Distance from Lancaster, OH: 45 minutes

The Ohio History Center is the headquarters of the Ohio History Connection. Their mission is to spark discovery of Ohio’s stories. Embrace the present, share the past and transform the future. The Ohio History Center is located at 800 E 17th Avenue, Columbus, OH, 43211, at the intersection of I-71 & 17th Avenue (Exit 111).

1950s: Building the American Dream

Experience life in the 1950s by putting your feet up on the couch, playing a record, peeking in drawers and rolling in the grass in a full-size prefabricated Lustron home built inside the museum at the Ohio History Center.

Expect to see items like a 1957 Chevy Bellaire, an Airstream trailer, Roy Rogers toys and decorations, a bomb shelter hatch, 1950s television news and programs, and a combination clothes and dishwasher!

With the Lustron home as the literal frame to experience the decade, the exhibit invites visitors to explore the complex social environment of a “real” nuclear family from Central Ohio living in a Lustron home during the 1950s: a father, mother, boy, and new baby girl. Through this family, visitors can encounter three themes that define the decade:

Family and Gender Roles: Traditional roles for men and women and fathers and mothers were redefined by the post-World War II boom and vastly different from previous and later generations.

Social and Political Issues: From segregated housing to the Civil Rights movement to the Cold War to McCarthyism, the 1950s was anything but ideal for so many Americans.

Popular Culture: The popular music, literature, art, and design of the 1950s is undeniably alluring and retains devout followers 60+ years later.