What was inside all the boxes?
We now get to see!
Close your eyes. Imagine it’s 1948. You recently ordered a big set of Youngstown Steel Kitchen cabinets. The delivery truck has just arrived. The delivery men tote the big boxes into your garage. They begin to open them up. You are so excited!
Now: Open your eyes. It’s 2015 — not 1948 — but we all get to experience the thrill of opening up all the boxes! Yes: Today we get to see the very first photos of the big set of New Old Stock Youngstown Steel Kitchen cabinets that reader Ben recently discovered in storage. As you may recall, we first showed these cabinets — but still hidden in their boxes — in this story earlier this month.
They are just as pretty — just as shiny and new — as they day they were packed into their boxes. So pretty! So shiny! So new!
And woah, Nellie, hang on, because, there is a 1948 General Electric stove to go with. It is brand new, too.
Ben said the price tag was still on it: $270.
In case you didn’t catch that: Brand new. Reader Janet in ME piped right in and said it’s a GE Airliner. A GE Airliner! Woot! Our readers are So Smart. Thank you, Janet in ME!
Not one crumb new.
Apparently, not one scratch new. It was all crated up.
Brand spanking new. Oh my goodness.
Never messed with new.
New new new new new. It doesn’t get much better than this.
But wait, it does get better than this. The best part, imho: New Old Stock Cusheen vinyl countertops to match up with the Youngstown Steel Kitchen cabinet bases.
There are a lot of steel kitchen cabinets around (of course, not NOS), and there are a lot of GE ranges around (ditto) — but pristine Cusheen countertops? These are flipping amazing.
Ben says that the Cusheen vinyl is adhered straight onto steel. As you can see in the photo above, there is a steel channel underneath and multiple short channels behind the backsplash to reinforce the structure. What I mean to say: There is no wood substrate to these countertops! They are Cusheen-on-steel. Ben says it’s 16 gauge. It’s honking heavy stuff.
You screw the countertops right onto the cabinets. I think those are the screws, above.
Note: The drainboard sink was used; Ben says it’s in great shape, though. Also: The sink front was used and needs some work; Ben says the paint has yellowed, and it will need to be repainted to match the other cabinets. Back story seems to be: The complete kitchen was purchased back in ’48 or ’49 with a remodel in mind. Obviously, the remodel never happened. But the owners used the sink base and the sink in another location. In addition, there likely were wall cabinets — but these were also used in another project, long gone.
What is the total tally of what was found? Ben has not made up a list — but he took photos of the boxes, and they are in the slide show, if you want to count.
Ben wants to sell these
What is going to happen to these cabinets? Ben wants to sell them. I really think they belong in a museum and am reaching out to my museum friends right away today to see if they can help get these things to a museum. Meanwhile, Ben is open to offers. He wants to sell everything as a set. (UPDATE: See below; sold. — great follow up story!)
Update: How the story ends
- UPDATE: The cabinets went to a museum — a result of our story! See how the story ends by reading this story here.
More about Youngstowns and Cusheen:
- Must see: “The Mullinaires” sing the praises of Youngstown Steel Kitchen Cabinets in 1953. Classique!
- See our story about Cusheen countertops here. It was an alternative to linoleum, available in a variety of rich colors.
- See the original Cusheen countertops in Brian and Keri’s kitchen here.
- Click here to see this late-1950s catalog showing these countertops — and lots of pretty Youngstown kitchens.
Yowza. Eight years nine-and-a-half years (yowza, I just checked — it’ll be 10 years soon!) into doing this blog daily. Just when I think we will run out of stories, stuff like this comes at us. Yay!
Thank you so much, Ben, for sending all the photos. What a great thing you did by rescuing these! Be sure to tell whoever buys them about RetroRenovation.com and to give them our contact info — we want to see where they land!
CONTINUE to next page to see the SLIDE SHOW — 80 double-sized photos:
Tips to view slide show: Click on any image… it will enlarge to 1000 pixels wide on your screen … click anywhere to move forward, and look for previous and next buttons within photo to move back or forth… you can start or stop at any image:
Steve H says
Amazing! Let’s collect its DNA and clone it! Seriously, how closely could one approximate that counter today? I suppose black matte laminate and metal edging. Of course you would never have the cool marbled pattern.
