Group Offers Dismantled Steel House for Free
Story by Margaret Foster / Jan. 3, 2006
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This month, workers are dismantling a rare steel
house built in Charlestown Township, Pa., in 1946, saving it from
being demolished for a subdivision.
The pieces of the three-bedroom, 900-square-foot
house will be stored until the Preservation Alliance for Greater
Philadelphia, which raised the $20,000 to dismantle the structure,
can find a new owner. The house is free to anyone who promises
to rebuild it.
"[The developer] has given us a mid-January deadline
to remove the house, and we expect to meet that deadline," says
Randy Cotton, associate director of the alliance, which is overseeing
the project. "We've taken ownership of historic properties before,
but not to dismantle and store."
Hoping to start a trend in post-war housing, Philadelphia
architect Oskar Stonorov built less than 100 steel houses 60 years ago,
including two model houses on his property.
"They're just modest ranch houses in appearance, but they
have a really interesting structural system," says architect Dale Frenz,
who contacted the alliance for help. "There's some ingenious detailing
to keep a minimum number of parts."
Last year, Stonorov's family sold the property to a developer
who plans to clear the site and build eight luxury houses. The second
two-bedroom house will be salvaged for parts and demolished.
Frenz, who is overseeing the deconstruction, says that there
aren't enough salvageable parts to reconstruct both houses. Many components
are too rusted to remove, for example. "Out of the two houses, we can
make one complete house," he says. "Someone could recreate either one
of them."
In exchange for a demolition permit for the remaining
house, the Stonorov family donated $10,000 to the alliance to
dismantle the larger steel structure.
"It was sort of a win-win, a compromise," Cotton
says.
Contact
the alliance at (215) 546-1146.
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