The developer's name and president of All State Properties, Herbert Sadkin, successfully featured a model of this home at the 1959 American Exhibition in Moscow. Following his return to the United States, Sadkin began development of the Lauderhill community in Florida. It was two years later that he started Leisurama, vacation homes that sold from $12,995 and $17,995. Walk in models were exhibited on the 9th floor of Macy's in Herald Square. There were two models available, one called a "convertible studio" containing a Murphy bed or an "expanded convertible" with two bedrooms and a Murphy bed. All the homes had pictures windows and carports. Each house was to be built on concrete slabs of 730 square inches or 1,200 square feet on a 75 x 100' plot.The house was furnished with everything you could ask for. Lamps, rugs, curtains, linens, dishes, utensils and even toothbrushes were provided. General Electric supplied the appliances.
The Leisurama homes were considered revolutionary and the project has been called "the first large-scale branded housing project in America."
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| Advertisement for a Leisurama home in Lauderhill, Florida |
Andrew Geller, working for the architectural firm, Raymond Lowey and Associates, was contracted to design these one of a kind homes which were designed as an affordable second home used for summer vacations out on Montauk, Long Island in a development named Culloden after the British warship, HMS Culloden, which ran aground during the Revolutionary War.
Some of the homes were modeled at the 1964 World's Fair.
There were 250 houses built out in Montauk by 1964.
Rob scoured the neighborhood looking for anything that was like the original, but could only find the blue one above, that seemed to match the original plans for the house. Like anything else, the homes were modified and expanded. We even passed some that had a second floor added to it.
As usual, I have many links to sites.
An interesting article called "Leisurama Living"
http://www.designboom.com/trash/leisurama.html
Another interesting article where some of my information came from:
This is a pamphlet advertising the Leisurama home, one that I found very interesting. It includes all the amenities that come with the house, complete with specifications and recreational facilities that you can enjoy while on vacation. The link to the documentary at the bottom of the page doesn't work, but check out the one in the Wikipedia article. That one doesn't work either, but there are some pics for advertising that are interesting to check out.
Wikipedia article: Check out the external links, especially for the documentary, just to catch some of the interesting pics of the inside of the homes.
article in Dan's Papers of the Hamptons on Leisurama where I borrowed some information:
Your link for the Dan's Papers Montauk Pioneer article no longer works. Do you have any idea how I might find the article to read? My searches have failed.
ReplyDeleteI recently saw the Leisurama documentary on PBS. In 1972 my parents bought a house in Amagansett with a very similar floor plan, but I guess it was just a popular style at the time. I don't think I ever saw the Leisurama neighborhood during the years I spent time in the area.