Alcoa Care-free Homes are a group of suburban homes designed for Alcoa (Aluminum Company of America) by Charles M. Goodman during the Mid-century modern movement, incorporating ideas generated at the Women's Congress On Housing. [1] [2]
While composed of a variety of building materials (brick, steel, wood, and extensive use of glass) they incorporated large amounts (up to 7500 lbs) of aluminum. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] The homes were introduced in 1957. [9] [10] They were constructed by local contractors using kits provided by Alcoa, [11] and were mostly built in 1958 as model homes. [12] The company had intended to build forty-eight homes, one for each state in union at the time. [13] Eventually, twenty-four were built in sixteen states. [14] [15] The company was sued for misrepresentation of costs to build the homes, with ALCOA claiming costs to build up to $34,000 and selling prices of $50,000 while Associated Contractors Inc., claiming true costs to build the homes were $63,612 with the highest selling price $32,419. [16]
According to the original brochure, an Alcoa Care-Free Home was built in the following places: [14]
Portland is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated in the northwestern area of the state at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, it is the county seat of Multnomah County, Oregon's most populous county. As of 2020, Portland's population was 652,503, making it the 26th-most populous city in the United States, the sixth-most populous on the West Coast, and the second-most populous in the Pacific Northwest, after Seattle. Approximately 2.5 million people live in the Portland metropolitan area, making it the 25th-most populous in the United States. About half of Oregon's population resides within the Portland metro area.
Troutdale is a city in Multnomah County, Oregon, United States, immediately north of Gresham and east of Wood Village. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 16,300. The city serves as the western gateway to the Historic Columbia River Highway, the Mount Hood Scenic Byway, and the Columbia River Gorge. It is approximately 12 miles (19 km) east of Portland and is part of the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area.
Charles Martin Hall was an American inventor, businessman, and chemist. He is best known for his invention in 1886 of an inexpensive method for producing aluminum, which became the first metal to attain widespread use since the prehistoric discovery of iron. He was one of the founders of Alcoa, along with Alfred E. Hunt; Hunt's partner at the Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory, George Hubbard Clapp; Hunt's chief chemist, W. S. Sample; Howard Lash, head of the Carbon Steel Company; Millard Hunsiker, sales manager for the Carbon Steel Company; and Robert Scott, a mill superintendent for the Carnegie Steel Company. Together they raised $20,000 to launch the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, which was later renamed Aluminum Company of America and then shortened to Alcoa.
Earl Francis Blumenauer is an American lawyer, author, and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Oregon's 3rd congressional district since 1996. The district includes most of Portland east of the Willamette River.
Charles Samuel Jackson was a prominent newspaper publisher in the U.S. state of Oregon.
Hollin Hills is a historic district and neighborhood approximately 10 miles south of Alexandria, Virginia. Though mailing addresses in Hollin Hills are listed as being in Alexandria, it is actually in an unincorporated part of southeast Fairfax County, Virginia. It is located primarily in the Fort Hunt area of the county with some portions remaining in the Hybla Valley and Groveton areas since a shift for census purposes prior to 2010. The community contains more than 30 acres (12 ha) of parkland across seven distinct parks, a pool and swim club, a bocce court, and a pickleball and tennis club, operated and maintained by the Civic Association of Hollin Hills (CAHH).
St. Johns is a neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, United States, located in North Portland on the tip of the peninsula formed by the confluence of the Willamette River and the Columbia River. The iconic St. Johns Bridge crosses the Willamette from the south, leading into downtown St. Johns. It was a separate, incorporated city from 1902 until 1915, when citizens of both St. Johns and Portland voted to approve its annexation to Portland, which took effect on July 8, 1915.
The South Waterfront is a high-rise district under construction on former brownfield industrial land in the South Portland neighborhood south of downtown Portland, Oregon, U.S. It is one of the largest urban redevelopment projects in the United States. It is connected to downtown Portland by the Portland Streetcar and MAX Orange Line, and to the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) main campus atop Marquam Hill by the Portland Aerial Tram, as well as roads to Interstate 5 and Oregon Route 43.
Laurelhurst is a neighborhood of vintage single-family homes and undulating streets surrounding a park of the same name, straddling the NE and SE sections of Portland. Stone markers flank the entrances to the area. The center of the neighborhood, Coe Circle, contains a gilded equestrian statue of Joan of Arc, which is a World War I war memorial. The Laurelhurst Historic District was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.
Charles M. Goodman was an American architect who made a name for his modern designs in suburban Washington, D.C., after World War II. While his work has a regional feel, he ignored the colonial revival look so popular in Virginia. Goodman was quoted in the 1968 survey book Architecture in Virginia as saying that he aimed to "get away from straight historical reproduction."
