The Wieboldt-Rostone House is a house that was built in 1933. Framed in steel and clad with an artificial stone called Rostone. Billed as never needing repairs, it only lasted until the 1950s. Intended to showcase a new building material of limestone waste and shale, the Rostone House was the product of Rostone, Inc., of Lafayette, Indiana, and the Indiana Bridge Company. Construction was simplified by the completion of most design and fabrication work at a factory. The panels would be precast to the correct sizes needed for a specific project. Each panel came with pre-set nuts, that would be used to bolt the panel onto the steel frame. Both the interior and exterior walls were designed this way. The house was designed by Indiana Architect Walter Scholer.
History
Rostone Inc. and Indiana Bridge Co. rented Lot 7 in the Home and Industrial Arts group from the 1933 Century of Progress season for $2100. Thomas E. Smith and B.R. Graham contracted with Century of Progress for the interior decorationof the house on March 1, 1933. Failure to provide a contract, and design plan lead to the contract cancellation on July 17, 1933. Tobey Furniture Co. took over as interior decorators on June 24, 1933. Correspondence between Harrison and Smith-Graham indicated that the upstairs room, shown as a solarium in 1933 and a bedroom in 1934 was originally designed as a bedroom. Because of time constraints caused by the controversy, the room was exhibited as a solarium in 1933.
Rostone
It is a synthetic product composed of shale, alkaline earths, and limestone quarry waste. It has a variety of colors and can be produce in slabs, panels and other forms to exact dimensions. It was advertised as having the properties resembling limestone. The advantages to rostone was that it could be produced in any dimension and in several colors. The material, was much less durable than initial tests indicated. The sheathing on the Rostone House began to fail approximately ten years after it was installed; the house was reclad with Permastone in 1950.
Robert Bartlett's purchased the Homes of Tomorrow Exhibition houses in 1935 and hired Civil Engineers, Ltd of Chicago to move them to Beverly Shores. The Rostone House was placed on the lakefront with its expansive windows facing the lake. In the winter and spring of 1934, sixteen buildings were brought by barge and by truck from the site of the 1933-34 Century of Progress Exposition to Robert Bartlett's subdivision at Beverly Shores, Indiana. In an attempt to capitalize on the fair's success, Bartlett reestablished a small exhibition of model houses along Lake Front Drive in Beverly Shores. Understanding the importance of the fair to Chicago and to Depression-era America is crucial for comprehending the significance of the houses for Bartlett and for those who purchased land at Beverly Shores.
