This is a 1947 kitchen????
Unbelievable.

That is a seriously nice kitchen. Love the glass cabinets.

This was partly a self-consciously "retro" kitchen with that turn of the century Sheffield fixture over the sink. What a contrast to the color, with brash red used in such a modern way.

Looking back at photos of a 1947 room with, say, 1910 elements, I often wonder whether the contemporary elements originally jumped out as bold and new, or if they simply blended in because they were current.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lots More 1940s Kitchens to Compare and Contrast

Wow.

Great photos! I did a double take because I thought one of them showed a big screen TV over the fireplace, but it must just be a huge picture!

Love it, but I'd update it by taking the cabinets to the ceiling. ;-)

Wow, the island in particular looks so 2010. Those are RH pulls!

If not for the fuse-box/electrical panel on the wall, I'd suspect an imposter!

If I may add one of my favorites from the 1920's, with many of the features popular today:

Love it!

Only the lighting gives it away.

Marcolo, thanks for that link to additional MCM kitchens. The photo of the 1948 pantry is particularly interesting. Note the vertical storage on the RH side, the bins (these days I suspect they would be more for recycling than staples) and the shallow shelves on top so that cans/bottles don't get lost?

Clearly kitchen cab mfgs didn't quite get those lessons down, LOL.

I think it's wonderful. I love the jello mold. Remember when people used to display jello molds on the wall?

I kind of like the way the sink is not centered under the window. Not almost-there-but-missed, but they didn't even try. Sort of adds to the idea that this is a working space, thank you, we'll put things where we need them. Since the finishes are all the same color in that area, it isn't even all that noticeable. I can't tell what's under the other window. Towels? We have a fuse box like that one. :) Or rather the cover is still on the wall behind the fridge. Our real fuse box is now elsewhere.

I love 1940s kitchens. They were work spaces, were straightforward and yet had not quite morphed into MCMs just yet. I like the modern elements such as the cabs, mixed with the old style lighting. I love how function drives the form on the older kitchens.
They look cheerful and unassuming to me. I hope we have recreated the look in our kitchen (when it is finally finished). I know our sink, faucet, hardware, lighting, floor & stove are all from the 40s (or are 40s designs), but I want to make sure we capture the flavor of those times and not just have a bunch of old materials. They had a vibe to them that has not been used in design since.

Are we sure that's a fuse box on the wall? Growing up, we had a milk box (?) that allowed the milk man to put the bottles in from the outside and us to bring them in from the inside. Ours wasn't located just there, it was down low on the wall, but you never know. Note: by the time I was paying attention in the mid-50s, our milk man brought the milk and stuff in the house. I suppose the milk box was used by previous owners in the 40s. We children just played with it.

Also, take a look at those veggies! They're probably just staged, but even so that's a huge pile of assorted fresh veggies. Even the proverbial hard working farm family would be challenged to consume that mountain!

It could also be a laundry shute to the basement. We had one in the kitchen of our 1930s house that looked just like that and was so handy!

One of the aspects of the 1947 kitchen is that it is a New post war kitchen in a pre-war and maybe pre-Depression era house. Look at the scale of the windows, the height of the ceiling.

This is not a post war house: that brought the 7'9" to 8' ceiling and a different type of window. They are hiding the "old fashioned" windows in this picture.

Part of what we are responding to is the "contemporaryness" of the kitchen in that it is a mix of modern and traditional at the scale of a pre-wars house with high ceilings, like a lot of people are building now.

One thing that does surprise me is that it appears a good deal of space(soffit?)above the cabinets is wasted w/nothing - you would think the cabinets would be run up to the ceiling?
I'm wondering if the open space under the counter (w/towels?)isn't for the radiator and a convenient place to dry towels ?

Here's the picture caption:

{{!gwi}}

As far as I know, ceiling height in excess of 8' were not outlawed after WWII, so let's not rule out entirely that it could be a contemporary house (to 1947) based on the ceiling height. Fine residences with cooks and housekeepers were not prone to being built with an eye toward skimping. This kitchen is clearly not in a cookie-cutter post war development.

I have a strong suspicion that the color photo was colorized for publication in whatever magazine. The things that are red may not have really been red. We could be witnessing the unseen hand of the magazine's art director.

Casey

sonbreuil - the pic is from the book House & Garden's Guide to Interior Decoration published in 1947.

