State College Community Land Trust
  • Home
  • Who We Are
    • Board of DIrectors
    • Staff
    • Committees
    • Community Partners
    • Homeowners >
      • Quarantine Diaries
  • Apply
    • Homes for Sale
    • Living in State College
    • SOLD!
  • Sell Us Your Home
  • SUPPORT US
    • DONATE
    • Volunteers
    • Why SCCLT? >
      • More Reflections
  • Updates
    • SCCLT Calendar
    • SCCLT in the News
    • 20 Years of Affordable Home Ownership
    • Videos
    • Newsletters
    • GreenBuild >
      • GreenBuild Construction Updates
      • What makes GreenBuild green? >
        • Green Tech Details
        • Other Net-Zero Land Trust Projects Around the Nation
      • GreenBuild In The News
      • GreenBuild Sale & Program Application Information >
        • How to Apply for a GreenBuild home
      • Community Collaboration >
        • GreenBuild Partners and Friends
      • National Honors
      • Support GreenBuild
  • Contact
  • Energy+ Initiative
    • Energy+ Updates

SCCLT's newest home is a National Home

5/19/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
By Sue Hiester
Did you realize that State College has quite a range of 20th century residential architecture?
The newest house purchased by the SCCLT is a National Home and as such, is part of this
collection and an example of post-war housing style and manufacturing.

Once World War II War ended, the GI Bill enabled many returning service men and women to earn college degrees. I had an uncle who had fought in Italy who got his engineering degree at Drexel. John (my husband and newsletter editor ) had two uncles who came to Penn State on the GI Bill. With a sense of forward thinking and with new families being created almost overnight, hundreds suddenly descended on our small university town and needed to live somewhere.

Enter companies like National Homes of Lafayette, Ind., as well as Aladdin, Gordon-Van Tine, Lustron and Gunnison homes to list a few. All of these companies took standardized manufacturing processes, combined them with new materials developed during the war and put them all into prefab, manufactured home building. Our town has many of these homes still serving families of all sizes and doing so very well.

National Homes all have a metal plaque, usually in the utility room, that declares it as a National
Home, along with an individualized serial number. All the components arrived on one of 300
trucks that arrived just as the local workday began, so that the builders had a full day of work
and no time was wasted. One truck carried one complete house, right down to the paint for the
walls and hardware for doors. A finished house could be built in 2-5 weeks. 

We are fortunate to live in a town that provides a rich cross section of the way housing styles
and methods of manufacturing and construction have changed through the 20th century and
now, well into the 21st. Finding such examples is worth a walk or bike ride or two around town. I think
you'll be surprised at your discoveries! (Full article is available in the May 2016 newsletter)

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    SCCLT Monthly Meeting

    The State College Community Land Trust Board meets on the last Wednesday of every month at 7:00 in the Borough Building.

    Archives

    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

How to Apply
Who We Are 
Donate  
Picture
1315 S. Allen Street, #306,  State College, PA 16801
Phone: (814) 867-0656     Email: director@scclandtrust.org

​Office Hours: Mon.- Fri.: By appointment. We are a small staff, and may be out of the office for a meeting, so please call ahead.
Appointments available at other times. 
Messages checked regularly.