Houses of Tomorrow: The World's Fair Homes in the Dunes

In the depths of the Depression, the nineteen thirty-three Chicago World's Fair offered a vision of the future called the Century of Progress. The Homes and Industrial Arts exhibit showcased five experimental houses built from steel, synthetic stone, tropical lumber, and other materials that barely existed in American construction. When the fair ended, developer Robert Bartlett bought the houses and moved them by barge and truck to Beverly Shores, a resort community he was developing on the Indiana lakeshore.

They have been here ever since: the flamingo-pink Florida Tropical House, the Art Deco Wieboldt-Rostone House, the prefabricated steel Armco-Ferro House, the twelve-sided House of Tomorrow, and a cypress log cabin. The National Park Service now owns them as part of Indiana Dunes National Park.