The company was never able to fully deliver on its early promises of high volume, and only produced the houses for a year.

The Jermain Street houses, four of which remain largely as they were when first manufactured, are the largest intact contiguous group in the state.

The district is located near Jermain's southern terminus, where it intersects Washington immediately east of the overpass at the New York State Route 85 freeway, just south of Interstate 90.

[2] All five houses in the district are one-story Westchester Deluxe models on concrete slab foundations, approximately 1,085 square feet (100.8 m2) in area, sided in square porcelain enameled steel panels (except for 1 Jermain) with aluminum casement windows and topped with shallow-pitched gable steel roofs.

[2] The Jermain Street Lustron houses were built as part of a larger group during the manufacturer's brief existence in 1949.

In subsequent years, several were removed to make way for a road project, and various alterations were made to the houses themselves.

Carl Strandlund, an engineer with 150 patents, came up with the idea for enameled steel prefabricated homes during World War II, when he worked for a Chicago company that made vitreous enamel products, initially kitchenware, but later, architectural paneling used on some gas stations and restaurants, in particular, early White Castle outlets.

President Harry S Truman, who had appointed Wyatt, was concerned about the possible shortage of housing, as many men were due to leave the military in the coming years with the war over, yet there had been virtually no new residential construction since it had started in 1941.

It took until 1949 for the first house to come off the assembly line, designed by Strandlund to reduce the necessary production time from 1,600 man-hours to 350.

[4] Model homes were erected in several locations around the country, including midtown Manhattan, where 60,000 visitors toured it in two weeks.

[2] Deluxe editions included several pieces of built-in steel furniture, and a combination washing machine and dishwasher in the kitchen.

The houses arrived on a truck specially designed for the purpose by Lustron on which the parts were stored in the order they would be unloaded for assembly.

[2] Nancy Danforth Norfleet, who moved into 8 Jermain as a young girl with her family, remembers she and her sister being teased by friends and schoolmates about living in a steel house.

[4] The Jermain Street Lustrons were profitable enough that the company bought another group for property it was developing in Loudonville, a northern suburb of Albany.

[2] The heavy federal subsidies Lustron received put it under close scrutiny and criticism, especially from builders of traditional houses and the unions they employed.

[2] Critical stories appeared in the press, and the diversification of the product line into smaller Newports and larger Meadowbrooks did not help the company's worsening situation.

That year, as part of a larger scheme to expand the city of Albany's limited-access road network, in conjunction with the construction of Interstate 90 north of the city, Route 85 was expanded and extended into the western section of what was to be called the Crosstown Arterial.

The construction of the freeway and its interchange with Washington Avenue required taking the property at 2, 4 and 6 Jermain Street.