(upbeat music) - [Jim] They are survivors of one company's solid solution to the post-World War II housing shortage.

- The roofs were enameled steel, the interior walls were enameled steel, the ceilings were enameled steel.

- [Jim] The rise and fall of the Lustron home.

Being a historic river city has its drawbacks, but Clarksville, Missouri's finally getting a flood wall that will be there when it's needed, gone when it's not.

How big is this flood wall project?

- It's huge.

The businesses have returned to Howard Street.

They know they're gonna be safe.

- [Jim] She came from California to be an artist in residence in St. Louis.

You should see what our town inspired her to create.

And yoga for kids.

Here's why.

- The earlier their kids can learn how to manage their mental health, the better it is for them to be able to just exist in the world as young adults and adults.

- [Jim] It's all next on "Living St. Louis".

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - Hi, I'm Anne-Marie Berger.

When it comes to houses, how they're built, the number of bedrooms, size of yard, everybody's got an opinion and a need to fit their lifestyles and families.

But there was a time in our recent history when having a house, any house, was out of reach for millions.

And not because of cost, there weren't any.

In this next story, I look at the post-war housing shortage and an interesting approach to solving it.

(upbeat music) Immediately following World War II, morale was high.

The United States had victories in Europe and the Pacific, and soldiers were coming home, reuniting with their loved ones.

Everyone was ready to live out the promised American dream, get a job, buy a house, marry and raise a family.

(train clacking) But instead of immediate prosperity, there were fears of a recession, possibly another depression.

New home building was slow during the economic downturn before the war, and material shortages during the war ground the construction industry to a halt.

So when World War II veterans went looking for housing, they were met with a lack of supply.

- After World War II, the Veterans Emergency Housing Program was developed, and they were interested in building mass housing for the millions of returning veterans.

(upbeat music) - [Anne-Marie] The program was quick to fund housing developments across the country.

And with the GI Bill home loans, areas, like St. Ann, were developed for the working class.

More than 12 million new homes were needed during the first decade after the war.

And the US government was open to innovative solutions to the post-war housing shortage, including one idea from the president of an enamel company.

- Carl Strandlund, he was asking for release of some of the steel that the United States was holding for the war effort.

They primarily built gas stations out of enameled steel.

The National Housing Program said, "Well, we can give you steel, but not for gas stations.

If you wanna make houses, mass produce houses, then great, you're in business."

(upbeat music) - [Anne-Marie] Strandlund committed to mass produce prefabricated houses made of enameled steel, steel with glass fused into the surface.

- [Peter] The exterior walls were steel, the roofs were enameled steel, the interior walls were enameled steel, the ceilings were enameled steel.

- [Anne-Marie] Strandlund had high hopes for this new venture, so much so that he committed to producing 100 houses a day, 30,000 homes in the first two years.

With a $12.5 million construction loan from the US government, the newly formed Lustron Corporation began manufacturing all-steel prefabricated homes for communities across the US, including St. Louis.

- With something like 78 houses in the St. Louis area, St. Louis region, which includes a little bit over on the east side.

- [Anne-Marie] The highest concentration of Lustron homes were in Webster Groves.

Of the 21 originally built, only 13 remain today.

- Well, the first thing everyone does when they come in is they come and tap the walls 'cause the walls are metal.

- Okay, good 'cause.

- Everything on the wall is magnetized.

- I've wanted to.

(wall knocking) - [Dayan] Everything hanging up is on a magnet.

- Sounds hollow in there.

This is the Lustron home of Diane Anderson, located near Shrewsbury.

There have been a few changes and a conventional addition made to her house over the years, but it is still very much made of steel.

Lustrons were built using 3000 parts, and a new owner had special clips that fit between the wall slates where objects could hang from, but that was almost 80 years ago.

- Like that's a magnet.

- Okay.

- With a hook.

- Interesting.

When you bought this house, did you know what you were buying?

- No.

(Anne-Marie laughing) I called my friend, Martha, and said, "Have you ever heard of a Lustron?"

She said, "Oh my God, you're looking at a Lustron?"

She was so excited.

And I said, "Well, it's got this great garden, it's a great layout, but it's all metal."

(laughing) So.

- And then for a house warming, everybody bought you magnets.

(Anne-Marie laughing) - I got a lot of magnets as gifts the first year, it's true.

(upbeat music) - [Anne-Marie] Marketed as a new standard for living, the first Lustron home was produced in March, 1948.

All are about 1,000 square feet and had either two or three bedrooms.

Producing the parts required a one-million-square-foot production facility on 106 acres of land at the former Curtiss-Wright Plant in Columbus, Ohio.

