Cemesto

Cemesto is a sturdy, lightweight, waterproof and fire-resistant composite building material made from a core of sugarcane fiber insulating board, called Celotex, surfaced on both sides with asbestos cement.

[1] Cemesto was a pivotal material in the development of World War II-era defense housing, which provided homes for workers mobilized to meet wartime production needs.

[2] Cemesto panels consisted of an inner board of Celotex insulating lumber coated first in a proprietary sealant then in a layer of asbestos cement.

[3][9] Prior to the adoption of cemesto to create prefabricated housing, most rationalized fabrication systems relied on vertical ceiling-height panels supported by a frame.

[5] One use of the material during the postwar era was in the late 1940s in Circle Pines, Minnesota, where cemesto panels were used in building the first homes in what was envisioned to be a housing cooperative for people of color.

[18] Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Raymond Carlson House in Phoenix, Arizona, built in 1950, to use a structural system of wood posts and cemesto boards.

A house built with cemesto panels in the Oak Ridge, Tennessee Defense Community, 1949.
Prefabricated homes incorporating cemesto panels under construction in Oak Ridge, Tennessee , during World War II . White cemesto panels can be seen on several of the homes.