Martha Stewart's Laundry Room

[qualin]

To Sudsmaster

In that laundry room, I kept expecting to see some kind of large capacity Milnor, Huebsch, Wascomat or Unimac machine of around 50-75 lb capacity. Instead, all I see is a 1980's vintage Maytag top loader and a early/mid 2000's Neptune.

What a disappointment. She's got a bloody flatwork ironer there, that machine must have cost a pretty penny.

In saying that, I was kind of surprised to see a stand alone extractor. Maybe it was something which was original to the room and she never bothered getting rid of it.

Apparently, Staber still makes drying cabinets. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on a rotary iron either.. it would be like killing a fly with a rocket launcher in our house..

Maybe perhaps the washers there are meant for smaller finishing work, like specifically cleaning items which are very heavily stained which the larger machines couldn't get out?

 

[launderess]

Montex

Extractor like the drying cabinet are 1930's or so era laundry equipment so therefore likely original to the house.

Remember though there were washing machines for domestic use then, most all water was either wrung by hand or put through a mangle. It would take awhile longer before washing machines with automatic spin cycles came along.

OTHO commercial laundries long had extractors (this is why you still see the term washer/extractor referring to industrial washers that perform both functions).

Laundry was washed either by hand or machine then moved (sopping wet) over to extractors to be spun dry. Extractors could be had in large homes such as Skylands where there was not only electric power (something not every home had then), but could be bolted down as well.

Though one owns a wringer my extractors (separate spin dryer and the spin portion of the Hoover TT) are a treat after washing items by hand. Far easier than using a mangle and better results.

Oh about Ms. Stewart and "funds" it is very difficult to separate just what is hers versus the company's. In fact often they are the same. Am willing to bet that home and or the things in it are some how written off because Martha uses them for business purposes. I mean she does film many of her shows at her various houses, and her books and magazines are full of pictures of her doing things there.

 

[launderess]

Aside from the Maytag, and a few other bits

Most of the items in that laundry room are from the 1930's to about the 1950's or so. The drying cabinet, those heavy porcelain sinks, irons, ironing boards et al are all in a vintage commercial laundry manual in my collection that was printed in the 1930's. The ironers maybe a bit later as they run on electric power (many in the 1930's ran on gas or steam, but some for home use ran on electric).

Apparently the family who first purchased the home from the Ford family did extensive work on the interior and decorations including furnishings and the linens. So no doubt someone one was in there using all that equipment.

 

[launderess]

And Furthermore To That Those Flatwork Ironers

Are probably replacements for vintage units that used to occupy the same space.

Ironers today are vastly more safe to operate than those from the 1930's, especially those that used gas to provide heat.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

¡¡¡¡Viva La Stewart!!!!

Well, I didn't know whether to expect a vintage centuries-old wash house cavern, or Martha flaunting her wealth by sporting some molecular modern day futuristic laundry tavern!

-- Dave

 

[tomturbomatic]

The home probably had wringer washers for decades since they had "staff" to do the actual work and those deep, back-breaking sinks were used for rinsing although the slanted front was made for hand scrubbing with a washboard. College friends lived in the basement of an Inman Park mansion in Atlanta and their "kitchen" was the old laundry and there were two of those sinks. They had to put the dishpan up on a support to wash dishes because of the depth of the sinks.

 

[sudsmaster]

In my last year in college I rented a studio apartment (bedroom, bath, kitchen) in an older home that had been converted over to three units. The kitchen sink was a double affair with a deep laundry tub on the right, and a more shallow kitchen size sink on the left. The water heater was right next to it on the right. I hated that thing, because it looked funky and it seemed unsanitary to have a board on top of the deep sink for the dish drainer, and I never used the deep sink, but that was in 1974. I would rather have had a real sink setup with a cabinet under the sink and a set of drawers to the righ where the deep sink was. Today I'd probably have gotten an vintage washer to park in there and use the deep sink as a suds saver, lol. But there was a good laundromat around the corner ("Central Launderette") that today sports the original steel and neon sign over the front which has been very well restored to its former glory.[this post was last edited: 12/24/2011-16:25]

 

[launderess]

Miss. Stewart's Attitude

Apparently there is some truth to what a previous poster who lives in the area of Skylands stated. Ms. Stewart does appear to have some "issues". *LOL*

Whilst looking up information yesterday (see above posts) a few local bloggers posted tales of what happens to those even *thinking* of getting too close to Ms. Stewart's summer cottage.

