I scan, therefore, I am. For our reference and enjoyment today –10 photos — six kitchens — excerpted from a 1953 American Kitchens catalog in my personal collection. American Kitchens was the brand name for steel kitchen cabinets made by Avco Manufacturing Corp., of Connersville, Indiana. Avco American was among the major brands of the day, and we see these cabinets fairly often in the wild — in their natural habitat or on craigslist, etc. This brand also is noteworthy for its porcelain drainboard sink with the unique faucet — I get questions regularly about to get this faucet, new, which until quite recently was possible, can you believe it.
“Postwar” design really is split into two periods
When we talk about design in post-World-War II America, we really need to split those years into two distinct eras.
Postwar Design – The Carryover Years — In the immediate aftermath of World War II — 1946 through to 1953 — colors and designs were more pre-war-carryover in look and feel. There were still material shortages. Manufacturers were still using designs created before the war (they had not innovated on consumer goods during the war, when all efforts were channeled to building America’s arsenal.) Also, people were still quite tight with their cash; those Depression years still weighed heavy, and folks liked their savings accounts. These Avco American Kitchen designs? I would describe them as prewar-carryover style. In addition, the Avco American Kitchen cabinets themselves have a very streamline look. I need to check authoritatively, but my aging brain is leading me to recall that they may have been designed by Raymond Loewy and/or his firm!
Postwar Design – The Populuxe Years — 1953 is recognized as the start of the “Populuxe” (*affiliate link) years — a term invented by author Thomas Hine. Beginning around 1953 and running through 1963, colors and designs in America became more exuberant, more experimental; these were heyday years for America in a variety of ways, and our rising affluence was communicated in our interior design and architecture.
- My story about 1950s design style.
- My story about 1940s design style.
All of the countertops in these kitchens are “vinyl plastic bonded to steel,” it says. Colors were quite saturated, quite rich:
- Greenwich Green
- Grenada Gray
- Baltic Blue
- Redwing Red
- Yosemite Yellow
I’m thinking they must also have offered black. To replicate this look today, check out linoleum sheet — check specifications, though. And there may occasionally be a laminate to mimic the look.
The catalog also promotes a hard maple cutting board — note the adorable roll-out serving cart shown under it in many of the kitchen designs. This is a classic Avco American kitchen feature.
That faucet is a specialty item, and you can still get a replacement today — see this story for info on where.
Above, the brochure asked:
TV or not TV… that isn’t the question in a house of today with this beautiful L-Shaped kitchen as modern as tomorrow. Here the busy homemaker can watch TV without disrupting her regular kitchen activities….
This TV kitchen was promoted as an “ultra-modern kitchen.” The first image (where the walls look so bright red) was on the cover of the brochure. Golly, could you even get a TV this small in 1953?
The catalog shows six kitchen design styles. Can you match the title with the photo(s)?:
- Westward Ho!
- TV or not TV
- To Grandmother’s House We Went
- Southern Hospitality
- City Gal
- Down on the Farm
A few years later, Avco American gave us the famous wood+coppertone Pioneer Kitchen, color-styled by Beatrice West.
Some of the images toward the back of the brochure (where product details are outlined) are quite amusing — and graphically interesting in that they appear to be combinations of photography and illustration. And of course, we get the occasional “Caption This” opportunity. Because, oh my gosh, new kitchens for America! New kitchens for America!
Judith Henry says
Greetings from Florida where the kitchens were pink and turquoise with terrazzo floors. I think I’m partial to the green kitchen, too. Love your site! Margaret Roach clued me in about it.
Lilly says
I didn’t think they had dishwashers back then. I always assumed they were a late 60’s early 70’s thing? Has anyone found a dishwasher that old that still works?
Carol says
My grandmother has one and it cleans better than a new one. I love the built in dishwasher under the drainboard. To use a quote from Barb S. above, “meow”.
Janet in ME says
I have been sorting through all my father’s old GE service manuals and I was surprised that GE offered a dishwasher incorporated either under the sink or next to the sink cabinet in 1950. The portable or mobile maids came out a few years later. I just mailed them all out yesterday or I would look again to see for sure. I may be able to find some more info in the books I have left. I think it has been mentioned before but there is a website automaticwasher.org that has fantastic info on old washers and dishwashers, if anyone is interested. I find it fascinating and you have to see the photo of the field of dreams.
