Steel Homesteads

Marrying the boss's daughter is something of a tradition in American Rolling Mill Co. Armco's founder and chairman, white-haired, patriarchal George Matthew Verity, married his boss's daughter; Armco's president, wiry, little Charles Ruffin Hook, married Leah Verity. And President Hook would probably be delighted if his daughter, Jean Catherine, now in school in Connecticut, wed an up-&-coming Armco man. For good relations with its employes is a prime Armco policy. Last week Armco's happy relations with its workers--attested by the fact that it has had no strike in its 39 years--flowered anew.

Six months ago a workman in Armco's Middletown, Ohio mills suggested that the management sponsor a housing development for employes. His letter passed from executive to executive, 15 university experts were consulted, the Federal Housing Administration and Department of Agriculture queried. Finally 80 workers were called in to approve the management's ideas. They did, and last week President Hook announced the creation of Fertile Valleys Homesteads on 60 acres of farm land three miles south of Middletown.

There, on an acre of soil-tested land apiece, 60 modern houses will be built--a two-bedroom size at $4,500, three-bedroom at $5,300. Total cost for the 60 families will be $300,000, financed jointly by the workers, Armco and FHA. To keep costs down, the 60 are now forming their own building company.

Since Fertile Valley Homesteads will be made of prefabricated steel built by Armco, the company is in effect developing a new outlet for its products. Armco is thus following the lead of big U. S. Steel Corp., which since last September has been stamping out prefabricated steel parts for a similar housing development at Clairtown, Pa. near its vast new Irvin Works.

With an estimated shortage of 2,000 houses in and around the Clairtown area, the building firm of Gilbert-Varker, Inc. persuaded Big Steel to cooperate in erecting a 300-house, 92-acre subdivision known as Colonial Village. FHA got behind 80% of the project's $1,314,000 total cost, local investment bankers did the rest. Costing $4,200 to $4,800 each, the houses use as much as 7,000 lbs. of steel, compared to the 2,380 Ibs. in the usual small dwelling.

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