In the caption, they do say red.

These were people of means just by the architects used - Treanor and Fatio and the ID team - Diane Tate & Marian Hall
Also, Anton Bruehl was the photographer.

The colors in the photo are very typical of color in magazine/book reproduction at that time. It's highly unlikely that a book like that would have had to use a b&w shot and add color. In those days they would have sent their own staff photographers to do all the photography; no need to colorize.

Re. the cabs not going to ceiling -- my guess would be that that was either because 1) they were metal, i.e. preformed; 2) they didn't figure they could reach that high anyway (this being, in my imagination, all about function); or 3) people didn't have as much stuff to store then. At least they built them in so there is no ledge to dust at the top. I think part of what makes this kitchen look so, well, normal to us is the simple straight lines and the lack of decoration or detail that differs from what we'd use today... I mean who can argue with a big pile of veggies and Gerbera daisies (or whatever they are) in pots in a window well. :)

Did you all notice the cake just casually sitting out? My grandmother used to do that.

Before I have a total attack of nostalgia, I will also point out that one of the island drawers isn't all the way shut. [brief moment to appreciate modern drawer slides]

they didn't figure they could reach that high anyway (this being, in my imagination, all about function);

Yeah, this was the era when motion study was all the rage. My guess would be that the idea was that things should be where you could easily reach them or they just shouldn't be.

What a great kitchen, I could be very happy working in that space. I'm still shocked that it is from 1947, it could so easily be a kitchen designed last year. Even the way the kitchen is staged for the picture - seems so contemporary. Are there any pictures of the hob/oven? Thanks for sharing chijim.

Sheesh, I just went back to the photo in Marcolo's link that I had cited above, read the fine print, and it IS a giant TV mounted over the fireplace--truly a 1940s futuristic incarnation of the flat screen TV! It is on one of the ads that talk about the "kitchen of the future" as you scroll through the photos.

Don't overlook the address detail in the caption: Oyster Bay Long Island (NY). That was a very upscale address in 1947. This may have been a kitchen intended to be used primarily by paid workers, not the owner's wife, hence the lack of concern over the view from the sink.

That's pretty expensive-looking cookware under the table. And Monel, a proprietary metal product made with nickel and copper, is definitely not your average post-war suburban Levittown choice for counters.

I'm not sayin it's not a real illustration of a real 1947 kitchen, just that it's an illustration of a very rarified style, not the typical prototype of a mid-century US kitchen. The owners appeared to have emerged fom the long economic stress of the Depression & WWII very well-fixed and immediately ready to remodel their kitchen.

Re the cornucopia of veg: I expect it's window dressing since that assemblage of asparagus, corn and eggplant is not a natural, normal season, occurance in LI. By the time you have eggplant and corn, your asparagus is all ferns and no spears. Of course this is not notable today since we have so much out of season produce available all the time. But in 1947 they hadn't started air-shipping asparagus in from the southern hemisphere.

It's a cool picture of a very attractive kitchen - thanks for posting it!
L

I find myself hoping that this kitchen still exists, and hasn't been ripped out to please a subsequent owner's need for more cabinet space. Of course, the drawers might be maddeningly sticky today, if they're still there.

The House & Garden book may have been published in 1947, but the kitchen is probably from several years earlier, because Mrs. George Backer was much better known to New Yorkers as Dorothy "Dolly" Schiff, aka "Mrs. Post", the long-time longstanding liberal owner of The New York Post before she sold it to Rupert Murdoch in 1976 (sigh), at age 73. Dorothy divorced George Backer, her second husband, in the early forties, so by 1947 she was Mrs. Ted Thackrey (he was The Post's editor).

Dorothy Schiff was from a wealthy banking family and a socialite and heiress before buying The Post with George B. I know that in the early thirties, the Backers built a beautiful mansion on a 100+ acre parcel of the Schiff family estate at Oyster Bay. But they didn't keep the house long, selling it in 1939 to Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan. I don't know where they lived after that, perhaps another house built on the property. If the kitchen is from the house they sold to Consuelo Vanderbilt, it became part of a country club and golf course in the fifties. More sighs...

I'd be willing to bet that Dolly didn't do much cooking at any of her houses, in part because she was a hands-on owner and publisher.

Becky, whose husband would be appalled if he realized the trivia knocking around upstairs