A Study of Kitchens From a Popular 1950s Television Show

I've long had an interest in cultural domestic history, in particular the history of traditionally women's spaces. When I watch a period movie, I'm often distracted from the dialog as I study the set. Kitchens and sculleries from pervious generations are especially interesting to me.

You can imagine how my interest might be piqued as I watch reruns of old television series. This winter, I've been watching old episodes of Leave It to Beaver on Tubi. The series begins in 1957. June and Ward are living with their two young boys in an older home, with a kitchen that is reminiscent of the late 1930s to the mid-1940s. Later in the series, the Cleavers move to a newly built house (near the end of 1959, just before 1960). There's a stark contrast between the kitchen in the older home (likely c. 1940) and the modern, newly built (near-1960) home. Women became the beneficiaries of mass-produced modern conveniences and streamlined interior design. Here are some of my observations.

Some of the dating features of a 1940s kitchen include a free standing range and freestanding refrigerator with no countertops and cabinets adjacent to either appliance. These two appliances stand alone on the one wall. Imagine working at a stove with no flat surface adjacent as a landing place for foods coming out of the oven. No counter next to the stove to line up a bunch of plates for serving up the family's meals. 

And no counter next to the fridge to set your bag of perishable groceries so you can unpack and tuck them into the fridge or freezer with ease.

The cabinets and countertops are limited in this earlier kitchen. There's not a lot of space for countertop appliances, nor much space for storage. In the Cleaver's first home, the only counter is an ell-shaped one, behind Ward and June in this photo.

In the following photo, the space to the right of the sink, where June is working, is about 30 to 36 inches wide. She has a longer work space on the other side of the sink, running perpendicular to the sink wall. My guesstimate is the other work space is about 48 inches long, plus the 24 inches that occupies the corner of the cabinets/countertop. It's not a lot of work surface for a kitchen that serves a family's needs.

In a couple of episodes, June uses the pull-out bread/cutting board as a work surface. I imagine this is in part done for camera angles. But also, I would imagine if my kitchen was very small, I'd use every available space possible.

Another design element that dates this first kitchen to the late 1930s or early 1940s is the tile countertop and back splash. Tile was the surface of choice for counters in both kitchens and bathrooms until just after WWII.

The Cleaver's newly-built home, 1959

As I said above, the Cleaver family moved into a newly-built home at the end of 1959. A new home in the late 1950s boasted many innovations in tools and appliances, surfaces, and design. The Cleaver's new kitchen had a peninsula. While this likely provided camera opportunities for the show, kitchen peninsulas did take off in the floor plans of the 1950s kitchens. Adding a peninsula to the kitchen's floor plan increased work surface and storage. Like the Cleaver kitchen, some peninsulas housed the family's built-in cooktop. Not shown in these photos, the Cleaver's kitchen had a wall oven, as well. A wall oven separate from the cooktop provides two major benefits over range ovens/stoves. One, escaping heat from a range oven can overheat the cook standing at the stove stirring a pot; with a separate cooktop, heat from the oven may be feet away from the cook. And two, no more bending over to put in or take out items from the oven, as with a range oven. 

In the following photo, you can see the refrigerator is housed in cabinetry (behind Wally and June). No more fridge free floating on the wall. Adjacent to the refrigerator is ample counter surface for loading and unloading the fridge or freezer.

I made mention of the tile counters and backsplashes in the older home's kitchen. In the Cleaver's 1959 kitchen, the counter surface follows the major trend in post WWII counters -- the use of laminate (Formica). Laminate came in an abundance of colors, was completely smooth (better for rolling out dough than tile), didn't crack as tiles might, and didn't have grout that stained easily, requiring regular cleaning and bleaching.

In addition to changes in these elements of function and design, kitchens grew in size in the 1950s, although I think the Cleaver's new kitchen is much larger than typical 1950s/1960s kitchens. The 1950s was the decade of the growing, suburban family. Homes built in the suburbs were often larger than city homes. As home sizes grew, so did their kitchens. 

A century ago, US residential kitchens were not much more than utilitarian spaces. The 20th century saw an increase in the kitchen becoming a focal point of family life. I remember my grandmother's kitchen in her 1937 home. It was a narrow, galley style kitchen with limited work surfaces and not enough floor space for children to be in the kitchen, too. My grandmother's house had a small room adjacent to the kitchen. This was the breakfast room for informal family meals. The first house of my parents that I can remember was built in 1960. It had a U-shaped kitchen with a slightly bigger footprint overall than my grandmother's. Just beyond the stove was a raised counter/bar eating area. I would sit on a bar stool and talk with my mother and do small tasks for her while she cooked. We moved into a house built in the mid-1960s when I entered elementary school. The kitchen in this new house was quite large compared the other kitchens I had known. There was room for a cook and a couple of young helpers to work and a table for family meals. As family sizes continue to shrink, I wonder if future kitchens will also become smaller?

How will appliances be modernized in the future? Will kitchen spaces be used in new ways? What new conveniences, that we can only imagine now, will future families enjoy? I've always had a good memory for spaces. I only hope I can hang onto my memory capabilities another 20 or so years so I can compare what is to come to what I once knew.

