By Binyamin Appelbaum | New York Times
Mr. Appelbaum is a member of the editorial board. He reported this story from Buena Vista, Colo. Mr. Bogusky is a photographer based in Boulder, Colo.
In 1969, the federal government announced that it would hand out millions of dollars in subsidies to companies willing to try something new: build houses in factories.
Then as now, America was in the throes of a housing crisis. There weren’t enough places to live. Mass production provided Americans with abundant and cheap food, clothing, cars and other staples of material life. But houses were still hammered together by hand, on site. The federal initiative, Operation Breakthrough, aimed to drive up the production of housing — and to drive down the cost — by dragging the building industry into the 20th century.
