Westinghouse ‘Home of Tomorrow’ alive in the present

MANSFIELD – In the early 1930s, Mansfield was host to a home of the future.

Built on the edge of the Woodland neighborhood, the Westinghouse “Home of Tomorrow” was created to showcase all of the electrical appliances made by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing company. The house served as a research home where all Westinghouse appliances were tested in use, from stoves to waffle irons.

These days the house at 895 Andover Road is home to the Blankenship family, but it has quickly become a home of “yesterday” more than tomorrow. According to homeowners Todd and Kelly Blankenship, the house was originally built in 1934.

“Apparently they put up fences around the house so nobody could see any construction,” Todd said. “It was complete secrecy.”

The “Home of Tomorrow” originally opened to the public in February 1934 and remained open for 14 months, attracting at least 75,000 visitors. It brought to Mansfield electrical engineers, home economists and laymen from every state as well as many from foreign countries.

“They staged it so it was a living house,” Todd said. “At that point they were working with ‘Good Housekeeping’ magazine in making this the ideal area for women taking care of the house; they were going to be the answer to all that. And electricity wasn’t in every house at that point either, so it was kind of a big deal.”

About a year after its opening, the “Home of Tomorrow” was closed to the public and the “Home of Tomorrow Institute” was established, providing special training for home economists from all over the country. With accommodations for no more than six students, the home was taxed to capacity at all times with visitors coming for special training as guests of Westinghouse.

The Westinghouse “Home of Tomorrow” was permanently closed on June 2, 1936, announced by officials of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing company. A couple presidents of Westinghouse lived in the home after its official closing, but for many years the home was occupied by “normal” people.

When the Blankenship family took ownership of the home eight years ago, it had been empty for at least two years and was in foreclosure. Thankfully, they had the foresight and motivation to restore the historic house as best they could.

“There was so much character to this home, we just fell in love with it,” Kelly said. “Todd and I both like and appreciate historic things, so we had these grand ideas that we would restore it to its former glory. That was a bit more than we could chew.”

Renovations began with the outside of the home, which had been painted white over red brick. But the house itself was barely visible thanks to a forest of overgrown landscaping.

“We had to restore some integrity to the outside of the home because there was water coming through the walls,” Kelly said. “The landscaping we had torn out of here was unbelievable. We didn’t even realize part of the house was there until we took all the vines down.”

Then it was time to tackle the façade of the house itself. The Blankenships boarded up all the windows of the home and blasted at least 36,000 pounds of sand to remove all the paint.

“Only about 2,000 pounds came inside,” Todd joked.

“It was like living in a cave,” Kelly said. “But even with all the covering up and duct-taping of the windows, so much sand came in. It drove me crazy trying to clean it all.”

When it came time to move inside, the biggest challenge was repairing the crumbling plaster ceilings on the second floor. The previous owner attempted to remedy the ceiling by installing a drop ceiling, so the Blankenships removed the drop and re-plastered all the ceilings.

Despite those major projects, Todd and Kelly said they have not made many other changes to the house except for repainting or replacing flooring, preferring instead to keep its original charm.

“We didn’t want to make any big changes to the house, we just wanted to bring back and look for some of the original features that might just be covered up behind the wall,” Kelly said.

Many features of the original “Home of Tomorrow” are still subtly present in the Blankenship home. The distinct Art Deco style is still very apparent, with indirect lighting in most of the rooms. All fireplaces in the home are original, and many of the doorways are insets.

“There’s not that kind of craftsmanship anymore,” Kelly said. “For all intents and purposes, it’s still in really good condition.”

The home has also provided a backdrop for many significant moments in the Blankenship family over the past eight years. Todd actually proposed to Kelly on the house’s side porch over a homemade picnic. The house has been a cozy place for the couple to raise their three children.

“It looks really big on the outside, but it actually lives very comfortably,” Kelly said. “We have people ask us if this was an apartment building.”

“Or if it was a firehouse. We get that a lot,” Todd added. “Just because it has that commercial look.”

However, after eight years the Westinghouse “Home of Tomorrow” is in the market for new owners. The Blankenships are looking to sell their house as they move to a different lifestyle.

“Our desires have changed over the last eight years, we’ve got the kids and we want to homestead,” Kelly said. “We’d love to have a little mini-farm where we can have a few animals and a huge garden, and we can’t do that here. But it’s been a wonderful neighborhood and we have fantastic neighbors.”

Still, the couple is proud of the justice they have done to such a landmark in Mansfield.

“I feel good about what we’ve done for the place,” Todd said.

“It’s a never-ending job when you own a home, but it’s been really cool,” Kelly said. “We don’t regret any of it.”