ShariD says
Actually, believe it or not, electric dishwashers are about as old as electric service in kitchens, which takes us back to the 1920’s. GE developed and marketed “Electric Sinks” in the mid to later 1920’s, and they were an incorporated unit beside the sink bowl, which could also have the earliest model garbage disposals underneath the drain opening if you wanted to splurge and get the really modern, up to the minute unit! They loaded from the top, and had a lid which could serve as a drainboard when it was closed. There was only an on and off switch at first, and only one cycle, but did fill and drain by pump. Automatic timers and additional features would come later on, with more fine tuning. That, I don’t think, has ever actually ended, as companies are in constant competition with each other to make the next “latest, greatest, newest, bestest” model!
I have copies and scans of advertising showing them being loaded by the “kitchen maid” or the lady of the house, since household help was increasingly difficult to find following WWI. The technology that took women out of the homes and away from domestic service during the Great War, kept them out of it following the Armistice of 1918 in many cases. Increasing compulsory education increased literacy levels as well, and employment for women followed in business offices, stores, and War plants during the War, and then after it during the economic boom of the 1920s.
Secretarial and business schools grew like wildfire, due to demand for the training by women seeking out new options for themselves, and demand for the graduates they produced by the mushrooming office and retail businesses. So, it follows that “the servant problem” grew along with the rapid depletion of available women seeking out that type of employment. The electrification of the home, and the rapid development of devices that ran on electricity rather than “maid power” were coming along as fast as they could be thought of, designed, developed and produced. The modern housewife of the 1920’s found herself in charge of the chores more often than she did the rapidly disappearing servants, so anything that was billed as labor saving and time saving was quickly investigated and in many cases brought in as fast as the booming middle class could buy it, frequently on “Time Payments” which was also a fairly new invention. It followed then, that anything which cut down on the kitchen workload, where most women found themselves spending about 2/3 of their time, would be extremely popular. Next to kitchen food preparation, cooking, serving and storing, the task of dishwashing was the most onerous. While there was plenty of advertising going on, the actual level of purchase isn’t as well known, but certainly not for lack of availability!
The crushing financial disaster that was the Great Depression in 1929 served to put a serious damper on buying power for so many for over 10 years, which surely crushed the market for such frivolous items as dishwashers, driving production out of sight. And then 5 more years of military redirection of technological development and materials to the defense and war industries of WWII, where production of almost all household appliances ceased entirely “for the duration” certainly made dishwashers again the device of homemaker’s dreams. It would not be until well after the beginning of solving the most severe housing crisis this country had ever seen following WWII, when Suburbia and the Baby Boomers were both born, that dishwashers would again see the light of day.
They required complete redevelopment of course, since it had been a good 15 years since both they and technology in general had any attention paid to them. But the burgeoning technological advances of the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, which followed a period of technological and scientific development during WWII unlike anything seen before the war, would breathe life into them again, making them seem like a completely new idea to all who had not been around for their initial introduction during the Roaring 20’s!
Its absolutely amazing how such a complicated and convoluted set of circumstances can all come together to lead to the development of something as ubiquitous as the automatic dishwasher, isn’t it?
ShariD says
Correction to the comment above ~ I meant to say Kohler, not GE, who made the Electric Sink. For a picture of a portion of an advertisement showing the maid loading the dishes into the Electric Sink, go here:
http://www.antiquehomestyle.com/inside/kitchen/1920s/gallery/gallery-2011.htm#.
If that doesn’t take you directly to the picture, go to antique home style.com, to the interiors, the 1920’s kitchen gallery, and it should be about the middle of the group, on my screen it is the far right hand end of the middle row.
Mary Elizabeth says
Great information, and great illustrations for people trying to redesign a 1920s kitchen! Thanks so much, Shari!
Barb S. says
WOW, I love that yellow kitchen. That makes me so happy. Hey – I have that broom closet! Mine is pink, though 🙂
And that door panel, meow! Could it be laminate? Was that in the ad, or was that photoshopped in for my pleasure? These are awesome, thanks for sharing your stash, Pam.