Using nine miles of conveyors, the materials were manufactured like cars.

- I mean, they ran into lots of production problems, unfortunately.

One of them was figuring out, "How do you actually transport this thing, this house?"

And they designed a truck that was able to hold 3,000 (laughing) metal parts, and could be trucked, essentially, anywhere in the country.

- [Anne-Marie] That's one truck.

- One truck.

- For one house.

- [Peter] One house.

- [Anne-Marie] So that's 30,000 trips.

You don't even wanna go too far.

- Right.

- You're not driving to California from Ohio.

- Well, and of course, it was more expensive if you ordered a house from California, as opposed to Ohio or Indiana, which is why Ohio and Indiana have the most number of homes in the country.

(upbeat music) - [Anne-Marie] Lustron homes were expensive to make and they were expensive to move.

Combine those factors with loans from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation that couldn't be paid back, the Lustron Corporation filed for bankruptcy in 1950.

Strandlund promised 30,000 homes, less than 2,500 were built.

In 2021, Wollenberg accounted for 56 remaining Lustrons in St. Louis.

Why are these homes important today?

- Well, they're important because they represent a very significant moment in time in housing history, at the end of World War II, when there was a huge need to build a mass quantity of housing.

And this was one of the solutions that was started, and unfortunately, it didn't come to full fruition.

(birds singing) (hose spraying) - [Anne-Marie] But they were built to last.

And all these years later, this was in fact the house Dayan has been waiting for.

- [Dayan] Love at first sight.

(upbeat music) - [Anne-Marie] Our next story takes us up river to Clarksville, Missouri.

This time of year, it's known as a good place for watching eagles, which are no longer an endangered species.

And now, as Jim Kirchherr found out, Clarksville itself is improving its own chances of long-term survival.

(upbeat music) - [Jim] Clarksville Missouri is a Mississippi river town, that's been a blessing and too often a curse.

The one-time riverboat town of 450 between St. Louis and Hannibal still sees river traffic, barges pass through the lock and dam here, and trains still come through, but they don't stop.

The economy these days is dependent on tourists coming to shops and for winter eagle watching.

That's the blessing.

This, this, of course, is the curse, Clarksville floods.

We saw it in 2014, and we were back to talk about it in 2017, the town's bicentennial.

But I imagine you've heard people say, "I'd love to come here, love the place, worried about the floods."

- Absolutely, yes.

- [Jim] Mayor Jo Ann Smiley knew things just couldn't go on like this.

- [Jo Ann] The future is a very questionable thing.

- [Jim] A lot of people in Clarksville live up on the Bluff, but the historic business district is right on the river.

The decorative gateway says Clarksville is where you can, "Touch the Mississippi."

A permanent barrier of some kind would keep the water out, save the buildings, but it wouldn't really save the town.

- If there were a brick wall there or a concrete wall there, as there are in many places now, nobody's gonna turn the corner if they can't see the river.

- Right.

- That's part of the history, it's part of everything, it's part of our life.

- [Jim] There was a plan, there are these modular flood walls that can be put up during flooding and taken down when the water goes down.

At the time, this would've been a 3 1/2-million-dollar project.

That's a lot of money for a little town.

And a lot of folks, and I'll admit, I was one of them, didn't give it much of a chance.

(digger engine rumbling) (upbeat music) - So this is the tow wall footings here.

There's the sheet piling, you can see over there, we got cut off.

That's what you see actually down there stuck up.

So we cut them off and we'll pour that into concrete.

- Turns out I was wrong.

Clarksville riverfront is now a construction site.

The flood well project is happening.

And when it's done, it will go from looking like this, to looking like this.

And when the river rises, as it certainly will someday, it will look like this.

Posts put in the ground, panels dropped in to create a wall.

And when the water goes down, the wall comes down.

- Obviously we're gonna redo the whole roadway and the sidewalks.

- [Jim] The plans show how complicated this is and what won't be seen, all the structural work that's now going in that trench.

Panels driven down to bedrock to keep water from going under the wall, and a concrete foundation and supports that will provide a solid anchor.

So when the posts go in, the wall can withstand the pressure of the rising river.

- What that rock anchor does is it keeps the wall from wanting to tip out.

And then we'll drive H-pile behind there and they get encapsulated into that footing pour, too.

And they keep the wall from wanting to slide.

You're not gonna see any of this, but if you didn't have any of this, the wall wouldn't work properly.

(machinery whirring) - [Jim] If you were thinking this doesn't look like a 3 1/2-million-dollar project, you're right, this system comes with a $15 million price tag, which makes Mayor Smiley's more than 10 years of lobbying for funding in Washington and in Jefferson City even more impressive.

