American Kitchens Musings:

[danemodsandy]

Now that I have that glorious copy of the 1953 American Kitchens New Kitchen Designs for Living brochure that I've already raved about, I am once again more than a little fascinated by the line, its purpose and its demise.

The thing I'm most struck by looking at the catalog pictures is - the incredible value the line represented to midcentury homeowners. What Raymond Loewy designed was not merely good-looking steel cabinetry - he designed a total DIY kitchen solution.

AK ads make it clear - this was a line that the homeowner could use for their own design, could self-install and could purchase over time, beginning with a basic sink unit and perhaps a few wall cabinets, and then add to the installation as finances permitted. Luxury was not only available - it was sold in a way that made it possible for a disciplined homeowner to have it paid for by the time it was all in place.

Loewy anticipated - and solved - one of the biggest problems DIY kitchen installers face: countertop installation. He made them available on a per-cabinet basis, with stock sizes to fit every base cabinet size made. If continuous countertops were preferred, those were available, too. Prefabricated corner sections made it impossible to goof up the trickiest part of counter installation too much. And if you liked, you could have a solid maple section somewhere in your design for cutting and chopping.

Cabinets were available to meet pretty much any need - bases, wall units, a pantry/utility unit, a serving cart, a breakfast bar, plant shelves and more and more and more.

What I find very interesting in all of this is - this was all so far ahead of its time, we still haven't caught up to it today. Oh, you can buy prefab cabinets anywhere. You can buy flat-pack stuff. Some of it's pretty darn nice. But you have to be fairly skilled to get a really professional-looking installation (particularly countertops), or you have to hire it done. With American Kitchens, the average homeowner capable of handling a bubble level, using a stud-finder, and wielding a screwdriver and an electric drill could install everything without recourse to pros, with the exceptions of plumbing the sink unit, disposer and dishwasher (today's more forgiving plumbing components hadn't been invented yet). And he could easily end up with a professional-looking kitchen, not the sorry "Well, I tried" look of today's klutzier DIY efforts.

I've long believed that in many ways, America was a wiser place at midcentury than it is today. Raymond Loewy's work for American Kitchens feels to me like one of those ways.

 

[norgeway]

You hit the nail on the head!

I know lots of people like todays world better, but for the most part the 50s were the high water mark of America, balanced budgets, peace, and great products, built to last, by Americans!I would go back anyday, now I know it was not the greatest time for gays, but, I would put up with being in the closet, to live in the 50s!

 

[danemodsandy]

Here's....

....A 1949 ad showing the "modular" countertops, as opposed to the continuous countertops shown in the ad above. Still look pretty slick, huh?

 

[danemodsandy]

And Here's....

....A 1948 ad showing the "building block" concept, where the homeowner could begin with the basics and add to them over time:

 

[norgeway]

BEAUTIFUL!

I would put these in my kitchen anyday!

 

[danemodsandy]

The Demise:

All good things come to an end, and American Kitchens was no exception. So far as some casual Googling can determine, the end came in '59 *, with some other upheavals at AVCO, AK's parent company. AVCO was not at all hurt by letting go of AK; their D & M division made dishwashers for - well, damn near everybody - for a long time to come, using the basic technology seen in American Kitchens dishwashers.

But what turned AK from a winner to an albatross? It appears to have been that old devil, Fashion. Consumer tastes were changing from midcentury sleek to something "homier," with many metal cabinet companies beginning to offer wood fronts.

This was a little more difficult for AK than it was for St. Charles, Youngstown and the other metal cabinet companies, because AK cabinets included a curved drawer front that did not lend itself to cladding in wood or veneer.

AK met this challenge by cladding the cabinet doors in wood, but leaving the drawer fronts metal, now in a brushed copper-plated finish. Sink tops were Coppertone instead of White. Base cabinet pulls were changed to a "period" ring pull in dark metal and countertops could be had in Ye Olde Fayke Woode Graine.

This effort appears to have been serious, not just a half-hearted "facelifting," because the photos in this post show a cooktop and oven specifically manufactured to coordinate in styling with the cabinets.

