Inside-The-Beltline Modern, 1950s Lustron House Facing Demolition

April 5, 2011 - PRLog -- (Raleigh, NC) – When the owner of a Raleigh mid-century modern house lists the property – not the house – for sale, demolition isn’t far behind.


That’s why Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH), a North Carolina historic preservation nonprofit, is scrambling to find buyers for the John Voorhees house at 2727 North Mayview in Raleigh and a classic Lustron house in Nashville, NC near Wilson.


“You can’t get a better location,” says TMH founder George Smart of the Voorhees house. “It’s in a coveted central location off Brooks Avenue inside the Raleigh beltline, close to Cameron Village, downtown, North Carolina State University, and Meredith College.”


Former Raleigh city planner John Voorhees built his modernist, one-story house in 1961. The exterior features vertical wood and brick, a low-slung roofline, and an abundance of glass. The owner has listed the property – not the house – for sale, which means demolition isn’t far behind. According to listing agent John O’Neal, the house needs a lot of work but it can be renovated. The property is listed at $269,900. O’Neal can be reached at (919) 559-7337.


TMH is also hoping to find a buyer for a prefab Lustron house on Collins Street in Nashville, NC. These all-steel, kit-built houses were built by Carl Strandland in Columbus, Ohio, for GIs returning from World War II. A church next door owns the Nashville house and wants the land for a parking lot.


“Lane Johnson, the demolition contractor hired recently by the church, has become a big Lustron fan and has offered a short stay of execution,” Smart reports. “Lane will painstakingly disassemble the modular Lustron and put it on a truck for $14,000. That’s the entire house, delivered to its new owner, for the cost of a car. He’ll even get you the assembly manual.”


Anyone interested in taking Johnson up on his offer should contact him at lane.johnson87@yahoo.com.


TMH is an award-winning archive and website dedicated to preserving and promoting modernist residential design from the 1950s to day. Early this year, TMH sent out a national preservation alert on the oldest modernist house in Charlotte, architect AG Odell’s Lassiter House.  It will be demolished if a buy doesn’t come forward by June. The listing agent is Gail Jodon  at 704-957-9107. A News 14 Carolinas report on the Lassiter house can be seen at http://triad.news14.com/content/top_stories/637662/histor....


“We’re losing too many mid-century Modernist houses because land values have risen so fast in the last few decades,” Smart said. “I call on anyone who has ever been in love with architecture to seriously consider buying one of these three houses.”


For more information on these and other Modernist houses for sale or rent, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com and click on “For Sale” or “For Rent.”
For more information on Lustron houses, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/lustron.

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About Triangle Modernist Houses: Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is a 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 to restoring and growing modernist architecture in the Triangle. The award-winning website, now the largest educational and historical archive for modernist residential design in America, continues to catalog, preserve, and advocate for North Carolina modernism. TMH also hosts popular modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle's most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these "livable works of art" for future generations. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. TMH also has an active community on Facebook.