The pastel-colored single-level, two-bedroom homes contained a little over 1,000 square feet. They cost a tad under $10,000, including foundation and assembly, pricing them slightly higher than an equivalent stick-built house. The homes were durable, Komarek said. “If you put one up, it would take a tornado to bring it down.” In fact, one Lustron in Hoisington survived in the part of town devastated by the 2001 twister.

Strandlundıs company did a thriving business from 1947 to 1950, when financial troubles forced the company out of business. His factory, backed by government loans, was a former airplane factory in Columbus, Ohio. By 1950 there were eight Lustron dealers in Kansas, erecting about 92 in Kansas. Brack Implements in Great Bend was by far the most prolific dealer. His business lasted just 13 months, from January 1949 to February 1950.

In that time he sold 50 units and erected 35 (figures vary from 35 to 50). Nineteen of those houses were erected by Brack in Great Bend. Of those, 18 remain in the city limits. The original plan was to make a section of land in the west border of Great Bend, at that time called Crescent Park, into a Lustron subdivision. Great Bend ranks among the communities with the most Lustrons.

Two, at 1411 Wilson and 2601 Paseo, have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places and others are eligible.

Since April, 2004, the Great Bend City Council has supported designating Great Bend the Lustron Capital of Kansas. There are other groups around the country working to preserve the homes.