OHC Magazine: Life Without a Sub-Zero: Restoring and Loving a Pre-War Kitchen

by Annika Phillips

"I can't wait to see what you do with the kitchen!" I heard from several well-intentioned neighbors and friends when we moved into our 1901 Colonial Revival. Stiff smiles and confusion were the response when I said, "We'll change nothing, really". Updating a kitchen is often considered an obvious first step by many old-house owners.

We were fortunate in that the original charms of our kitchen were well preserved, and we could see that it was a very workable room. An altered kitchen makes for a more difficult starting point. Storage space is the battle cry of most kitchen renovators followed by a desire for "new and clean". Fighting the urge to modernize a kitchen is easier when you understand that "old and clean" is an option and that the original inhabitants found a way to store their necessities.

Until we moved into this house I had never lived with a kitchen designed prior to the early '60s. I now enjoy an old kitchen with amenities I never had with a modern kitchen:

a maid's pantry that can be closed off when guests arrive to hide the preparation mess,
a second sink for rinsing glassware,
built in drip boards in both sinks,
glass-faced, ceiling-high cupboards,
a broom closet,
a swinging quartersawn oak door to the dining room,
a connected mud room for growing herbs needed in the kitchen,
a separate staircase leading from the kitchen to second floor bedrooms and the third floor maid's room,
a marble pastry counter,
an intercom (albeit century-old technology) to the second floor, and
an oak encased annunciator (signal board) to show which of three doorbells is being rung. The annunciator is mounted above the phone in the picture.

A kitchen in a large, turn-of-the-century home is utilitarian in design, built only for sanitation and practicality. This was a servants' area; no decoration or wasted space was deemed appropriate. Our kitchen is really three separate rooms; a 117 sq.ft butler's pantry that connects to the dining room, a 180 sq.ft main kitchen and a 60 sq.-ft maid's pantry. The walls are lined with white tile, the butler's cupboards are crafted from one-inch -thick southern yellow pine, and the floors are blonde maple.

When we moved in, we encountered three immediate problems: rotted floor boards, exposed lead paint in the maid's pantry, and the complete absence of electrical outlets in the main kitchen.

The rotted flooring was directly under the ice door between the maid's pantry and mud room. We believe the floor must have been damaged by a leaky ice box years ago. We painted the pantry's ceilings and walls and replaced the damaged floor boards. To avoid damage to the ceramic wall tile, we installed outlet boxes in the floor behind the sink skirt.

Finding where to draw the line between historical correctness and modern convenience was easier than I expected. A 1920's gas stove works much the same a modern gas stove. I use a butane grill starter in lieu of a working pilot light but otherwise my six- burner, two-oven 1926 Magic Chef is a work horse. A small ice box holds the snacks and juice boxes the kids help themselves to. This keeps them from rummaging though the pantry shelves (in theory).

I hide my modern sins, microwave, toaster oven and mixer, in the maid's pantry. I intended to shove the dishwasher in there as well, but couldn't vent the plumbing without disturbing the room above. Fitting the dishwasher into the main room was accomplished by buying a freestanding portable and connecting it to the plumbing under the sink. A sink skirt hides the hoses and an antique meat scale on the butcher block top draws attention away from the dishwasher. The only inconvenience I have suffered with a pre-war kitchen is that I will not be able to install a garbage disposal under my small-drain sink.

Before deciding on a modern kitchen, investigate how your kitchen originally appeared. Do ghosts on the walls or floors indicate cupboards now missing? Could a Hoosier cabinet or other free standing furniture be used? A modern kitchen never appears appropriate in an old house and will only appear modern for ten years or so.

We have tried to keep historic integrity in every room of our home and enjoy showing the house to others. Even those who would never want to live in an old house seem to find the authenticity interesting. The kitchen is no exception, and we have put equal effort into that room, especially since guests seem to have a way of migrating to the kitchen.

Old House Chronicle Magazine index