House at 130 Mohegan Avenue

House at 130 Mohegan Avenue
Location 130 Mohegan Ave., New London, Connecticut, United States
Coordinates 41°22′29″N 72°6′9″W / 41.37472°N 72.10250°W / 41.37472; -72.10250Coordinates: 41°22′29″N 72°6′9″W / 41.37472°N 72.10250°W / 41.37472; -72.10250
Built 1933
Architect Howard T. Fisher
Architectural style International style
NRHP Reference # 08001379[1]
Added to NRHP October 28, 2009

The House at 130 Mohegan Avenue, also known as the House of Steel or Steel House, is a prefabricated, modular, International Style house in New London, Connecticut, United States. The House was designed by Howard T. Fisher, who founded General Houses, Inc. in 1932. Winslow Ames, a professor of art history at Connecticut College and the art director of the Lyman Allyn Museum, had the home built after attending the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. The House is a single story 21 feet (6.4 m) by 37 feet (11 m) rectangular steel prefabricated home that rests upon a concrete slab. It originally had a flat roof and included an attached garage. Throughout the years, the house has undergone significant alteration, including the addition of a gable roof.

The house was used by Ames, and later by Connecticut College, as a rental property, until the structure was slated for demolition in 2004. The push to restore the house is credited to Doug Royalty, who worked with the college's Abigail Van Slyck. Completed in 2013, restoration cost $500,000 and involved several phases, including the dismantling, transportation, and reassembly of the house. The house was added to the Connecticut Historic Register in July 2007 and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 28, 2009.

Construction and use

The house was designed by Howard T. Fisher, who founded General Houses, Inc., and commissioned by Winslow Ames, a professor of art history at Connecticut College and the art director of the Lyman Allyn Museum.[2][3][4] In 1933, Ames decided to construct two houses on the museum-owned property after seeing prefabricated homes at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago.[4] Ames had a strong interest in the Modernism movement and believed such houses would become predominant.[3]

Completed in November 1933 and costing about $4,500 in total, the House is a single story 21 feet (6.4 m) by 37 feet (11 m) rectangular steel prefabricated home that rests upon a concrete slab.[5][6] The house is frameless, with the weight borne by 4 feet (1.2 m) by 9 feet (2.7 m) steel panels; the exterior panels are flanged and vertically bolted through wooden T-shaped pieces.[5] The interior wall panels are made of steel and filled with insulation.[5] Originally the house had a flat roof, but it changed to a gable roof at an unknown time.[5] The house has two bedrooms, one bathroom, and an open living-dining-kitchen space.[5] The house also has an attached garage.[5]

After its completion, Winslow Ames used the house as a rental property until 1949 when he went to work in a museum in Springfield, Missouri.[6][7] The house was sold to Connecticut College.[7] Connecticut College continued to rent it to staff and students until 2004, when plans were made to demolish the house.[5] Changing the flat roof to a gable roof was a significant alteration from the original plan; the date of the alteration is unknown, but it preceded 1995.[3][5]

Restoration

In 2008, an article in The Day stated that the push to restore the house came from conservation specialist Doug Royalty, who was researching prefabricated homes from the 1920s and 1930s.[8] Royalty approached Abigail Van Slyck, the chairwoman of Connecticut College's art history department and architectural studies program about the house.[8] The Day referred to the house's historic value as a new discovery, but its history was included in the Winslow Ames House National Register of Historic Places nomination in 1995. The Winslow Ames House nomination detailed the House's origin, but criticized its gable roof modification.[3][8] After its re-discovery, Connecticut College began collecting grants to restore the house under the direction of Royalty and Van Slyck.[8] Royalty stated that the House and Winslow Ames House are very rare, with only a few surviving examples in the United States.[8]

In April 2007, the leaking roof was repaired.[9] In December 2007, the House received a $28,500 grant from the Dr. Scholl Foundation.[8][9] The grant was used to complete lead-paint abatement, which would make conducting other restoration work safer.[8] By 2010, the Dr. Scholl Foundation granted another $50,000 and a family foundation provided another $50,000 for the restoration.[10] It was reported that other college grants totaling $15,500 were given for preservation planning, in part by the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation.[10] It was reported in May 2010 that a matching grant of $101,500 was given to Connecticut College from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, which provided the funding for the next phase of renovations for restoring the House.[11]

The celebration for the House's completed restoration was held in October 2013.[12] The cost of restoration totaled around $500,000. The building was dismantled, transported to Philadelphia for restoration and treatment for rust resistance, and then reassembled on the campus.[12] The work was performed by Milner + Carr, a conservation company.[12] The house was added to the Connecticut Historic Register on July 2007 and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 28, 2009.[8][13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ "General Houses, Inc. (Archive.org capture from April 8, 2011)". Connecticut College. Archived from the original on April 8, 2011. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Clouette, Bruce; Cronin, Maura (15 February 1995). "National Register of Historic Places - Winslow Ames House" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  4. 1 2 Carolyn Battista (March 17, 1991). "'Small but very liveable' landmark is restored in New London". New York Times. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "About the House (Archive.org capture from January 8, 2009)". Connecticut College. Archived from the original on January 8, 2009. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
  6. 1 2 "History (Archive.org capture from January 8, 2009)". Connecticut College. Archived from the original on January 8, 2009. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
  7. 1 2 Royalty, Doug (Summer 2007). "The Little House That Could". Connecticut College Magazine. Connecticut College. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Edgecomb, Kathleen (22 December 2008). "Getting Ready To Shine Again". The Day. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
  9. 1 2 "The House of Steel (Archive.org capture from April 26, 2012)". Connecticut College. Archived from the original on April 26, 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  10. 1 2 L., Karen (21 January 2010). "Connecticut College awarded $100,000 to continue renovating historic steel house". The Day. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
  11. ↑ "Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism awards Conn College $101,500". The Day. 20 May 2010. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
  12. 1 2 3 Edgecomb, Kathleen (6 October 2013). "Without the rust, steel house at Conn College is a beauty". The Day. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
  13. ↑ "Weekly List of Actions Taken on Properties: 10/26/09 through 10/30/09". National Park Service. 6 November 2009. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
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