Youngstown Kitchens Woodcharm line

Following up on our recent look at Erika’s St. Charles kitchen that combined wood doors with steel kitchen cabinet frames — here is my vintage marketing material introducing Youngstown Kitchen’s Woodcharm line. Looks like the year of introduction was 1957. And there were four wood species to choose from, for the door: “Mrs. Homemaker will love the warm, blending, tones of these lovely wood finished species of Autumn Birch, Fruitwood, Sandalwood, and Honeywood.”

I’ve scanned the four-page brochure. As I mentioned in my previous post, steel cabinet makers were in competition with wood cabinet makers in this era. These wood-doors on steel-bases were the “best of both world.” I also suspect that as the economy boomed, there were more outlets for steel production along with inflation in prices. So that could have been pushing the market toward wood. It also mentions in this brochure that by 1957 Youngstown Kitchens had 80 distribution warehouses nationwide. That’s pretty amazing. They were the largest of the “Big Three” cabinetmakers — Youngstown, Geneva, St. Charles.

Door styles could be “EASILY converted from one door finish to another….Selling homes is made easier when Kitchens can be tailored to the individual”…

Now that I look at it, this brochure was aimed at home-builders. That makes sense, because it came with a salesman’s set (which I’ll show soon.)

By 1957, the company was owned by American-Standard, full name: American Radiator & Standard Sanitary Corp.