Beverly Shores: Houses from the Future

The cluster of unusual homes tucked into the Indiana Dunes were not built here. They were built in Chicago for the nineteen thirty-three Century of Progress World's Fair, showcasing the house of tomorrow to millions of visitors. When the fair closed, a developer named Robert Bartlett bought several of them, moved them across Lake Michigan, mostly by barge, hoping they would anchor a glamorous lakeside resort.

The Depression had other ideas. His resort never materialized, but the houses remained: a steel-and-experimental-stone Rostone cottage, a House of Tomorrow with an airplane hangar attached, a Florida Tropical model, a Cypress Log Cabin, and an Armco steel house. Today they sit inside Indiana Dunes National Park, preserved as the Century of Progress Architectural District.