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January 2, 2015 by tomdalzell

The Futuro House and my friend

 

When I posted about Gabby and life on the roof on Mascher Street in 1970, my friend jumped off on a tangent about a spaceship he visited when he came to Philadelphia briefly in 1970.  What he was talking about was a Futuro House.

Matti Suuronen

Matti Suuronen

The Futuro House was Finnish.  In 1968 Dr. Jaako Hidenkari commissioned architect Matti Suuronen to design a ski chalet.

futuro_in_snow

 

Suuronen’s designed a prefabricated ski-cabin that would be light and therefore easy to transport to remote locations.  It was manufactured in 16 prefabricated pieces.

futuro_helicopter

One could either transport the assembled house by helicopter or it could be assembled on site,  The house sat on a steel frame on concrete footers.  In the United States, manufacture was by the Futuro Corporation in Philadelphia.

Here are a few Futuro houses:

Haigerloch, Germany

Haigerloch, Germany

Canberra, Australia

Canberra, Australia

Raglan, New Zealand

Raglan, New Zealand

The interior was pretty far out.

futuro_floorplan

Portable House fut_janesville_gazette2 fut_bail_mls3 brochurede_inside_small

My friend told me that “some freaks” had taken him to a “trippy-looking” restaurant on Township Line Road in Drexel Hill,  He thought it was called the “Round Table.”   It looked like a UFO.

llanerch_crop_small

Through the magic of the internet he found a photo of the Futuro house that had been the restaurant on its way to oblivion.

IMG_001

He then found photos of the house today – oblivion.   Plus the website of the owner who is selling it.  The photos show that it needs a little TLC.

I had always doubted my friend’s story about the freaks taking him to a spaceship in Drexel Hill.  I have been to Drexel Hill and I saw no evidence of a spaceship there.  But, it seems that his web research validates his claim that he in fact visit a spaceship in Drexel Hill.

When we pieced this all together I asked my friend what he thought about it all.

IMG_3677

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