National and State Registers of Historic Places
Berger House
208 NE 12th St.
Abilene (Dickinson County)
Listed in National Register
2007-06-27
Architect: Not listed
Category: secondary structure; single dwelling
Thematic Nomination: Lustron Houses of Kansas
The Berger House is nominated for its architectural significance as one of fewer than 100 extant Lustron houses in Kansas. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, architectural pundits heralded the prefabricated house - particularly the metal house - as the wave of the future. The most famous producer of the prefabricated metal home of the postwar era was the Lustron Corporation, which manufactured an all-steel house that it boasted could be sold for $7,000. The Berger House (c. 1949), is the Westchester Deluxe two-bedroom model with its "Maize Yellow" exterior and "Dove Gray' roof tiles, and its two bedrooms. There were eight Lustron dealers in Kansas - including Smith Implements in Abilene. The Berger House was the first of two Lustron houses to be built in Abilene.
