Historic photo - three appliances...

[bradross]

Thought some would enjoy seeing this photo I came across while doing Google searches on vintage appliances ... three appliances featured in the 1942 kitchen: Westinghouse mangle, unknown brand range, and unknown brand wringer washer.

 

[bradfordwhite]

We had that mangle. Inherited from a relative. I never saw it in action nor knew what it was. I collected junk in the basement.
Someone actually bought it at a rummage sale we had.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Before I tabbed the picture down, I thought that it looked like a Greenbelt kitchen. I had one of these homes, although there were many variations on the kitchens. Mine was built in 1936.   That would have been a Lectro Host (L&H) range with three surface units.  Because the town was built in the country, there was no natural gas so every house has an electric range.  The houses were heated with coal and oil-fired hydronic systems. The double sink had one deep bowl with a slanted scrub board for laundry.  A lot of film footage of Greenbelt can be seen in the movie The City that was shown in the General Motors Pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair.  The planned town is still beautiful and there is one house that the town purchased that is furnished as a museum of the way it was when the town opened.  Eleanor Roosevelt dedicated the town when it opened. It was one of three planned towns, the other two being Green Hills and Green Dale. More were planned but WWII came along and put an end to the town building.  The buildings were built using as few power tools as possible to provide jobs for as many as possible.  The features were quite nice for "government housing:" A lot of the homes were brick with slate roofs and copper gutters.  The water supply pipes were threaded brass and the waste lines were copper.  The threaded brass pipes put an end to the lush aquarium plants I used to raise.  The floors on the first level were poured concrete over a foot thick at the beams. The exterior walls were insulated with rock wool, and the windows were very large.

the city 1939 film - Search Videos

www.bing.com

 

[bradross]

Hey Tom (Tomturbomatic)...

I'm glad that I posted this pic since someone with knowledge of the place responded!

Interesting that the stove was only equipped with 3 burners. I wonder if anybody will identify the wringer washer with a "full skirt"; rather unusual for 1942 when most had high legs, at least until the late '40s or '50s.

 

[petek]

That was an interesting story about Greenbelt, enjoyed it.

 

[launderess]

Before even reading caption or excellent commentary knew this had to be some sort of public housing seen in image. That exposed plumbing was dead giveaway for moi.

All public housing have seen in our area that weres built just before WWII or in post war years all have that exposed plumbing. Cannot understand why, I mean it wasn't as if these were retrofitting older places that initially lacked indoor plumbing. Some buildings even have exposed piping in common hallway areas.

Entire series of Greenbelt public housing pictures can be seen here:
https://www.loc.gov/search/?fa=partof:lot+102&sp=1

History of the place: https://www.greenbeltmuseum.org/greenbelt-history[this post was last edited: 3/21/2021-16:24]

 

[scoots]

Mme. Launderess:

The same exposed plumbing was brought up on Shorpy. The answer was given there that the building was concrete construction and that there was no "between floors" void to hide the mechanicals.

 

[bradfordwhite]

Heaven forbid the neighbors toilet should leak and your standing/sitting under the pipe below.
At least with a drywall or drop ceiling there is something to intercept a foul that's gone afoul.

For all the "cool" urbanites that yearn for an exposed ceiling and can't be bothered with the falsities of a drop ceiling..... I hope you have an umbrella.

 

[launderess]

@scoots

Thanks all to pieces for your response.