- I went wherever I felt and believed there was somebody that I could talk to, whatever kinda meeting it was, whatever kinda legislator was there.

But it was just stay on the road and stay in touch and be as adamant as I could be and as honest as I could be about what the situation was.

And nine floods between '08 and '19 spoke quite heavily.

(upbeat music) - [Jim] When the project is finished sometime in 2025, Clarksville will be ready for the next flood, not by calling for volunteers to stack sandbags, but by raising a wall like this one in Davenport, Iowa.

They'll need practice to find out just how many people and how many days will be needed to put it up.

But those who own and work in the downtown businesses say the flood wall is already making a difference.

- It's huge, it's extremely important, it really is.

All of these businesses, for the first time in I don't know how long, the businesses have returned to Howard Street, all of the shops are full.

And if they're not, if they don't have things in the window, they're under renovation.

It hasn't been that way in years.

And that's because of the flood wall.

They know they're gonna be safe, so they can stay.

(train clacking) - When I was here during the bicentennial, you were celebrating your history, you were having issues with floods.

You didn't know if that was gonna be able to be fixed or addressed.

- Well, I knew then that if we didn't do something, the buildings of the downtown area could not survive.

I knew that if we allowed the river water to come into the town, it would not survive, the buildings would not survive and there wouldn't be town.

What do you think now?

- Right, I believe now, because of the reaction that has come to me from business people, that we have a chance and a pretty good chance.

The tenacity of this little place is still intact.

(upbeat music) - It's always nice when somebody from another part of the country finds our town an interesting place, even better when someone finds it inspiring.

Ruth Ezell found someone who did just that.

She put her thoughts not on paper, but on canvas.

(upbeat music) - [Ruth] At Commerce Bank's new office tower in downtown Clayton, the latest addition to the bank's corporate art collection was installed in November of 2023, titled "A Thousand Ways, a Thousand Years, From Horizon to Horizon", it's a two-panel, abstract, mixed-media landscape.

Los Angeles-based artist, Shinique Smith, was commissioned by Commerce to paint it.

- We decided at the outset it was gonna be a painting, and I knew where the work would be housed and what kind of scale we were gonna have.

The idea of the space it would inhabit, and the space the canvas that I was gonna create influenced me in the decision making, because it was gonna be a long horizontal and a landscape.

- Commerce's executive vice president and chief financial officer, Chuck Kim, was part of the team that determined who would be awarded the commission.

- We took proposals from artists all over the United States, shortlisted it, they made presentations to us about their ideas for the specific placements within the new building.

And Shinique stood out from all the rest, both from her commitment to wanting to know about us and to produce a work that fit Commerce Bank, as well as just her engaging personality and her approach.

- [Ruth] As part of her artist residency, Smith spent several days visiting important landmarks that define the St. Louis region, like the Gateway Arch National Park and Cahokia Mounds State Historic Park in the Metro East.

She went to cultural institutions, like the Missouri History Museum and the Mildred Lane Kemper Museum on the campus of Washington University.

Then there were the Commerce Bank employees Smith met, touring some of the branches and administrative offices.

Some of those staffers even contributed to Smith's painting.

- I put out a call and I asked them for pieces of fabric or articles of clothing that meant something to them and asked them to write a little something.

Not everyone did the assignment full on, I didn't get writing from everyone, but I got really interesting stuff, and they're all integrated into the work.

- So you see everything from pieces of dresses and ties that people have worn, to little cardinals, there's the St. Louis Cardinals, all kinds of things embedded in the artwork.

It's really cool for people to see that their contributions became a part of this beautiful piece of art.

- [Ruth] Smith documented the creation of "A Thousand Ways, a Thousand Years, From Horizon to Horizon" in a time-lapse video.

The painting was completed in 2022 and placed in storage until its new home was ready.

The artist said she works on several projects simultaneously.

(upbeat music) And speaking of other projects, if you went to the St. Louis Art Museum for the 2023 Hip Hop and Contemporary Art Exhibit, you likely saw this Shinique Smith painting.

It was created in 2002 while Smith was in graduate school.

She titled the flowing work of acrylic on vinyl "Shorty, Sugar, Honey, Baby/Don't Be Distracted".

- I was really into Public Enemy at the time, and there's a line in one of their songs called, it's "Rebel Without a Pause".

I was obsessed with that song.

And the line goes, "From a rebel, it's final, on black vinyl."

And so I made a whole series of work on vinyl.

I could drape it, I could mold it.

And this is really the first time I've shown the piece in a long time.