From what I've seen over the years on Craigslist, eBay, etc., these wood-fronted cabinets are pretty rare, which seems to be an indication that they were not strong sellers.

Whatever the sales figures, AVCO didn't feel AK was worth continuing - a sorry end to one of the best-designed kitchen systems ever.

* I will happily stand corrected if someone has proof of another date; these posts are musings, not a researched history of AK.

 

[mikael3]

There's one thing I don't like in AK cabinets, and it's the very, very narrow opening on the lower-level lazy Susan. It's tricky to use and impossible to clean. I don't know why they did that.

 

[danemodsandy]

John:

"There's one thing I don't like in AK cabinets, and it's the very, very narrow opening on the lower-level lazy Susan. It's tricky to use and impossible to clean."

That sounds like the voice of experience speaking - do you own an AK kitchen, or have you been around one at one time?

I can readily see what you're talking about in catalog pics I have, like the one below. I would assume that Loewy's rationale for doing that was to avoid creating a true corner unit that made a wide 45-degree angle in the corner. That would have necessitated a special corner countertop unit just for that purpose. The AK system was "modular," meaning that a fairly restricted number of basic stampings were combined in different ways to create variations on the basic wall and base cabinets.

The door of the corner Lazy Susan unit appears to have been something like four to six inches wide. As you note - not especially convenient!

 

[tomturbomatic]

I like those dark blue counters with the white cabinets. The first picture mentions "vinyl tops." Did AK have some special countertop material? I don't believe I have heard the word "vinyl" used in conjuction with countertop materials.

My parents bought a metal cabinet with a double bowl sink at Sears for the house in IL, but the two houses in GA had stick made kitchen cabinets. The ones in Decatur had the same grooving in the pine doors as the walls.

 

[danemodsandy]

Tom:

The countertop material was akin to vinyl flooring, bonded to a steel substrate. It gave the appearance - and most of the performance - of the latest "miracle" material, Formica, without the on-site fabrication requirements Formica had at that time; post-formed laminate countertops were still in the future in the late '40s and early '50s.

When I say "vinyl flooring," I do not mean today's relatively soft cusnioned no-wax vinyl; I mean vinyl closer to today's VCT - vinyl composition tiles.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I remember my mother specifying Formica for the counters. Other kitchens had linoleum countertops. Maybe these were similar. They certainly would be cushioned and far kinder to things than granite has shown itself to be in today's kitchens. We had linoloum on the kitchen floor.

 

[danemodsandy]

Tom:

Lino was rapidly passing out of favor at the time American Kitchens was a hot company. Its major drawback for countertops was a tendency to rot when exposed to repeated moisture, such as around sinks. It also stained very badly when exposed to grease.

I know a lot of people today think of Formica as totally passe and beneath their notice, but when it was introduced, it was an expensive luxury material, the best surface material you could buy.

I still think of it that way. It is a far more responsible use of resources than quarrying stone for an entire planet's worth of kitchens - that will be dumped the next time fashion changes. Which, trust me, it will.

Formica is not and never has been vinyl. It is paper bonded with melamine resin.[this post was last edited: 9/8/2014-13:09]

 

[tomturbomatic]

I know Formica is not vinyl, but from the way you were describing the counter tops of the AK cabinets, it sounded more like linoleum than Formica, Micarta or Textolite. Our Decatur home was built in 1955 as were most of our neighbors' and I remember mom saying that most got Lino counter tops because the houses were built for sale, not by owners and she said what you did about why the Lino counter tops were not as good as Formica. We were very careful with the Formica, never setting anything hot on it, never dragging anything across it and always using a cutting board.

 

[mikael3]

Sandy, I have been around AK cabinets a little, but I don't own any. I was struck by the corner cabinets the very first time I saw them, because I grew up around Youngstown cabinets, and those have very ample corner cabinets. The AK corners certainly look very stylish, and they have these odd little buttons you use to open them up--as I recall!! It's been a little while. But they are NARROW!!!

