A vintage Magic Chef range used only 28 times since 1955… a pristine pink bathroom… and more “frozen in time” features in this amazing time capsule house in St. Louis…The owners only ever lived downstairs! Thanks to Meredith and her connections for spotting it and sending it right in. Real estate agent Christopher Thiemet reports that the original listing agent interviewed had advised the sellers to gut-and-renovate-ala-2009 before selling the house. He saw the gem this was and advised otherwise. Thank heavens they listened. Christopher sold the house faster than the speed of light and before it was officially listed – to a buyer who bought the whole thing kit, kaboodle, furniture – and clothes hanging in the closets. Hooray.
Read on for the story — and be sure to see even more photos at Christopher’s excellent website here (now gone).
Update: St. Louis Post-Dispatch story here.
I am also reminded of this post – another family whose virtually unused kitchen was put in a museum. From the listing:
Circa 1955: The best way to describe this awesome find? “NEW CONSTRUCTION FROM 1955!”
This awesome 50’s bungalow, located on a quiet, cul-de-sac street on the Hill, has seriously never been lived in… at least on the main level. This ONE-OWNER home was resided only in the lower level during their stay here, so the main level has been frozen in time and perfectly preserved. The vintage Magic Chef gas oven had a head-count of 28 turkeys cooked in it for 28 Thanksgivings — that’s IT. The other meals prepared in this home were in the lower level kitchenette, where the family resided full-time. The quality of the 50’s shows, as everything is in great working order, the original wooden sash windows are in perfect shape, the tile is impeccable, the hardwoods are pristine (they’re there under the wool carpet)… the list goes on and on. There is an entry foyer, large living/dining combo, large eat-in kitchen, 2 bedrooms with hardwood floors and double (large!) closets, and bath on the main level. Downstairs, you could eat off the floor it’s so clean, and features an additional full bath (offered as-is). The yard is neat and tidy, and fully fenced, and has a 2-car garage with electric opener. Newer low-maintenance siding has been added to the home.
Offered for 129,900 — seller open to negotiatng furniture/furnishings to remain. Truly one of a kind to find. WILL NOT LAST
PugFreek says
Oh my godness tht is amazing
Mitzi says
My grandma’s ranch house had a large finished basement with a kitchen in it, she did her canning down there, I guess because it was cooler since there was no AC.
I’m still sick that my family sold the house when she died – my grandpa, dad, and uncle built the entire thing! I still hold out hope that someday it will come back on the market and I will be able to buy it.
She used her entire upstairs, but my other grandma had a “front room” that was only used for visitors and on holidays. The “living room” was right next to the kitchen, where a dining room would normally be.
I can’t believe what a steal this house was – $130K?!? Amazing! Someone is very lucky in St. Louis!!
Pete in PDX says
I purchased a ’57 house in 2001 that was not as preserved but was
pretty close. I became the 2nd owner to occupy the house.
The owners never had kids, pets, didn’t smoke etc.
Other then
the crappy job the seller (executor for the estate) did in painting it,
and the vinyl sidding adding in 1968 everything was original, even
to orig refrige,and there was even a Bendix washer/dryer in the
basement, sad part it got thrown out when I bought it. My agent
also kept talking about ‘gutting’ the place and modernizing it.
I’ve become a 50’s nut, and have preserved it as much as
possible. Some day will restore the 1962 TV set !!
-pete
-pete
Mid Mod Pam says
Pete in PDX – this is awesome. Welcome to the site. I will email you – we need to see photos! It is SO FUNNY (or not) how the real estate agents apologize and talk of gutting. But – there are more now who are realizing the value. Be sure to see the post about the time capsule from the other day – that’s a great example.
St. Christopher says
Wow, only here in St. Louis! ::shakes head:: You know, I go to alot of estate sales and people put the darndest things in the basement. I know there is some clever joke here…I just can’t find it.
Missouri Michael says
My grandmother didn’t have indoor plumbing until around 1990 (she would have been somewhere around 70 years old). She lived in an old farm house that had a rural water spigot outside the kitchen door, and she would go out and fill up a bucket full of water for her needs. She had a sink in her kitchen that only had a drain, and the drain (to the best of my knowledge) just drained to the outside. You don’t know how thankful you are for indoor plumbing until you have had the experience of having to use an outhouse, or the chamber pot when it was too cold to make the trek out to the outhouse.
