Longfellow Nokomis Real Estate Guide

Lustron: The Home of Tomorrow - Today!

And by today...I mean 1947.

As the men and women who served in the armed forces and military hospitals came home from World War II, America faced a housing shortage.  At the same time, America had a surplus of steel because it was no longer needed for the war effort.  In 1947, behind the vision of Carl Strandlund, and with the help of tax dollars, the Lustron Corporation was formed in Colombus, Ohio with the plan to use this steel to mass produce prefabricated homes that would be affordable for every American family.

Between 1949 and 1950, 2,498 steel homes were produced.  Then, a combination of changing market factors and political pressures put the Lustron Corporation out of business.  Today, many of these homes remain as a unique time capsule into 1950’s America.

A Lustron home is built completely out of steel.  The walls, ceiling, cabinets, and doors are all steel.  The exterior walls and roof are made of ceramic-coated steel tiles.  These are the same tiles used to build the first White Castle restaurants.  All the plumbing, heating and electrical were built into each home, which was then placed on a concrete slab.  Other than a few mechical updates, and maybe new windows, the homes continue to function mostly unchanged - even in Minnesota.  Several Lustron homes remain in Minneapolis, including a handful in the Nokomis area.

Architecture Corner - The American Foursquare

As the names imply, these houses are almost perfectly square. Although there are regional variations, a Foursquare home typically has these features:

• Two stories, with an attic and a full basement
• Boxy shape
• One-story porch across the front
• Squat, pyramid-shaped roof
• Single dormer at the center

The interior of an American Foursquare house echoes its box-like form. Typically, each floor contains four rooms--one neatly tucked into each corner. On the first floor you will find an entry foyer, living room, dining room, and kitchen. The second floor is an orderly arrangement of three bedrooms and, in one corner, a bathroom.

During Victorian times, the fashion was to build houses that were complex and often highly ornamented.  Homes of the 1880s and 1890s often had irregular rooflines with several gables, asymmetrical arrangements of windows and doors, and complicated floor plans that required many hallways and stairways. By the turn of the century, however, homebuilders were seeking easier, more economical forms.

The classic Foursquare shape became an American standard in the early 1900s and dominated neighborhoods throughout the first decades of the 20th century. The square form made these houses especially practical for narrow city lots. Arranging the rooms in quadrants eliminated the need for long hallways and made efficient use of interior space. What's more, simple, symmetrical Foursquare homes were less costly to build than more complicated Victorians. Mail-order companies often featured no-fuss Foursquares pre-cut "kit" homes. Sears Roebuck & Co. featured 15 Foursquare models, ranging from the unpretentious wood frame "Hamilton" to the Spanish Mission "Alhambra" with scalloped parapets.

Nokomis on the National Register of Historic Places

Nestled in the Minneapolis Hale Neighborhood, this historic district runs from Bloomington Avenue, East 52nd Street, West Lake Nokomis Parkway, and East 54th Street--92 homes in all. Built between 1922 and 1948, the home represent the Period Revival architecture popular during that time. This neighborhood was among the first to have their very own detached garages, reflective of the rise in automobile ownership!

In the last 180 days 6 homes in Nokomis Knoll have been sold 5 of them in the price range of $200,000-$300,000 and 1 home between $300,000-$325,000. The average days on market was 46. Well beyond the 89 days average for the rest of the Twin Cities real estate market! There are currently three homes on the market in Nokomis Knoll listed at $219,800, $289,900 and $439,900. If you love these charming old houses like I do, they might be worth checking out!

Lustron: The Home of Tomorrow (in 1947)

As the men and women who served in the armed forces and military hospitals came home from World War II, America faced a housing shortage.  At the same time, America had a surplus of steel because it was no longer needed for the war effort.  In 1947, behind the vision of Carl Strandlund, and with the help of tax dollars, the Lustron Corporation was formed in Columbus, Ohio with the plan to use this steel to mass produce prefabricated homes that would be affordable for every American family.

Between 1949 and 1950, 2,498 steel homes were produced.  Then, a combination of changing market factors and political pressures put the Lustron Corporation out of business.  Today, many of these homes remain as a unique time capsule into 1950’s America.