 

[magic_clean]

Sandy

thanks for bringing the American Kitchens documentation back from the past. Back in western NY state there are thousands of post WWII homes built with these cabinets as well as Youngstown. Some are still around. Zillow is a resource for unearthing this sort of thing.

By the time the 60' & 70's rolled around, many of these kitchens were being scrapped. In busy households porcelain sinks & drainboard tops were badly worn & chipped. The cabinet doors sagged, the drawers scraped along, the painted finish worn thin, rust & pit marks were common. The counter tops stained & scuffed and the chrome trims were crud cracks. Not pretty.

Interestingly, GE metal kitchens were popular too, in more upmarket homes and seemed to hold up better. They had laminate counter tops specifically made to fit the kitchen. Stainless steel sinks etc. In other words components that could be easily replaced without disturbing the cabinets.

Friends of my folks had a 1960 split level outfitted with a Turquoise GE kitchen with pink appliances. The only sign of wear; a faded spot on drawer front---- where oven cleaner dripped. The last time we were there 20 + years ago, it still looked good.

As you've mentioned, once the 60's came along, birch and other light wood tone cabinets put an end to the steel kitchen. SCHEIRICH kitchens were the thing to have.

 

[danemodsandy]

Leslie:

My sister had a modest AK installation in her first house, which was a 1920s bungalow that had been updated in the '50s.

As you note, the passage of time had not been kind to the cabinets. Her kitchen's cabinets were a "starter" package of a wide sink base and a few wall cabinets; if the former owner had intended a full AK kitchen, they never got around to finishing it.

The hardest thing on the AK units had been Comet cleanser; the porcelain of the sink was like a medium-grit sandpaper after years of the stuff. There was also a rust problem inside the sink base where it had been subjected to drips from the plumbing.

The worst was a dripping faucet no one could cure. This was pre-Internet, and today's ready availability of replacement AK sink faucets was nonexistent.

My sister put up with all the problems, because she didn't want to spend money on that house - she had her sights set on a vinyl-and-drywall McMansion in Fairburn, a goal she achieved.

Still, it would have been possible to restore the cabinets - the sink top could have been re-porcelainized (by which I do not mean "re-glazing" with epoxy paint - I mean re-coating with real porcelain), and the cabinets bead-blasted and re-sprayed.

I'd love to have the chance to do that some day.

 

[danemodsandy]

The Frigidaire Connection:

There was a connection between Frigidaire and AK - Raymond Loewy.

If you'll look at the photo of the RK-70 range (from 1948) below, you'll see that there were styling commonalities between Loewy's work for GM and his work for AK. The rounded leading edge of the cooktop is echoed in the rounded edges of AK wall cabinets; the base cabinet pulls look right at home with Loewy's Frigidaire knobs. Both the AK pulls and GM knobs have bright centers surrounded by flared plastic.

Interestingly, Frigidaire was very late to the dishwasher party - I think 1955 was their first year with a DW. Of course, AK was famous for its dishwasher, which I understand was one of the better impeller units. I don't think Loewy's relationship with AK had anything to do with GM's late DW intro, but it's interesting that the two Loewy lines interlocked the way they did - you could outfit an AK kitchen with Frigidaire appliances for an all-Loewy installation, without having to choose between GM and AK at any point in the process.

I guess the ultimate would have been an all-Loewy kitchen with a Loewy Studebaker coupe visible in the driveway through the kitchen window, LOL.[this post was last edited: 9/9/2014-06:22]

 

[norgeway]

Re Vinyl...

The vinyl used in the 50s on countertops, was not like Formica, but rather like linoleum...in that it was not a solid surface, it was sold on a roll, it was much more durable than linoleum, and I think might still be available in some areas, the beauty of it was it could be rolled up the wall behind the counter tops in one piece.

 

[firedome]

These AK units are very attractive...

but my bone to pick would be with all of the countertop seams as visible in the second illustration above... not the best for hygiene, one would think, with all those crevices to collect bacteria incubating stuff!