Lorain’s First Factory Built Home – June 20, 1969

A couple of years ago at the Great Big Home + Garden Show at Cleveland's IX Center, I toured a factory-built ranch home. It was really nice, as well as being moderately priced. I remember thinking that it was the perfect successor to the 50s and 60s homes that many of us grew up in on Lorain’s west side.

Of course, factory-built homes are nothing new. Back in June 1969, one was the subject of an article that ran in the Lorain Journal on June 20, 1969. It was the first one in Lorain, making it something special.

But as you will see, it had a mixed reception.

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First Factory-Built Home
Gets a Trial in Lorain

By TOM McPHEETERS
Staff Writer

THE FIRST factory-built home in Lorain is on a lot on the 1800 block of Tower Boulevard. It almost certainly is the first of many such homes Lorain will see in the next few years.

“You are looking at a new type of building,” said Lorain builder Anthony Murello yesterday. “Definitely, there will be more, subject to public acceptance.”

Murello has resolved his differences with city officials who initially expressed concern about the construction standards of the new home, exhibited for the first time in this area last month at the Midway Mall Home Show.

EIGHTH WARD City Councilman Robert Hritsko says he has received complaints from “about a dozen neighbors of the white, one-story rectangular house. He has asked Building Inspector James Romoser to see if the building can be stopped, but Romoser said the only argument against it – that the home “does not conform to neighborhood standards – is not grounds for him to take action.

“We are not an architect’s board,” Romoser said. He added that any attempt to pass legislation limiting the design of buildings in Lorain could probably be challenged as discriminatory.

“We are very much aware of the criticism, but at the same time, the number one problem in America is housing,” replies Murello. “And if the people will give us a chance, why when we’re through landscaping they’ll say, ‘what were we griping about?'”

BESIDES, with 1,248 square feet of floor space, the house is bigger than 50 percent of the other homes in the area, Murello said. “I ought to know – I built them.”

Murello received a variance from the Lorain Zoning Board of Appeals to place the house on a lot at West 23rd Street and Pole Avenue after the board ruled that it did not have jurisdiction over the type and construction of the building, as long as it met the zoning code standards.

Murello later decided to use the Tower Boulevard lot instead.

At the time of the board hearings, both Romoser and City Electrician Arthur Manichl said they had doubts about approving the construction of the home because they would not be able to follow the usual procedure of inspecting on site during various stages of work.

But Romoser has resolved the problem by stipulating that a contractor can have a licensed inspector certify at the factory that the home has been inspected and meets Lorain’s standards for construction, wiring and plumbing.

ROMOSER ALSO has Murello’s agreement that spot checks can be made by Lorain inspectors. “We did make some changes in wiring and plumbing on the house at Tower Boulevard to meet Lorain standards,” Murello said.

“The next one we ship will exceed all of Lorain’s standards.”

The completed home, with prepared lot, on Tower Boulevard is selling for $22,900. A factory-built home without lot will cost $13,956. With soaring construction and interest costs for conventionally built homes, “I venture to say we won’t get requests for more than a dozen applications the rest of this year for conventionally built single-family homes from contractors,” Romoser says.

Lorain Community Development Director Walter Benedict says he is definitely interested in using factory-built homes in the South Lorain urban renewal project, but only after he is satisfied that they have quality and will go well in the area.

Murello says the Nixon administration’s new housing program, called “Project BREAKTHROUGH,” encourages factory-built homes in low income areas as a means of quick rebuilding without the usual relocation headaches. Residents of the Cityview area of Lorain are interested in the idea.

But Murello promises he is not going to flood the city with factory-built homes. “There’s not going to be any panic. There won’t be any 200 units put up overnight in one place. We don’t plan to cluster them, but to scatter them where the lots are available,” he says.

Today the house looks cozy and well-maintained