March 2023 Grocery Shopping

March 8. My daughters and my husband love, love, love fast food. (I've tried "reforming" them, to no avail.) We all needed a pick-me-up this week, so I swung by McDonalds to get them some burgers and fries. Spent $13.67

March 9. It's been almost 2 weeks since I grocery shopped last. Needing primarily milk, eggs and produce, I went to WinCo and Walmart. I had 2 other family members with me, getting their own snacks and special foods that they pay for. They also requested we stop at Grocery Outlet. So, I actually went into 3 stores, but only bought items in 2. At WinCo I bought 1 bottle ketchup, 1 gallon whole milk,1 corned beef, 1 bag turkey breakfast sausage, 1 pack turkey bacon, 4 avocados, 3 Roma tomatoes, 3.5 lb bag apples, 4 lbs tangerines, 2 bunches bananas, 1 large red pepper, 1 bundle celery, I lost my shopping list halfway through shopping. I backtracked but couldn't find it. I hope I bought everything I needed from the list. I spent $35.92

At Walmart, I only bought 1 60-ct case of eggs, $11.06.

Total spent today --$46.98

spent for the month, so far -- $60.65

March 13. I had 3 digital coupons at Fred Meyer I wanted to use before they expired. I also needed some gardening supplies (not items carried at WinCo, so I knew I'd be buying these at Fred Meyer). I bought 2 whole chickens on a buy 1/get 1 deal (averaged $1.10/lb), 5 half-gallons milk for 99cents each (the half-gallons of milk have been on sale for less per ounce than the gallons for the past year or so, so buying a couple of "halfs" in place of 1 gallon is a money saver), 3 16-ounce chubs of maple breakfast sausage at $2,49/each, and 1 free bag of frozen edamame. 

spent today -- $24.29

spent for the month, so far -- $98.61

March 16. Picking up a couple of foods for my daughters' birthday picnic at Dollar Tree. I bought 1 box faux GS Thin Mints and a loaf of sliced French bread. Spent $2.50.

March 17. On way to daughters' birthday fun we stopped by Grocery Outlet. I sent my daughters into the store to get 2 cake mixes (10 cents ea) and 8 boxes of cereal (4/98 cents). Spent $3.06. (One of my daughters had been to GO the day before and saw both the cereal and cake mixes. I told her we could stop by to get some of these deals.)

Spent so far this month -- $104.17

March 22. I needed a couple of gardening items from Fred Meyer, plus some decaf coffee for myself. I bought the decaf ($4.99), and also found corn flakes and rice crispy cereal on clearance for $1.07 ea, 48-oz carton rainbow sherbet (for birthday dinner) on sale for $1.99, and 4 gallons of 2% milk on clearance for 96 cents each. I spent $12.96

March 24. WinCo and Walmart with a daughter buying birthday dinner foods. I bought 8-oz shredded cheese ($1.98), 1 head lettuce (98 cents), 3 Roma tomatoes (98 cents/lb), bulk Jordan almonds for Easter ($3.98/lb), 6 packs hot dogs (68 cents each), bag of frozen turkey breakfast sausage ($5.90), turkey bacon ($2.78), and a frozen turkey for Easter dinner (88 cents/lb). I spent  $30.74 at WinCo. At Walmart I bought 1 bag of Fritos-type chips and 8-oz sour cream to use in birthday dinner. Spent $2.90 at Walmart. Total spent today -- $33.64.

Spent for the month so far -- $150.77

March 30. I decided on adding a ham to Easter dinner, so I went to Fred Meyer where there was a deal this week. I bought the ham (89 cents/lb), 2 jars of decaf coffee ($4.99 ea), 10 packs of turkey bacon on markdown ($1.24 ea, due to expire in 1 week, I froze it all once home), 5 bags of tortilla chips on markdown (60 cents ea, best-by date in June -- I'm all set for Cinco de Mayo, husband's bday, and Father's Day - hubby's favorite is Tex-Mex), and 4 boxes of pop-tarts on markdown (38 cents/box, best-by date in November 2023). I don't normally buy pop-tarts, but 3 of the 4 of us do enjoy them, and at 38 cents/box, they were a steal for junkie stuff. I needed to make a $25 purchase (before adding in ham) to buy the ham at 89 cents/lb. Including the ham I spent $34.55.

Total spent for the month -- $185.32

what I bought

4 avocados

6 Roma tomatoes

1 bundle celery

1 red pepper

3.5 lbs apples

4 lbs tangerines

2 bunches bananas

1 head lettuce

1 bag frozen shelled edamame

12 packages turkey bacon

2 large bags turkey sausage

1 corned beef

3 lbs breakfast sausage

2 whole chickens

6 packs hot dogs

frozen whole turkey

1 ham

7.5 gallons milk

5 dozen eggs

8-oz cheese

8-oz sour cream

48-oz sherbet

1 bottle ketchup

1 box cookies

1 loaf French bread

10 boxes cereal

2 boxes cake mix

3 jars decaf coffee

bag corn chips

5 bags tortilla chips

4 boxes pop-tarts

1 lb candy

1 fast food meal for 4

In addition to the above foods and meal, we also spent some money on pie in a bakery and a fast food meal on the drive home from the vintage district, both on my daughters' birthday. The expense for those foods came out of a birthday budget and not the grocery budget. 

I found several amazing deals this month: the frozen turkey, hot dogs, turkey bacon, cold cereal, tortilla chips, cake mixes, pop-tarts, frozen edamame, gallons of milk, and a ham. For the most part, the rest of what I bought was well-priced too, just not amazing. I spent more time in the stores than I have in 3 years, checking all of the spots where I know to find marked down items.

A good grocery month overall. We still have a lot of food in storage, as well as a garden beginning to produce for spring harvests. So I think April looks good, too. I hope you found lots of bargains too this past month!