R. G. LeTourneau's Steel House

Robert Gilmore LeTourneau (usually referred to as R. G.) was known as the “Dean of Earthmoving” and “God’s Businessman.” At the urging of Caterpillar Tractor Company, he moved his manufacturing business from California to Peoria in 1935.

LeTourneau discovered the men he hired struggled to find affordable housing in the Peoria area. Being an innovative problem solver, (LeTourneau received almost 300 patents in his lifetime), he conceived and began to build small all-steel homes to address the problem. Between 1936 and 1938, Letourneau’s factory built approximately 150 of these homes. Marketed as “The Carefree Home”, about two dozen of these structures still exist in the Peoria area. Construction of the homes ceased in 1938 as the demand for steel increased with the beginning of World War II.

In 2015, this “Carefree Home” was discovered on the grounds of the former LeTourneau Factory, then operated by Komatsu America. Never sold, the building was used as a manufacturing office within the factory complex. Long abandoned, the house was intended to be scrapped as part of a factory renovation.

Komatsu America generously donated the house to the Central Illinois Landmarks Foundation. From 2016 to 2018, it was renovated through a collaborative partnership with the Peoria Historical Society and the Wheels O’Time Museum. The grand opening of the renovated home was held on May 01, 2018. The interior of the home reflects the life of a family in 1938: an employee of the LeTourneau Factory, his wife and their eight year old son.