First published: Tuesday, November 28, 2006

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ALBANY --A modest looking home in Albany will be nominated for historic status, thanks to renewed interest in its unique prefabricated construction, according to the Historic Albany Foundation.

The home, which is located at 5 Jermain St., is one of a dwindling number of Lustron Homes, originally intended to meet the burgeoning demand for housing after World War II. Made of prefabricated porcelain coated steel panels, the homes were inexpensive compared to traditional housing and were invented by Carl Strandlund of Ohio.

The homes were built from 1948 to 1950, only recently attaining the 50-year-mark need to qualify as historic. Of at least 70 of the homes built in New York state, about half were in the Albany region, according to the foundation, which will use a $7,000 grant from the Preservation League of New York State to prepare the Jermain Street property's nomination to the state and national registers of historic places.

The grant is part of $82,200 being awarded to preservation projects in nine counties around the state. Locally, funding is also being awarded to an Underground Railroad history project in Albany, and the Hudson Area Association Library.