Legacy Emanuel Medical Center is a hospital located in the Eliot neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1912, it is one of only two Level I trauma centers in the state of Oregon, and home to the only burn center between Seattle and Sacramento. The hospital is also home to the Life Flight Network (MEDEVAC), the first of its kind instituted on the U.S. West Coast. The 554-bed facility provides a full range of services, including conventional surgery, heart treatment, critical care, neurology/stroke care/brain surgery, and care for high-risk pregnancies. Legacy Emanuel also houses the Randall Children's Hospital. It is one of the hospitals in the area where gun shot victims are routinely brought in.
The Public Service Building is a historic 67.06 m (220.0 ft), 15-story office building in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. The building and its attached parking garage have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Public Service Building and Garage since 1996. It was built to house the offices of the Portland Gas and Coke Company and the Pacific Power and Light Company. The building's name reflects the fact that these utilities were "public services". A space in the Public Service Building fronting the corner of Salmon and Sixth streets became the first Niketown store.
Jacob Kamm was a prominent early transportation businessman in Oregon, USA.
The Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals is a non-profit museum in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. Located just north of the Sunset Highway on the northern edge of Hillsboro, the earth science museum is in the Portland metropolitan area. Opened in 1997, the museum's collections date to the 1930s with the museum housed in a home built to display the rock and mineral collections of the museum founders. The ranch-style home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the first of its kind listed in Oregon. In 2015 the museum became a Smithsonian Affiliate museum.
The Multnomah County Poor Farm is a former poor farm located in Troutdale, Oregon, United States. Established in 1911, the building and its surrounding grounds operated as a poor farm housing the ill and indigent populations in the Portland metropolitan area at the beginning of the twentieth century, after the closure of a poor farm in the city's West Hills. Over the course of the century, the farm would come to be used as a nursing home before becoming abandoned in the 1980s.
Alcoa Care-free Home is a historic home located at Brighton in Monroe County, New York. It was designed by Charles M. Goodman (1906–1992) and is one of 24 Alcoa Care-free Homes listed in their sales brochure of 1957 that were built for a demonstration project and the only one located New York State. It is a one-story, Ranch-style house with 1,900 square feet (180 m2) of living space, a carport, and a full basement. It is 91 feet (28 m) long and 36 feet (11 m) wide. It is of post and beam construction with a shallow pitched, side gabled roof. It features end walls constructed completely of plate glass framed by aluminum and supported by wood columns that are clad in aluminum.
The Eastman–Shaver House is a house located in northwest Portland, Oregon, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
St. Johns City Hall is a neo-Georgian style municipal building located adjacent to the east end of the St. Johns Bridge in the St. Johns neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. Constructed in 1907 by Youngferdorf & Son the building was the city hall for St. Johns, Oregon. After Portland annexed St. Johns in 1915, the building was turned over to city officials who designated it as the Portland Police Bureau's North Precinct until 2009. It now houses the Police Bureau's Traffic Division.
Henry Ladd Corbett was an American businessman, civic leader, and politician in the state of Oregon. He was born into one of the wealthiest and most influential families in Oregon. Corbett attended Harvard University and then returned to Oregon to manage family business interests. Over the years, he served as president of the Portland Chamber of Commerce and president of Portland Port Commission. He also represented Multnomah County in the Oregon State Senate, serving two terms as President of the Senate. He served as acting governor of Oregon twice in 1927.
400 SW Sixth Avenue is an eleven-story office building in Downtown Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. Originally known as the First National Bank Building, it opened in 1960 as a six-story bank building. The 139-foot (42 m) tall mid-rise contains 216,108 square feet (20,077.1 m2) of space, with retail on the ground floor. From 1995 to 2016 the primary retail tenant was Camera World.
The Alcoa house used aluminum for the following building elements: 1) roof, 2) ribbed exterior wall panels, 3) hinged purple grilles for windows, 4) front door, and 5) framing for sliding glass doors. The house also combined wood, glass, steel and brick in a 1,900 square-foot house that was "planned with the requirements of last year's well-known Women's Housing Congress in mind."105 (The Women's Housing Congress was just one reflection of the dominant marketing pitch to make houses reflect the concerns of the female head of the household, especially since the woman was doing more housework herself and servants were disappearing in all but the richest of households.) The house featured several of Goodman's trademark features: 1) a central-core kitchen that was essentially an island dividing the living room from the family room; 2) a family room that was distinct from the living room and adjacent to the kitchen; and 3) a screened garden terrace. Goodman used prefabrication techniques wherever he could in the design of the Alcoa house.
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