- [Ruth] Smith's more recent work for Commerce Bank joins an extensive corporate collection that was started more than a century ago.

For Chuck Kim, it's a welcomed edition.

- Oh, it's fantastic.

And I've been fortunate to have seen it evolve over time, as Shinique went through her process.

And the final piece, we loved it all along the way, but the final piece was even better than we could've imagined.

- [Ruth] As for the artist, the commission has piqued her interest in the St. Louis region.

- This was a catalyst for a lot of things, not just the Great Migration, but ancient times with the mounds, builders and Native cultures here, the Dred Scott Case here.

The music, Scott Joplin, rock bands that came from here.

Josephine Baker was born here.

The idea of connection and community is pervasive, and I'm interested in knowing more about it.

(upbeat music) - Finally, a story from Veronica Mohesky.

that I'm just gonna call "Not Your Grandmother's Yoga".

♪ I'm a little yogi ♪ I'm a little yogi ♪ I am strong ♪ I am strong ♪ Here is my - [Veronica] This yoga class probably isn't like any you've seen before.

There's singing, dancing, obstacle courses, and the poses aren't always perfect.

- I always teach yoga is a practice not a perfect.

- [Veronica] But that's because SonJoria Sydnor's class is for kids.

- It's about the principles of yoga, it's about them getting the breath work in, getting the yoga poses, being able to focus, practicing that mindfulness, but in a fun way.

- [Veronica] Sydnor is a yoga instructor and author of the book, "Our Family's Doing Yoga".

Today, these kids are participating in one of her Black Kids Do Yoga classes at the Collective.

Sydnor says her interest in writing a book began about seven years ago.

- At the time, when we were looking for ways to practice yoga, we could not find a lot of products, videos, books, that showed Black kids doing yoga.

And so from that point, I said, "Well, we can just write our own."

- [Veronica] So she did.

"Our Family's Doing Yoga" was published in 2020, and features many different poses that kids and families can try.

- Well, I've gone to lots of schools, but this one just really stood out because there was this one kid, and he said, "Oh, that little boy looks like me."

And so I was like, "Yes, that's what I wanted, that's what I'm going for."

So it was really nice to hear that.

- Alonzo Nelson, co-owner of the Collective and the father of a child in the class, says that it's important for the kids to be able to practice yoga with a Black instructor and other Black kids.

- Traditionally, when you think of the word yoga, you imagine maybe middle-aged affluent white women.

Black kids don't see Black adults doing yoga.

- [Veronica] Nelson says yoga is a great way for Black kids and teens to keep their mental wellbeing in check.

(shaker sifting) (serene music) - Anxiety, just PTSD from growing up in whatever environment, or just even with social media in our hands, you can see trauma and Black trauma all the time.

The earlier their kids can learn how to manage their mental health, or to tap into their mental health, or strengthen their mental health, the better it is for them to be able to just exist in the world as young adults and adults.

- It made me feel excited because yoga is fun.

- It was really fun.

I was just really calm the whole time.

- [Veronica] Dr. Cynthia Rogers says there are many mental health benefits that can come from physical activities like yoga.

- Activity, getting out, play, is extremely important for children in their development.

It improves mood, self-esteem.

There's also research showing it improves cognition, and also decreases symptoms of things like depression and anxiety.

- [Veronica] Dr. Rogers is the division director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Washington University.

- There's been a really large body of research on yoga and things like meditation, showing that they also can be really helpful for depression, anxiety.

We think that a lot of it has to do with the deep breathing, the slowing down, being focused on your body, that engages the parasympathetic nervous system that can really help with being anxious, or worried, or angry.

- [Veronica] Sydnor says she always starts and ends class with deep breathing.

- So when you're breathing in, you want to feel your belly grow.

It's a great way to help kids calm their bodies, it's a great way for kids to focus, it's a great way to build self-awareness as far as your body.

- [Veronica] But yoga and deep breathing aren't just good for the kids.

- There's been a lot of research showing that sometimes if the only thing you do is address the parents' mental health, the children will get better.

Just learning some really simple relaxation techniques or breathing techniques that you can do with your kids can be really helpful.

And then having the child do physical activity with you, particularly for the younger children, can really be both helpful for their mental health, and also for the parent-child relationship, too.

- And that's all the time we have for at "Living St. Louis".

We love hearing from you, reach out to us on our social channels, or visit NinePBS.org/LSL.

For "Living St. Louis", I'm Anne-Marie Berger, goodnight.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] "Living St. Louis" is funded in part by the Betsy and Thomas Patterson Foundation and the members of Nine PBS.