Polychrome House No. 1

John Joseph Earley built Polychrome House Number One in 1935 to demonstrate affordable housing made from pre-cast concrete aggragate mosaic panels. Earley, well known as the "Father of Modern Pre-cast Concrete," worked on famous public and private buildings all over the United States. His attempt at providing simple, cheap housing during the 1930s, however, is not well known. Architect J.R. Kennedy of Washington, D.C. designed the house which John Earley and his partner Basil Taylor built by pre-casting the components at their concrete plant in Rosslyn, Virginia. On site, the panels were hoisted in place with a wooden "A" frame and block and tackle. Once the panels were in place, they were locked together with a system of site-poured concrete columns. Each panel is two inch thick concrete made with aggregate carefully selected for color and size. When the concrete was set, each panel was brushed to reveal the colorful aggregate. Oklahoma jasperite was used for the pinkish-rose color of the main panels, the pillars are of Potomac River gravel, the blue bands and corrugated panels under each window consist of crushed cobalt blue glass and the frieze below the eaves of of bright red, black and yellow-gold crushed glass. Earley built four more aggregate houses in 1935 next to and in back of the first, demonstrating variations in size, design, and color. Although Earley's low cost housing never succeeded commercially, his pre-cast architectural concrete techniques both helped establish the industry and set a standard we are unable to match today.