The Vintage Laundry Room: Part One

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Welcome to The Vintage Laundry Room thread! Here, we'll be posting vintage magazine articles on smart and step saving designs for the laundry room. Vintage articles of tips and techniques for obtaining those dazzling laundry results that will make you the envy of The Wednesday Afternoon  Fine Arts League.

 

Please, do not post any advertisements for laundry equipment or cleaning products. Laundry equipment advertisements can be accessed in the Vintage Appliance Advertisements thread series and for cleaning products please refer to the Modern Living thread series.  Thank you and enjoy!

 

Equipping the Labor-Saving Laundry 1932 Part 00

Equipping the Labor-Saving Laundry 1932

House Beautiful, January 1932 Enjoy!

www.automaticwasher.org

 

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Better Homes and Gardens October 1958

 

 

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Better Homes and Gardens March 1928

 

 

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Better Homes and Gardens February 1953

 

 

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House and Garden January, 1921

 

 

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Better Homes and Gardens September 1946

 

 

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[circlew]

My dad's cousin Mary's house had a built-in ironing board in the kitchen. It was original to the house, which was built in the early 1920's.

 

[ea56]

The house that David and I lived in when we we first married was a Craftsman Bungalow that was built in the early 1920’s and it had a built in ironing board in the kitchen. I never used it because I like to watch TV when I’m ironing and the only TV we had then was in the living room. But the built in ironing board was a nice feature. There was also an old fashioned “cooler” built into the kitchen cabinets too. It was great for keeping potatoes, onions and anything else you wanted to stay cool but that didn’t need refrigeration.

Eddie

 

[launderess]

Laundry chutes along with dumb waiters were deemed fire hazards (both can act like chimneys in event of fire). Some local fire codes forbid or have restrictions on one or both.

Other worry was for potential harm to small children who might be tempted.

https://www.bobvila.com/articles/laundry-chute/

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2004-12-03-0412040158-story.html

https://www.inspectionnews.net/home...spection/7474-fireblocking-laundry-chute.html

When one was involved with nursing nearly all those big old barns of hospitals had laundry chutes in utility room or somewhere on floors. They were a boon in dealing with large number of bags filled with laundry. Old hotels, dorms and other building had them as well. Again now most have gone by wayside. Bags are placed on carts and transported on elevators.

All this being said anyone considering buying an older home may very well find a laundry chute or dumb waiter is still there, just sealed over.

In basements just look up towards ceiling. Besides seeing remains of pulleys and other contraptions that controlled coal fueled boilers or furnaces you may see opening for laundry chute.

 

[askolover]

The part of Vanderbilt hospital i work in was built in the 70's and has a few laundry chutes. Some are still used.

 

[launderess]

Hospital laundries and linen supply have always fascinated me.

Can remember being deputized to be sent to accompany a supervisor (who held a huge set of keys) to unlock rooms were stored fresh linen from laundries were kept when floor or unit was assigned ran out. You'd think that RN was counting out heirloom pure Irish or French linens being so miserly.

Interesting read about laundry chutes:

The Hidden History of the Laundry Chute

Stains, smells, secrets, thieves, dead bodies, and even a radioactive towel have all found their way down one.

www.theatlantic.com

 

[DADoES]

 
Granny's house, 1950, had a built-in ironing board in the smaller bedroom.

Mom's house, 1970-72 has one also in one of the smaller bedrooms.

 

[circlew]

This house had a laundry chute that went from the hall linen closet to a closet in the basement. It was just a hinged plywood door about 14" square located between the floor joists. A string was tied around its handle for convenience. The floor of the basement section was raised about a foot so that items wouldn't lay on the damp concrete. When my sister and I were kids, we would sometimes climb down it. While having this was easier than carrying laundry down the stairs, the chute came out in the opposite end of the basement from the laundry room. The space is now occupied by the return air ductwork for the HVAC system.

I can see how a laundry chute would be a fire hazard if not constructed properly. If I were building a new one, I would do so with concrete block or structural tile for the walls, and fire rated doors. Automatic fire sprinklers would also be installed.

Eddie, did the vegetable cooler bin have special ventilation? I was in an older house one time that had a cabinet with a grille in the toe space, and another near the top, for air circulation. Instead of opening like a regular door, it was hinged at the bottom and tilted out.

 

[ea56]

Tom, the cooler in this bungalow had a regular door on it that matched the rest of the cabinets. The bottom and top of the cooler had wooden in slats so the cool air from underneath the house could circulate thru the cooler. The house that we lived in from 1954-58 which was built in 1927 also had a cooler like this, as well as a built in ironing board and yes, a laundry chute too!

The laundry chute was in a closet at the end of the hall that the upstairs bathroom and the 3 bedrooms were off of. The laundry went into a closed cabinet downstairs between the two downstairs bedrooms near the basement. This cabinet had doors on it that were similar to the kind on old fashioned wooden Ice Boxes and they were painted white.

I think that my Mom really liked the laundry chute. She had her hands full with 3 little kids under the age of 5. She was a tiny women only 4’9” tall. The Bendix Economat was in the basement, adjacent to the area where the laundry chute terminated. It made it much easier for her to haul the families dirty clothes into the basement to wash them. We didn’t have a dryer until after my sister was born in Aug ‘55. Before we got the dryer the laundry was hung on several clothes lines that were suspended from the basement ceiling. The first dryer we had was a ‘55 Norge Timeline. Shortly after we got the dryer the Bendix Economat was replaced with a Hamilton Automatic, also with the Timeline control on the back panel.

Eddie[this post was last edited: 3/30/2023-12:12]

 

[rpms]

The house across the street has a laundry chute which might be still used.
The house was built in the 50's.
The chute was located under the sink in the bathroom. Had a little door you opened.
I was at a friend's house, a big old Edwardian monster with three floors.
The chute was in the hall behind a little door.
Clothes dropped down into the laundry tub.
My friend said at Christmas when she was little and all the cousins were there it was great fun dropping the cat down the chute.

 

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Better Homes and Gardens August 1949

 

 



 

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Better Homes and Gardens September 1964

 

 

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[DADoES]

Reply #16:  Upper right photo = Norge.  Lower right photo = Westinghouse.

 

[circlew]

Eddie, that's interesting how it was vented to the area below the house. I would be afraid mice or other pests would come up from a crawlspace or basement. I wonder if there was a screen to keep them out. The one I mentioned didn't open to any other area, and I think there was a screen behind the metal grille.