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Thermo-Con House (Historical Marker)

GPS Coordinates: 38.6864408, -77.1394024

Thermo-Con House (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:

‘Thermo-Con’ House
In 1948, the Department of Defense worked with Higgins Industries to develop a standard house design to meet the Army’s housing shortage. Higgins Industries designed and mass-produced landing craft during World War II and held the patent for ‘Thermo-Con,’ a cement material that expanded as it cured. The renowed industrial architects, Albert Kahn & Associates, designed the prototype in the International style and the 410th Engineer Battalion (Construction) completed the building in 1949. Due to its innovative design and construction techniques, the house was plaed on the Virginia Landmarks Register in 1997. In 2000, the Army renovated and returned ‘Thermo-Con’ House to use as distinguished visitor housing.

Erected by Fort Belvoir.


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Regarding ‘Thermo-Con’ House. Designed by E. S. Henderson, Albert Kahn Associates of Detroit, Michigan.

Also see . . .
Thermo-Con House. “The house features several elements associated with the International Style, an early-20th-century style of design that shunned historically based decoration. Elements integral to the International Style include an asymmetrical mass, a flat, asphalt roof, smooth unornamented wall surfaces, vertical windows, a wide, boxed overhang, a simple, unadorned front door, and plain round supports for the house. A water table and second-floor belt course stress the building's horizontality.”

Nomination Form for the National Register of Historic Places:
“The ‘Thermo-Con’ material used to construct the walls, floors, and roof system of the house was comprised of ‘ordinary cement, water, and a patented formula of mineral origin.’ The mixture was combined in a ‘Thermo-Con generator’ and made into a thick paste called ‘Thermo-Con Slurry’. It was then pumped into a standard building form for concrete through a flexible hose to a predetermined depth. This material was then left to set for forty-five minutes. During the setting period the mixture expanded a remarkable two and one-half times its original size. At the time it was noted that this house ‘rose like bread dough.’ According to an article in a 1949 issue of the Fort Belvoir Castle, Thermo-Con was a new building material that was creating quite a stir in the construction field. The author stated, ‘Its qualities are almost legend—it floats, can be sawed with an ordinary carpenter’s handsaw, drilled with a brace and bit; it holds nails and common wood screws, and its heat resistance and insulating qualities defy belief.”

Thermo-Con House was built in 1949 and is the only International Style building at Fort Belvoir in southern Fairfax County. It was designed by E. S. Henderson of the renowned industrial architectural firm of Albert Kahn Associates of Detroit, Michigan, and was constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as an experimental structure to test an innovative cementitious material known as ”Thermo-Con.” The effort was an attempt to bring quality standardized housing to all army posts after World War II and to test the suitability of Thermo-Con in the mass production of lightweight houses. The Thermo-Con House may be the only one of this type of design and material built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the United States.

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