Such Small Kitchens!
 by area resident Joseph Ehrenberger

From: The April Edition of Old Baltimore Homes Blog Spot (http://oldbaltimore.blogspot.com/2007/ 04/such-small-kitchens.html)

Why do these old houses have such small kitchens? My wife would answer, "Because a man designed them." While it most likely was a man, I don't agree that it was all his fault. The following paragraphs were taken from the article "Elimination in the Kitchen" written by Mrs. L. S. Hulbert and published in the Roland Park Review, Vol. 1, No. 5, February 1909. In her own words: "There is certainly no room in the entire house where the elimination of every possible unnecessary article is so important... I am sure you will all agree with me that the first absolute necessity in our kitchen is a maid and a mistress...

The amount of floor space needed is only just enough to stand on while doing the work and for the convenient placing of two chairs and a "hay box". Do not let us have one inch more if we can help it. If the stove, sink, table and cupboard can be arranged so as to be reached without taking one step, so much the better...

Let us always keep in mind that our kitchens are to be occupied by one person only... If we can afford one hardwood floor in our entire house, let it be the kitchen, as floor covering of any kind is not desirable. For two or three dollars extra we can have a maple or oak floor put into the little kitchen, and the two or three coats of varnish a year will keep it in excellent condition and eliminate hours of work.
Two of the walls of our kitchen are to be used for large windows, which are to be entirely screened, so they can be opened top and bottom, thus eliminating flies and heat..."

Her last comment about the windows explains to me why in so many kitchens the windows are so large and set so low as to prevent a modern cabinet to fit underneath. I've seen a lot of attempts around that problem; like removing or cutting into the window casing to set the base cabinet below the window. Or, running the counter top in front of the lower sash, so you have to reach behind the back splash to open the window. Others have removed the old window, framed in the lower part so the cabinets fit, and installed a smaller window in what's left of the opening. This can work quite well, depending upon the outer facade's material and whether it can be matched.

Her ideas about an ideal kitchen reflected the view of it as a work room, not as the social center of the house into which it evolved. When did this view of the kitchen start to change? I remember post WWII homes I grew up in as having larger kitchens than she describes, but certainly they are small by today's standards.

The first challenge to renovating our old kitchens is finding space to expand. Do you bump out and change the footprint of the house or take in the back porch? Or do you "bump in" and take space from an adjoining room? In our case, the formed sandstone exterior made it prohibitively expensive to bump out. We took in an adjoining pantry by tearing out the wall; expanding our 7'x10' kitchen into 7'x14'.

Not at all ideal, but we wanted to keep a separate dining room, and that was the only other option. That was enough to move the refrigerator from the dining room into the kitchen. In that corner of the dining room there was a 1" hole in the floor where the gas line came from the basement to feed an early refrigerator.

Seven feet wide is not enough to put in standard 24" depth base cabinets along facing walls, and still have a decent isle to walk in. Our solution was to use standard bases on the back wall, then we used the fronts and sides of the same style to build 17" depth cabinets on the facing wall. With my father's help we built shallow drawers and the interior shelving. The counter tops were made by a contractor to our specifications and I installed the floor (I'll never wrestle with sheet linoleum again in my life, I swear it. That's a whole other story). If we're careful we can fit four cooks in there while preparing Thanksgiving dinner, but keep your elbows to yourself.

Now that it is 22 years old, the surfaces are worn and the appliances are tired, and it's time to do it again. I would keep the basic layout of the floor plan, and the butcher block counter by the stove. The new sink will not be stainless steel; much more trouble to keep than I had thought. The next floor will probably be ceramic, and the counter tops Corian or a similar molded material. The radiator needs a cover this time. I don't want to build cabinets again; the IKEA catalog looks promising. Has anyone reading this used IKEA?

Do you have a kitchen renovation story to share?
Comments may be directed to me at josephemd@msn.com

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 Woodlea Block party a Success!!!
 part of the Waltherson neighborhood


On April 14th, members of the Waltherson Neighborhood participated in a block project where the 3900 Block of Woodlea Ave. installed solar house numbers as a community project. They organized a block party for all their neighbors!

At the potluck, approximately 25 adults and 20 children came together to get to know each other and share a meal together. The street was blocked off and the kids played games, rode bikes and got their faces painted! It was a fun time for all involved!