suzanne (The River Otter)

Anonymous said...

Correction....in my recent posting I incorrectly addressed my message to Mike when it should have been to Suzanne / The River Otter. My apologies, feel free to make the correction to my posting. And thanks to Mike too for helping with the photos.

No need to actually post this message.

-Rick Allen

mikemiller34 said...

Now that I've read up on the history, I want one. It'd be interesting to find out whether the ones in Wauwatosa are actually in Tosa are are just the ones in the adjoining parts of Milwaukee.

The River Otter said...

Rick/Harking- I can't change your posting, and I like getting any postive and/or constructive comments, so there it is. :)

Jason Haas said...

I used to live next to one such house in the Westmorland neighborhood in Madison. There were are least two or three other ones around there as well.

Anonymous said...

I lived as a kid at 42nd & Capitol Drive in the farmhouse on a couple city lots left of my grandfather's 30-acre truck farm (from around 1910 to 1928, when my grandfather sold the farm and moved to Rio Hondo Texas). There were a few Lustrons in the area, as I remember that do not seem to be listed in this blog. One was around 36th or 37th and Capitol Drive or thereabouts, as my uncle mentioned it 15 days ago when we got together for my mother's 90th birthday party.

Somehow, I do not recall that particular Lustron. However, I do well remember a (light-blue?) house located on Hope Street in the 3800 block (even-number address). I believe that Hank Aaron lived there back during 1954, when he was a rookie for the Milwaukee Braves. Anyway, asking Aaron about that might prove helpful.

The one on Marion might be the same one, however, although the one I am talking about was definitely on Hope Street, and I was pretty sure it was blue.

But again, it's been eons since I last visited the area because it is nowhere like the Milwaukee I lived in as a kid--virtually zero crime and all...

Anonymous said...

Upon further review, I do remember the Lustron at 3802 West Capitol Drive [I feel somewhat dumb because I must have passed it thousands of times coming home from grade school...)

I called my uncle Leo about that house an hour ago. He lived with my parents for four years, a few years after his mother in Dearborn MI died from asthma. Until he told me, I did not know that he had a morning newspaper route where a few Lustrons were located, although he only remembers the 3802 house on his route, which was Lustron's demonstrator house #2.

His route was from 35th to 42nd on Capitol Drive and went three or four blocks north to Marion or Congress. Leo was 15 years old when the 3802 Luston was erected.