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:
Jay says
The pristine condition of the cabinets after so many years in storage(no rust or corrosion) is a testament to their superior quality of manufacture. Now that I have seen these, I recall my uncle had similar cabinets/counters. That beautiful stove – still carying the 40s look, I guess GE had not introduced the push button controls yet.
Donna says
Wow. I would love to have this, but would have to reconfigure my whole kitchen.
Kelsie says
I love your little finds like this! I think my heart skipped a beat when seeing something so new like this! Sigh…my vintage-loving heart is content.
Mary lucas says
My husband worked at Mullins ,where these cabinets were made. He probably loaded them on the truck for delivery!
pam kueber says
🙂
Amy in Sacramento says
Wowza! Those are gorgeous! Where in Northern CA? (That’s where I live!)
Cathy P says
So “LOVE” the kitchen! So “SAD” it is in California!
cindy bowman says
OMG my mom had that stove!! It worked up until the old family home finally got sold in the mid 80s. Could be working still, for all I know. I always thought the sunken “stew” pot was so cool. What a find!
Kim says
I thought the GE stove was called a “Stratoliner.” Maybe he Stratoliners were from the early 50’s???? Perhaps another reader will know.
pam kueber says
It’s an Airliner.
Kate zoomed in on the photos (we have larger files). She said:
– In the shot with the manuals it says “Range model Airline” and clock say Airliner — so Janet in Maine is correct
Note, though, I also see Stratoliner on the front of another brochure in a photo. So maybe there is a brand hierarchy.
Tim says
The Airliner was a model of GE range like a Taurus is a model of Ford, but there were several different models. GE made a range of ranges (pun intended). From top of the line down were the Liberator, Stratoliner, Speedster, Airliner, Stewardess, and Spacemaker ranges
pam kueber says
Thank you, Tim. WOWOWOWOWOWO I love all those names. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. Thank you!
Janet in ME says
I just checked my Dad’s old manuals that must weigh ten pounds each. Anyone looking for one of these needs to find a CD1-48A or 48B for 1948. There was also a little apartment sized one called “the Studio”. My 1958 GE is a Liberator. When I called to inquire about one I found for sale, the owner said it was a Stratoliner (someone else told him that). The 40″ Stratoliner has only one oven so I was disappointed but happy to find out he had the wrong ID as it has two ovens and is actually a Liberator. That is the difference between the two. I think they may have just used one brochure for many of the models. Depending on the year, there were other models named after airliners, such as the Constellation and the Mainliner. So there’s your GE trivia for the day.
Amarissa Parker says
A gorgeous, amazing dream come true! And that beautiful GE range… Oh my!
Ann Braun says
Brought back great memories of my childhood. My folks had these cabinets in our house which was connected to the hardware store they owned. I still remember many of the features.