A Lustron home is built completely out of steel.  The walls, ceiling, cabinets, and doors are all steel.  The exterior walls and roof are made of ceramic-coated steel tiles.  These are the same tiles used to build the first White Castle restaurants.  Liberty Frozen Custard in Tangletown was converted from an old Mobile gas station that is also made of the steel tiles. 

All the plumbing, heating and electrical were built into each home, which was then placed on a concrete slab.  Other than a few mechanical updates, and maybe new windows, the homes continue to function mostly unchanged - even in Minnesota.  Several Lustron homes remain in Minneapolis, including a handful in the Nokomis area.

Cape Cod Style - 200 Years of American History

As settlers in New England started to build cities and permanent homes in the late 1700’s, they called upon the influences of the English style they were accustom to and invented the original American starter home.  They were economically designed and the steeply pitched simple roof lines and clapboard siding helped them hold up to the area’s notorious weather.

The homes made a comeback in the 1930’s when depression era economics made the affordable style more popular, but also satisfied the fashion of colonial revival.  Common features are decorative shutters framing the windows and coved ceilings in the living room.

Then in the late 1940’s there was a booming demand for easy-to-build small homes for returning veterans and their young families.  Entire communities and neighborhoods were built with nearly identical Cape Cod homes.  Levittown, New York being the most famous example.  You can find entire Cape Cod blocks in the Nokomis neighborhood. 

The home allows for expansion, either off the back or up into the half story with a variety of dormers.  Hundreds of once identical homes have since evolved to be as varied as the rest of the homes and the people of Minneapolis.

Where do the names Nokomis, Hiawatha and Longfellow come from?

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote “The Song of Hiawatha” which is where many of the nomenclatures of the East Nokomis Neighborhood come from. I learned about this while snooping around on the Nokomis Neighborhood website.  It referenced the poem, but didn’t tell me much about it.

The Song of Hiawatha is a fictional poem about Hiawatha, an Ojibway Indian in

Minnesota

. Hiawatha’s mother, Wenonah dies from heartbreak when Hiawatha’s father, Mudjekeewis leaves her. Wenonah dies very young, and Hiawatha is raised by his grandmother, Nokomis. Nokomis tells Hiawatha the story of his mother and father, and Hiawatha out of anger, seeks out to find his father Mudjekeewis, the god of the west wind. Hiawatha travels to the Dakotahs to find his father, and on his return trip home, he meets Minnehaha, the daughter of the arrow maker. Days pass, and Hiawatha becomes a strong hunter, and leader.  In one of his many adventures he wrestles and kills Mondamin, the corn spirit.  His reward is the gift of corn. Time passes, but his thoughts have remained with Minnehaha, and he returns to the Dakotahs to propose marriage to her. Their union ends a long history of conflict between the Ojibway and Sioux.

Eventually the Ojibways are introduced to white people. Hiawatha embraces the changes in culture  even though other in his tribe warned of bad things to come. Hiawatha lives to be a wise old man, and passes on to become the ruler of the northwest wind.

Longfellow's Word	Meaning according to Longfellow	Source Language	Original Word	Meaning
Hiawa'tha	the prophet, the teacher, son of Mudjekeewis, the West-Wind and Wenonah, daughter of Nokomis	Onondaga	Hayowent'ha(name)	He who combs
Keeway'din	the Northwest wind, the Home-wind	Ojibway	giiwedin	north, north wind
Minneha'ha	Laughing Water; wife of Hiawatha, a water-fall in a stream running into the Mississippi between Fort Snelling and the Falls of St. Anthony, Minneapolis	Dakota	mni-haha	waterfall
Minne-wa'wa	a pleasant sound, as of the wind in the trees	Ojibway	minowewe	make a good sound
Monda'min	Indian corn	Ojibway	mandaamin	Maize,corn
Noko'mis	a grandmother, mother of Wenonah	Ojibway	nookomis	my Grandmother
Weno'nah	the eldest daughter; Hiawatha's mother, daughter of Nokomis	Dakota	winona	first-born daughter