Some years ago when I was scouting around for a house to buy, I was ushered into the kitchen of one with a huge white cabinet that took up one full wall.
It was a built-in cabinet, not an add-on, and it seemed to have been erected when the house was built. Although it overshadowed everything else in the kitchen, it was gorgeous. It had all the shelves and drawers that I would ever want or need. I only wondered how I’d ever reach the top ones, though. With a ladder, perhaps?
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a Hoosier cabinet – those staples of the well-to-do kitchens from another time. Like the early decades of the 1900s. That would’ve been an enticement to buy that house.
Recently, though, I was delighted to see a real Hoosier – it had the metal ID tag – among the top-tier furniture at a Decorative Arts sale at one of my favorite auction houses. I don’t often find them, although I did pick up a pamphlet once with all kinds of early white enamel kitchen cabinetry, but I don’t recall if any were Hoosier.
The piece of furniture at the auction stood out among the rest of the other beautiful offerings. I’m not sure of the year – or how much it eventually was sold for – but it seemed to be made of oak with the standard three tiers: compartments at the top, a flat enamel countertop in the middle and compartments and drawers at the bottom.
Hoosier began making cabinets in 1898 (or 1903, there is some question as to when) in New Castle, IN, adapting them from the “baker’s cabinet.” The company made about four million from 1900 to 1940, according to one website, adding that most were built between 1915 and 1930.
They started out as oak cabinets, but by the 1920s, the company began lining them with white enamel, which was easier to clean. According to wikipedia, they became less popular after the 1920s when kitchens became equipped with built-in cabinets.
The cabinets included flour and sugar bins, bread drawers and racks for tins and spices, and more. Women could also buy products for them, including glass canisters, salt and pepper shakers, measuring cups, and cookie and cracker jars.
One site called the cabinets “the woman’s workbench.” They were considered one of the handiest pieces of furniture in the kitchen for storing flour, sugar, spices, bread and baked goods.
They were also considered an essential part of many women’s kitchens. One site said they could be found in one in 10 homes. I don’t think they were in my great-grandmother’s kitchen, though.
Hoosier was not the only one making these cabinets: More than 40 companies were producing 20 to 30 models a years (from photos, they all look very much alike). Another big name was Sellers, according to one web site, which noted that Sears and Montgomery Ward stamped their names on cabinets made by Sellers and Coppes Napanee (founded in 1876). Other makers included McDougall, Wilson and Kitchen Maid.
I came across one site that had ads from 1905 to 1930 for such cabinet-makers as Boone, Hoosier, Sellers, Kitchen Maid and others. Like Hoosier, companies identified themselves on their furniture by name, screwing a metal nameplate on the pieces.
At the auction, as I made my way to another room of lesser-priced furniture, I came upon another Hoosier-type cabinet. It was lovely, too, but a tad below the Hoosier. The windows on its doors appeared to be plastic stained glass, and the cabinet appeared to have been reworked. I could find no maker’s name on it. (It is pictured in the photo above.)
A few weeks ago, the auction house had another similar cabinet for sale. This one was white metal with a red strip around the counter, and what appeared to be Bakelite handles. It, too, would’ve looked lovely in the right spot in someone’s kitchen. Next to it was a low metal cabinet in snowy white.
I wasn’t around when either of the cabinets sold, but I found on the web that reproduction Hoosiers can run into the thousands of dollars. Or if you’re lucky, you may be able to pick one up for a couple hundred dollars and restore it yourself.
This writer found a Sellers cabinet for around $300 caked in crackled paint. He cleaned it up and here’s what the final product looked like. Those doors are remarkable. Here are more restored Hoosiers (click on the photos at the left).
Want to build one from scratch? There’s a book that’ll show you how to do it. Finally, here’s one blogger’s Hoosier cabinet.
If only I had a larger kitchen …
