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:
Deanna says
Oh, what a treasure! Our previous house still had the original steel cabinets, vinyl countertops and huge sink with drainboards – all in nearly perfect condition. I absolutely adored it. Tragically, the people who bought the house from us ripped it all out and replaced it with stuff from Home Depot. I could have cried. We took the vintage stove with us and remodeled the kitchen in our current home. It’s beautiful and I love it, but I still pine for that old kitchen. Here is a link with some photos:
http://lifewithdee.com/blame-it-on-lucy/
Mary lou says
Oh Deanna! I almost cried when I read that and then looked at your photo! oh my how sad! That would be my DREAM kitchen! I know how you must have felt.
Cheryl says
OMG. That stove! Those cabinets. That counter top! Wow. It seems like a movie studio would want these for set props.
Just gorgeous.
Elle Smith Fagan says
Mother had these and updated in the 60s to pink and pushbutton range etc….fun! HOLLYWOOD came to mind immediately – to use for film set – they would need a whole kitchen of the period and could pay well. There are tons of film companies and set prop companies…..one or more of them might compete for it! 😀
do it.
thank you for sharing …..elle
Laura says
That was my first thought, too! And it’s a real possibility–we remodeled our 1969 kitchen back in January and we sold our harvest gold set of appliances on Craigslist. They were purchased by a company making the movie Mena with Tom Cruise. So now my double wall oven will get its moment of glory!
Jeneta says
Gorgeous! Gorgeous! Gorgeous! I think I’m gonna faint!!
Michele DeGroat says
yEP!!!!
Scott says
That stove. Good thing I’m sitting down or my knees would have given out.
Anchor Jane says
I am interested as a serious buyer.
pam kueber says
Anchor, see the instructions in the story
Dan Csmpbell says
How much do you want?
pam kueber says
Dan, see the instructions in the story
Sandy says
Oh yeah and the stove, nice!!!!!!
Sandy says
This is awesome. Love the sink, my Mom-maw had one of these in her kitchen for years. What a find!
Marygrace says
I just renovated my kitchen, planning the entire renovation around my porcelain double sink. My contractor wanted me to get a new farmhouse sink but why, I said when I have this beautiful sink from the 50’s. My sink now proudly sits on concrete countertops and custom Shaker-style cabinets. My Youngstown cabinet which was the base of the sink is now in my laundry room repurposed into an awesome folding table with lots of storage.
northvan says
How did you seal your concrete countertops? I have some too, but haven’t sealed them yet…