And my other grandmother keeps the living room in her house off limits except for family gatherings and company. She has turned her dining room into a combination dining room/family room which is where we all gather when we visit, so I can relate to the idea of keeping an area pristine.
NorthsideCJ says
What an amazing find, and in a good part of town too. I’ll have to keep that realtor in mind. I am very jealous of the new owner(s). What I wouldn’t give to do a walkthrough.
Very few homes in Saint Louis had any air conditioning in 1955. Let alone central air. Anyone who has ever experienced summers in Saint Louis can understand staying in the basement, at least during those months. Both sets of great grandparents that I knew had kitchens and baths in their basements.
sumacsue says
Thanks for sharing this amazing story. As I looked at the photos, I felt like I was stepping back into the past, because a lot of the furnishings are similar to ones in homes of relatives such as my maternal grandparents. No one in my family was so extreme when it came to preserving furnishings, but they did believe in holding onto things. “There’s still a lot of life left in it,” was/is a common saying of my 96-year-old grandma, who still uses a bedroom set very similar to the light wood set with the yellow bedspread in these photos.
Carla says
Palm Springs Stephan – Thats actually a good explanation! I hadn’t even thought of it but my house growing up, the dining room and living room were relatively off limits. It wasn’t forbidden, but we definitely were not allowed to play in there unless it was passive play like a board game. That still where my mother keeps her nicer things and the family room is where all the grand-kids toys are and where she watches TV and “lives”.
I guess this house is just the extreme version of ‘fine china’ for most of us!
Palm Springs Stephan says
I think I understand the whole “living in the basement” thing. I come from a family of Arkansas share-croppers of the dirt-poor variety. My mother grew up without electricity or indoor plumbing. She gained those “necessities” only upon her marriage to my father in 1952. My maternal grandfather had a dirt floor in part of his house in rural east Texas until his death … and a planter in the front yard made from a large tractor tire that was painted white (!!!!).
The result of that impoverished (but still American) background is that I grew up in a house where certain portions were absolutely off-limits. As children, I and my brother were forbidden on pain of corporal punishment to even set foot in the living room or dining room. They were for company only, and seldom used.
My elderly mother explains to me today that after growing up so poor and working so hard to gain access to “the American dream,” she felt a strong need to protect and preserve the fruits of that labor. Using the furniture and certain parts of the house meant “wearing them out,” in her mind. And because of years of poverty, she had a great fear that there would be no money to replace those things if they did become worn out or damaged. After having literally nothing for most of her life, she thought it better to have some nice things and only look at them rather than to use them and lose them.
I might add that my mother, thanks to a lifetime of her own hard work and careful savings, is literally a millionaire today. Yet parts of her newly purchased condo in an uber-posh golf resort community in wealthy Rancho Mirage are STILL absolutely off limits and used only when special company visits! She still has hissy-fits if I sit on a certain sofa or chair lest I “wear it out”!!! Her knee-jerk reaction is that there won’t be any money to replace worn out items … a patently false but deeply seated fear.
Mid Mod Pam says
Thank you, Palm Springs Stephan. Exactly. I recently found out that my grandmother and mother did not live in a place with indoor plumbing until 1950. My grandmother was over 40 by then, my mother entering her teens.
Jason says
A side line on the “company only” use of certain parts of the house…….In one of the last episodes of season 3 of Mad Men, the family gathered in the living room to talk about the separating of the parents. The daughter, Sally, has a frightened look on her face and asks, “Why are we in the living room?”. Kudos to the writers of the show for that little bit of dialogue detail which relates to the subject at hand.
My Mom grew up in the 30’s and 40’s and though I do not know much about her in those years, I do believe that is where her need/desire for cleanliness was embedded. Growing up, Mom would spend all day on Saturday cleaning the house. The furniture that was bought in the mid 60’s was still as pristine when we relocated to Florida in the mid 80’s. Mom’s living room in the Florida house was seldom used and then mostly when guests visited. Same with the dining rooms of boths houses.
I, myself, love the vintage look and now that I am living in Mom’s house…..and as much as it pains me to remove the decorating that she did……I am enjoying “retro-ing” the house out for a late 1950’s appearance.
The St Louis home featured should serve as an inspiration to many of us. Thanks.
Glamorlux Nancy says
So, the family lived in that basement? Oh well, it made for a wonderful time capsule! Is that a 50’s TV in the living room? I’d kill for that couch! A-MA-ZING!!!