As you drive around, you might encounter small, well-built homes made from metal squares:

These are Lustron houses conceived by Carl Strandlund, and patented in 1947 to alleviate the housing shortage after World War II.  The Lustron Corporation sold 2,498 Lustron homes between 1948 and 1950.  Lustron offered a house that would “defy weather, wear, and time,” and about 2000 of these houses survive today.