Free Standing Kitchen Cabinets

Free Standing Kitchen Cabinets

Northern Indiana was an appropriate place to send the free standing kitchen cabinets because odds are it was made in the state. It probably came from New Castle, where the Hoosier Co. perfected the technique of building kitchen furniture that could be shipped nationwide by rail. Maple was a favored wood because it retained its strength when cut into thin sheets. Earlier free standing kitchen cabinets were heavy pieces, usually the work of local cabinetmakers, and unsuited to mass production or distribution. The Hoosier was made in a factory, and some smaller models retailed low.

There were cabinets of various sizes and functions, as well as work tables with several banks of drawers to hold food and kitchen implements. We had a kitchen table with a big drawer that provided a home for measuring spoons, soup ladles, and the like. The free standing kitchen cabinets was special, the center of most cooking projects. It did not hold flatware or china. They were kept in a more elegant cabinet in the dining room.

One of the original advantages of the free standing kitchens cabinets was that it provided storage for canned and packaged foods, which were new, as well as the bulk items, sugar and flour, which every kitchen required. There might even be specialized drawers, often zinc-lined, for spices, dried fruits, coffee and tea. Usually there were several shelves, sometimes behind glass doors, in which packaged foods could be kept. On the left side was a huge flour bin that probably would hold a 50-pound sack of bread flour. It could be used by opening a door and turning a crank that sifted the flour directly from the bin into a measuring cup. There also was a bread box and a cutting board. As a small boy I was fascinated by the big work board that pulled out from under the top of our cabinet; it was a large flat space on which one could knead bread and roll out pastry.

Free standing kitchen cabinets claimed that it “enables you to save from one to two hours a day of the daily work of the kitchen” and that the time could be given to “helping Uncle Sam.” With the war over, emphasis shifted to the responsibilities of a parent. “Why let household tasks steal from your children the priceless treasure of your companionship?” one advertiser asked.

The free standing kitchens cabinets was intended for a household in which baking was almost an everyday activity, and its chief function was to assemble everything needed for bread, cakes, pies and the like in one compact work area. Nothing killed the cabinet faster than the general use of store-bought bread. As a time saver today, it could hardly compete with a dishwasher.

Collectors are interested in free standing kitchen cabinets as examples of authentic Americana. I suspect they are rare items. But contemporary free standing bar cabinet far excels these old pieces. For example, butcher block provides a much stronger, more practical work surface than the sheets of oak or maple (sometimes covered with soft metals like zinc- aluminum alloy) used in these old designs. The modern kitchen is (ideally, anyway) planned as a work space for the kind of jobs modern cooks do. But in the development of the kitchen from the medieval cellar to the mechanized marvel, the free standing kitchen cabinets had its place as the grandparent of modern designs. I’m glad it’s not completely forgotten.

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