National and State Registers of Historic Places
Abel Residence
2601 Paseo
Great Bend (Barton County)
Listed in National Register
Mar 2, 2001
Architect: Brack Implements, Great Bend, Kansas (builder)
Category: secondary structure; single dwelling
Thematic Nomination: Lustron Houses of Kansas
The Abel Residence 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 Abel Residence, constructed in 1949 by Brack Implements of Great Bend, is the Westchester Deluxe two-bedroom model with a \"Surf Blue\" exterior and \"Dove Gray\" roof tiles. There were eight Lustron dealers in Kansas - including Brack Implements in Great Bend. The Abel Residence was the only Lustron house to be built in the Hacienda Addition of Great Bend.