Robin, NV says
Pionite makes laminate countertops that might work as a close approximation. They have a couple of black marble patterns and one called Charcoal Chromatix that I think would look great in a 1940s inspired kitchen. Wilsonart and Formica also have some black laminates that would work.
pam kueber says
two that might work, although they may be too drab — wilsonart black alicante and formica jet sequoia
i need to do more research tho
Robin, NV says
Pionite Pyranees Marble and Arctic Flash are both black marbles although, as you said, a little drab. They don’t have as much veining as the Cusheen nor are they as high contrast. Pionite has a few speckled blacks that might work for a 40s kitchen too – Graphite Spektrum, Charcoal Matrix, and Ebony Sand.
Robin, NV says
Pionite also has a black linen that might work.
Deb Cerrone says
Here’s what we installed in our vintage travel trailer as a tabletop and counter. It’s Forbo’s black marble linoleum.
matt says
Beyond jealous. The oven is so sleek, hoping to source one myself when I get to the kitchen.
Chris says
How much $
pam kueber says
see bottom of story
Diana says
Needs to be a new “Carousel of Progress”. I can see these all set up on a revolving floor like they use in the car shows. Kitchen on one side, living room on the other. In a museum of course. LOVE!!!!
KDA says
I wish we had more backstory. I want to know why they didn’t get installed. I can’t imagine ordering new cabinets and not getting to use them.
pam kueber says
I usually hear the backstory. But unless I am getting it from the original owners, I don’t write it. It just seems too … personal. So… enjoy the mystery!
Laura's Last Ditch Vintage Kitchenwares says
These are gorgeous. I find all kinds of neat stuff, but some day I want to find something like this.
Debbie in Portland says
I’ve seen black and very dark green, red, and blue countertops in vintage magazine ads. I’ve always wondered if the dark colors would be too overpowering in real life, but this black Cusheen with the aluminum trim is absolutely stunning.
pam kueber says
I am pretty sure that black countertops were the #1 choice in the 1940s and early 1950s.
AnnF says
Pam,
I don’t know…yellow, green, and especially red were more en vogue. I think that a mid-century housewife would find black depressing.
pam kueber says
I’ve done some research on this, AnnF — black countertops were #1 in the 1940s and likely into the early 50s, I am quite sure.
The explosion of color came later in the 1950s.
Chaucea says
*SWOON SWOON SWOON SWOON SWOON!!!*
lynda says
Wow, just wow. I wonder if a museum might be interested in these? Maybe he should contact the Smithsonian and other museums so many could enjoy the beauty of this kitchen. An amazing find, for sure.
pam kueber says
Yes, as I mentioned in the story, I am going to send this to my friends in the museum world too, to see if they can find a museum buyer — https://retrorenovation.com/2015/02/06/griswold-symbol-pots-carnegie-museum-art/
Loretta Ekoniak says
Please let the Tyler Center of the Mahoning Valley Historic Center know about these!
http://mahoninghistory.org/tyler-history-center/
The brand new Tyler Center that opened in the renovated building that was once the home of Good Humor IceCream also from Youngstown OH
LREKing says
I know that every one of us would love to own these, but they are of museum quality and may even be unique in this condition. They should be preserved so that everyone can enjoy them.
AnnF says
LREKing,
Why not let someone really enjoy it in their home? We all can see pictures. The real thing would be depressing, knowing that we can never own it.
pam kueber says
I agree with LREK, I hope this makes it into a museum so that many people can see it. As demonstrated by the popularity of this story, there is just something about seeing things that were in boxes for so long, pristine examples of the past…
Janet in ME says
Absolutely mind blowing amazing! It does appear that there are a couple of shorter wall cabinets. I would literally build a house or kitchen in which I would make fit all of these cabinets! And that gorgeous Airliner GE range! Where do people find these treasure?!
pam kueber says
Oh – GE Airliner. I didn’t know its name. Even better!