The drive is paved with a pink coloured gravel which is taken up, cleaned and returned at least yearly. Persons blundering onto Skyland property either by accident or otherwise are quickly surrounded by *suits* emerging from dark large SUVs that will keep the clueless persons around long enough for Madame to tell off about "private property" before being sent on their way. Otherwise the suits simply do their job.

Mind you the place is located in the woods and it is easy to wander onto someone's yard.

Deep laundry sinks are a boon for washing but especially rinsing. There were mangles that could be fitted onto the divider between double sinks so wash could go from one side to the other wrung out.

If the laundry was boiled it was advised to have the laundry stove as close to the sinks as possible so hot wash could be transferred to the first rinising sink easily.

Of course when washing machines came along (semi-automatics, wringers, twin tubs etc) those deep sinks were great as one could send wash through the machine's wringer into the deep sink for rinsing. With twin tubs some housewives/laundresses prefered to to deep rinses in a tub or sink then transfer to the spinner to be spun dry.

 

[peterh770]

Pfffftt...

That is not a laundry room; it is a linen processing plant. And an iron museum.

We have much better laundry rooms around here.

Please, Martha.

Again I say, "Pffffftt."

 

[launderess]

Drying Cabinets

Are made by Asko and many others. They are very popular in parts of the UK and Europe where the damp climate means lots of boots, outerwear, golves etc, that require airing to dry after use.

http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/DC7171W.html

 

[tomturbomatic]

In the Greenbelt co-op where I used to live, the original sinks from the late 1930s were two bowl wall mounted affairs. The deep sink was meant for rinsing laundry when using a wringer or spinner washer and had a bit of a slanted front to it like a laundry sink has for a wash board, which I guess, since it was the depression, some housewives had to use for doing laundry by hand. There was a porcelain drainboard that was meant to sit on top of it for the dish drainer. Many who installed automatic washers hooked the drain hose over the edge of that sink. There was no cabinet under that sink, just the partial white cast iron apron. One neighbor put sort of a privacy curtain around the area and kept her cats' litter box under there. That was fine until one night we were eating in the dining room and one of her cats took the loudest, stinkiest dump I have ever witnessed. It was a real conversation stopper. It might have been a record setter for a domestic cat. The cat was not embarrassed, but she sure was. Martha brought this to mind.[this post was last edited: 12/25/2011-00:44]

 

[launderess]

Vintage Porcelain Over Cast Iron Sinks

For anyone so inclined but be forwared they cost dear!

http://www.thisoldtubandsink.com/vintage-kitchen-sinks.html

 

[wayupnorth]

You are right Laundress

There has been a few articles about Ms Stewart's "suits" detaining people in the local newspaper. That whole area of Mt. Desert Island turned into a haven for the rich and famous in the early 1900's when they would try to excape the extreme heat of the big cities and built these elaborite"cottages" overlooking the Atlantic ocean. They turned the Bar Harbor area into the mecca it is today. Local people from this area would never think to venture on the island in the summer as the traffic is horrendous with one way in and out over a narrow causeway. But some of the rich and famous donated many acres of land to the National Park Service which is now Acadia National Park with the stipulation that it was to be left unspoiled for all to enjoy. The Rockefellers, alone, spent a tremendous amount of their money developing the 30 plus miles of carrage roads throughout the park. But in the late 40's, a horrible forest fire just about wiped out the entire island and many of the summer cottages, including much of the town of Bar Harbor. But the island rebounded and many of the wealthy came back and rebuilt bigger and better. The majority of the wealthy pretty much stay to themselves and respect the locals living there year round, with a very few exceptions. But every so often I will read something where one of the wealthy does a great thing for somebody or something, so I can not fault their wealth when they do something nice. As far as the person this post is about, never read anything positive that has been done.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Hallmark Halts Stewart Talk Show, NYT 1/6/12 in Arts, Briefl

Beset by low ratings and high studio costs, the daytime talk show of Martha Stewart is coming to an end. The domestic style maven will host her last new episode in May, The New York Post reported; repeats will then run on the Hallmark Channel through the end of the summer. The talk show had been attracting an average of 225,000 viewers a day. The channel picked up the show in 2010 and handed over five hours of its daytime schedule to Ms. Stewart's company, Martha Stewart Omnimedia, which produced companion shows like "Emeril's Table" with Emeril (BAM!) Lagasse and "Mad Hungry" with Lucinda Scala Quinn.

 

[macboy91si]

Out of the Loop

This would be a great thread to participate in or have any earthly idea what's going on in. The originally mentioned link however no longer works. What are we talking about?