Our travels have allowed us to spend some time on the shore of Lake Michigan. Specifically, this week we stayed at Dunewood Campground at Indiana Dunes National Park. It’s a really lovely park with plenty of shade and large, level sites. We took walks around our loop, when it wasn’t raining. And we saw fireflies! That may not be special to some of you, but for California natives it’s pretty exciting!

The Hosts Know

We took the advise of the camp hosts and drove about a mile to the shoreline. They had advised us that we could walk on the beach, possibly see a great sunset, and just make out the Chicago skyline.

They were right. Well, it wasn’t a spectacular sunset but it was a sunset over the lake. Which looks like the ocean. It’s huge!

Oh, Sandy

We drove a while along the shoreline, then found a parking lot and walked to the beach. I put my feet in the surf. Just barely. The water is pretty cold! The fine white sand was really lovely, if not easy to walk in - especially uphill back to the road! I will say I climbed a dune. Sure, it was a tiny dune but it was a dune just the same.

Century of Progress Homes

From where we parked and stood on the beach, we could see some really interesting houses. One in particular caught my eye, because it was pink! After my foot wetting and my struggle back up to road level in the sand, we decided to wander down the road and read a sign we had seen as we passed.

It turns out we found, quite by accident, five of the the Century of Progress homes that were showcased at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. These five residences of the town of Beverly Shores are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and each has a plaque at road level describing these architectural marvels.

The Florida Tropical House

The pink house that had really caught my eye is called the Florida Tropical House. The color, and of course the Art Deco styling really caught my eye. I do love the Art Deco look! The house was modeled after an ocean liner, and features a lot of windows that make the indoors feel like the outdoors.

Made in Lafayette

This lovely home is built of slabs of a material called Rostone, which is a composite of limestone, alkali, and shale. We got to see some slabs of another material called Parma-stone stacked in the driveway as part of a restoration project. Apparently the snow, rain, and temperature fluctuations of the Lake Michigan shoreline have proven to be too harsh an environment for the Rostone.

Armco-Ferro

The Armco-Ferro house was touted as being affordable and easily mass-produced. It has a frameless steel construction and is sheathed in vitreous enamel, which shone beautifully in the setting sun. Other than that shine, it was sort of an unremarkable box.

House of Tomorrow

“America’s First Glass House” is round, mostly glass, and sadly currently under renovation. However, it did surprise it’s architect by playing a role in the development of passive solar heating. Apparently the south-facing part of the house gets mighty warm! Ironically, the house was also built to demonstrate air conditioning. Oops!

The Cypress Log Cabin

Resistant to water and decay, cypress is known as “the wood eternal” and was used in many forms in this house. Cypress was used to create siding, shakes, timbers, walls, and flooring for construction. Further, cypress made up the window shades and furnishings in the house. It’s quite a departure from the other four houses, which all worked to revolutionize and modernize house-building methods.

This house was the furthest off the road, and kind of hard to get a look at, sadly.

Favorite?

As much as I love the Art Deco look, I am also quite a fan of wood. I think it might be hard for me to choose which of these Century of Progress homes to live in.

Which would you choose?