Leisurama Now: The Beach House For Everyone (1964-)

"It was the ultimate turnkey operation―down to the color-coordinated toothbrushes in the bathroom. All you needed were your clothes and a six-pack"
―Frank Tauma, Montauk real estate broker

Who doesn't dream of owning a second home at the beach? Well, in the early 1960s, it was a snap even for the working class. For as little as $590 down and $73/month, you could walk into Macy’s and leave with a fully furnished house. All you needed to move in was a key and some groceries. Each house came complete with furniture, appliances, a 45-piece Melmac dinner service and plastic glasses, fifty pieces of stainless steel flatware, plus towels, napkins, placemats, beds, pillows and sheets, even toothbrushes. The homes also promised low maintenance with redwood siding and interior paneling that never needed painting and had lifetime guarantees. In Leisurama, author Paul Sahre uncovers the mystery of this legendary slice of architectural Americana and lovingly documents its forty year history with a treasure trove of text, photographs, historical documentation, and oral histories.

The houses came in two basic models. The smaller version, the Convertible, was basically a studio: 730 square feet of open plan with a sofa bed plus a fold-down Murphy bed. A folding mahogany screen allowed the owner to divide the "living room" from the "study." The larger model, the Expanded Convertible, was 950 square feet, supposedly capable of sleeping eight and included two or more bathrooms. Two hundred and fifty of these houses were built at Culloden Shores in Montauk, Long Island with several hundred more built in an area near Fort Lauderdale, FL. Most of the homes have since been converted to year-round occupancy, and with very few exceptions, all have been enlarged and redecorated, while the once barren shore is now forested. In a sweet paradox, these once very affordable homes that were looked down upon by more well to do neighbors are now desirable and expensive, even "collectable." Their rich legacy lives on in the affordable pages of Leisurama.