Carl Gunnar Strandlund (1899-1974), an engineer who held over 150 patents for farm implements, was born in Sundsvall, Sweden and raised in Moline, Illinois. In response to the housing shortage at the end of World War II, he developed the Lustron house, an all-steel, prefabricated, bungalow-style home. Chicago architects, Roy Burton Blass (1907-1981) and Morris H. Beckman (1911-2003) helped develop the prototypes. In 1946 the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) loaned $12.5 million dollars to help finance the Lustron Corporation in Columbus, Ohio. As the business continued to grow, Lustron created a network of dealerships across the country in order to distribute the homes. The Atlanta metro area franchise dealer was William R. Knight (1898-1996), a local real estate agent and the founder and president of Jafra Incorporated of Georgia. Knight also purchased a home, one of only ten Lustron houses built in the Atlanta area. The William R. and Ruth Knight Lustron House is located at 1976 Northside Drive in the Buckhead area of Atlanta and was listed on March 18, 1996, on the National Register of Historic Places for Fulton County, Georgia. Due to overrunning costs and production problems, the RFC foreclosed on the Lustron Corporation in 1950.