A Day at the Dunes

After a two-year hiatus, Indiana Landmarks and the National Park Service are teaming up again to highlight a century of architecture in the Indiana Dunes National Park. Join us on Saturday, June 25, for the 2022 Logs to Lustrons Tour, exploring 17 sites spanning more than 150 years—including private residences not normally open to the public.

For even deeper insight, an evening lecture on Friday, June 24, highlights the architecture and history of the National Park, including a preview of sites included on the tour and an up-to-date review of recent preservation activities in the park.

The June 25 tour includes three nineteenth-century Swedish landmarks: the Chellberg Farm, the restored Oscar and Irene Nelson House, and the Gust Lindstrom Site and its World War I-era Wahl Barn, which has been restored and repurposed as an environmental preschool.

The Oscar and Irene Nelson House

Twentieth-century standouts on the tour include the Read Dunes House, a mid-century residence designed in 1952 by architect Herbert P. Read for his parents, Phil Benham Read and Irene Martin Read, early advocates for the dunes’ preservation. Guests will also tour architect-designed International-style houses—the Meyer House and Solomon Enclave—and two prefabricated post-World War II enameled steel Lustron houses.

Children on the tour can earn a Junior Ranger Badge by completing drawings of sites on the tour in a booklet supplied by the National Park. Hands-on programs will be presented at several sites, including brick-making at the Oscar and Irene Nelson site.

The Indiana Dunes National Park was established in 1966, after which the National Park Service acquired the historic structures within the park boundaries, including the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair Century of Progress homes, the Swedish landmarks, and others. Indiana Landmarks is working with the National Park Service to advocate for a long-term solution for several of the tour’s historic structures.

Learn more and buy tickets for the tour at https://www.indianalandmarks.org/event/logs-to-lustrons-tour-2022/