Sarah Jones says
I have the copper tone cabinets with wood doors. Yellow countertops. I wish this company was still in operation. I refinished the cabinets last year. They were installed in 1955 and look great
Beverly says
I, too, like the green kitchen the most, but I find them all appealing. I think it’s the air of cozy cheerfulness–none of those boring NEUTRALS.
The idea of a TV in the kitchen in that time period is astonishing. 🙂
Mary Elizabeth says
Regarding the TV in the kitchen, my grandparents were what we call today “early adopters” of electronics. They had a TV in the kitchen by about 1955 or ’56. My parents, however, were the opposite. My mom kept buying wringer washers until they didn’t make them any more, to her disgust. They didn’t buy our first TV–a Fada–until 1954, and it was about the same size as the one shown in the kitchen photos, only it had a black plastic (bakelite?) and faux woodgrain (probably laminate) cabinet. Pam, notice how deep the TV is–almost as deep as the cabinets–to accommodate the picture tube. Yet the screen is so small by today’s standards.
Here’s a picture of one very similar to ours.
ebay.com/itm/1953-FADA-17T6-17T9-TELEVISION-SERVICE-MANUAL-SCHEMATIC-PHOTOFACT-DIAGRAM-REPAIR-/271685719475?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item3f41bb15b3
Ranger Smith says
These are great Pam, thanks for sharing! I’m going to have to look these over repeatedly to take in all the details. That TV in the kitchen is a trip! I remember way back then how often TVs had to be repaired; mostly because they had tubes that required replacing. Not sure how easily that TV could be accessed for repairs. These are really cheery kitchens.
natalie says
I love the scalloped curtains! What a great idea.
hey Pam- just an FYI, a lot of the pics, when you click to enlarge them, they enlarge a different picture than the one you clicked. 🙂
pam kueber says
hmmm. works for me. please be sure you let the entire page load before you start to click
Mary Elizabeth says
I think the scalloped valance is made of wood. That’s what we had in all the kitchens growing up.
Jacki says
Wow! A TV in a kitchen back then had to be expensive. Televisions were a luxury back then and to have one in your kitchen had to make a statement. I love the dishwashers back then, I wish I could find one NOS. The kitchen with the green countertops is definitely my favorite.
brett_x says
There was no prohibition from using lead in the plumbing of those old dishwashers.. so.. it’s probably not as good as an idea as you might think.
In fact, a lot of 2nd hand stores can’t sell dishwashers that are older than a certain age due to changes in federal laws regarding the old plumbing.
la724 says
Those dishwashers are hard to find in any condition now, much less NOS. But I did come across someone selling an American Kitchens dishwasher two years ago and should have bought it, still have some photos. Three things I noticed right away:
1) the racks are PINK
2) the top rack is ROUND. And it spins so you can place or grab an item on it without reaching over to the other side. It also spins when the machine operates, so dishes get cleaned thoroughly no matter where they’re placed, kind of like how microwave ovens work today. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRHkR9cy68k for an American Kitchens dishwasher in operation as well as American Kitchens cabinets surrounding it. And…
3) There are no rotating water spray arms as in most dishwashers. Instead, the water pools in a bowl built into the center of the inside tub floor, and a fan-blade like thing spins around inside the bowl full of water splashing it everywhere. As the above video shows, it works quite well.
The outer door was shaped to match AK cabinets, which I didn’t have. The most distinctive feature is the outward-protruding top of the door, which matches the shape of the surrounding drawers.
la724 says
inside of American Kitchens dishwasher:
http://images.craigslist.org/00202_jXG7456etql_600x450.jpg
http://images.craigslist.org/00f0f_9wezEPGZ1PF_600x450.jpg
pam kueber says
Wow, thanks for the additional info, la724. The ingenuity — amazing!
Gracie Manasco says
That cart is so much better than an island…
virginia says
I love all of them and see my little 1949 kitchen in many of them. I love the coziness of these and the quaint notion of the rolling cart. My own has a built in diner-style table, under a window, and two vinyl leather banquettes of either side, with full storage under the seats. It’s one the reasons we bought this house almost 20 years ago. It’s super inviting and convenient and gives a small space a bit of heft and zing.
The yellow kitchen is a trip. Love it.
And thanks for the always very thorough and enjoyable history lessons.