1948 Youngstown steel cabinetry to go on display

By GUY D’ASTOLFO

dastolfo@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

A unique piece of the Mahoning Valley’s past has resurfaced and will go on display at the Tyler Mahoning Valley Historical Center.

A never-used 1948 Youngstown Kitchens steel cabinet and countertop set, manufactured by Mullins Manufacturing Co. of Warren, has been donated to the Mahoning Valley Historical Society. It will go on display Jan. 30 in the museum’s main room and run until May.

The set arrived in Youngstown in December in pristine condition, still in its original boxes. The MVHS began unpacking the cabinets Tuesday at the Tyler, which it owns and operates, in preparation for the exhibition.

The Youngstown Kitchens line was very popular nationwide in the post World War II years. The cabinetry was made of stamped steel, and then completed with a baked porcelain finish.

Not only did the product bear the city’s name, which was synonymous with steelmaking, but it ushered in the era of the pre-fabricated modern kitchen – a symbol of post-war prosperity and domestic bliss in the growing suburbs of U.S. cities.

A 2012 exhibition at the Butler Instit ute of American Art used a Youngstown Kitchens cabinet as a pop-art installation that took a sly poke at the era.

The set that will be on display at the Tyler was ordered in 1948 for a kitchen installation that was never completed, and sat, still in shipping boxes, in a home in Galt, Calif. The owner, Ben Casado, posted the availability on retrorenovation.com, a mid-century design website, last year. He received many offers, but was pleased when the historical society showed an interest, said William Lawson, executive director of the MVHS.

Getting the set to Youngstown was a team effort.

Michael and Jeanette Garvey of Canfield, owners of M-7 Technologies of Youngstown, heard about the set and decided to purchase it for the MVHS.

Michael Garvey grew up in Warren, where his family’s next-door neighbors were the George Whitlock family. The late Mr. Whitlock was the president of Mullins Manufacturing. Garvey donated the set to the MVHS in his memory.

“Mr. Whitlock was an extremely wonderful man,” said Garvey, who spoke of his generosity in community affairs. “I had so much admiration for Mr. Whitlock and when these became available we decided to buy them in his honor.

“Also, the Youngstown Kitchens’ name was iconic,” said Garvey. “It was the world’s largest steel kitchen manufacturer, and it was a big deal in the Valley back then.”

Casado, the owner of the kitchen set in California, built custom-made crates for the transport.

The shipping was handled by the B.J. Alan Co. of Youngstown through Scott Zoldan, who is an MVHS board member and the cousin of Bruce Zoldan, owner of the company. B.J. Alan Co. has a warehouse in Sacramento, Calif., which is not far from Galt, and shipped the set to Warren by rail. It arrived in late December.

“We’re fortunate to have it,” said Lawson.

The Youngstown Kitchen line fell out of favor when wooden cabinetry and formica countertops came into fashion, said Lawson.

“They sold like hotcakes in the 1940s, ’50s and early ’60s,” he said.

Mullins Manufacturing had its offices in Warren, and plants in Warren and Salem. The company was eventually bought out by American Standard, which still operates part of its Salem plant.