From Preservation Online, the online magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation

www.preservationonline.org

Group Offers Dismantled Steel House for Free


Story by Margaret Foster / Jan. 3, 2006

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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