Home’s Historic Kitchen Features St. Charles Cabinets, Trendy in the 1940s
by Carol Rosen
Historic Wauwatosa, Issue 256, Summer 2021
There’s nothing like a good spring cleaning- even if it continues all year! While our doors were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wauwatosa Historical Society accomplished some necessary housekeeping. We refinished the floors, and the walls received a fresh coat of paint. The carpets were cleaned and rebound, and the wallpaper repaired where needed. Now that it is safe to open again, visitors will be able to enjoy the refreshed rooms and observe firsthand how the Kneelands and the Walkers made the large Queen Anne-style house their home.
When the Kneelands moved into their newly built Queen Anne-style home in 1890, the kitchen was representative of its time—a purely utilitarian workspace at the rear of the house. It would have held a large worktable, a few free-standing wooden cabinets, and a wall-mounted sink with open space below. Appliances may have included a gas stove and an icebox placed near the back door to accommodate the “iceman.” A butler’s pantry for storing silverware, dishes, and linens separated the kitchen from the dining room.
In 1917, the Walkers bought the house from the Kneelands. An inventor with a degree in mechanical engineering, Emery Walker maintained the home meticulously and modernized all the mechanical and electrical systems. By 1947, it was undoubtedly time for a kitchen remodel. The Walkers installed a thoroughly modern, state-of-the-art St. Charles kitchen—the very kitchen we see today. The enameled steel cabinets were a product of the St. Charles Manufacturing Company of St. Charles, Illinois. Established in 1935, the company operated a showroom in the Architecture & Design Building in New York City.
In 1947, a St. Charles kitchen was indeed a status symbol. Frank Sinatra’s home, built that same year in Palm Springs, featured St. Charles cabinets. As early as 1936, Frank Lloyd Wright included the cabinets in his masterwork, Fallingwater. Another notable architect, Mies van der Rohe, used St. Charles cabinets in his ultra-modern International-style Farnsworth House in 1949.
The “modern era” of kitchen design began during the economic boom that followed the end of World War II. The demand for home appliances skyrocketed, along with new ideas about what constituted an efficient and attractive kitchen. Custom cabinetry with countertops soon replaced the helter-skelter assembly of utility tables and free-standing cupboards. Disparate elements were unified into a clean, orderly workspace.
The Wauwatosa Historical Society bought the Kneeland Walker house from the estate of Mrs. Constance Walker in 1987. In I994-95, it installed a new Marmoleum floor that replicates the original, and the St. Charles cabinets received electrostatic repainting in keeping with the original color. A cheerful wallpaper border, complementing the red and yellow colors, was added. Additional decorative touches included canisters, window blinds, curtains, period kitchenware, a set of plaster fruit wall art, and a red-and-white enamel table with matching chairs.
In addition to the St. Charles cabinets, the Walkers’ new kitchen had all the modern conveniences, including a built-in dishwasher, garbage disposal, a push-button electric stove by Hotpoint, a kitchen island, and a refrigerator with lazy Susan shelving. The General Electric refrigerator was one of the first two-door models the company produced. The floor was of red Forbo Marmoleum, a very durable and relatively expensive form of linoleum. The red-and-yellow color scheme was trendy in the years following WWII.
The Wauwatosa Historical Society owns and operates the Kneeland Walker Museum and Preservation Center at 7406 Hillcrest Drive in Wauwatosa. The property is a designated landmark of Wauwatosa and Milwaukee County and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
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