The living space at the Greenbelt Museum that most sparked my interest was the kitchen. As I looked around at the appliances and gadgets, I recognized several items. When my grandmother died my mother kept some of her kitchenware. Items such as the potato ricer, nut crackers and the electric hand mixer in the museum looked a lot like the things my grandmother owned. The other thing that stands out is the handmade, leather bound cookbook our tour guide pointed out. My grandmother also had hand bound cookbooks, which now belong to my mother. As I stood in the Greenbelt kitchen, I started to think about how different the kitchen is at my own home. Later, as I started to write, I realized how similar the two kitchens were considering the time the homes were built. Below is a comparative analysis of the Greenbelt Museum kitchen with the kitchen located at my house in Arnold, Maryland. Our house in Arnold was built in 1985, compared with the Greenbelt home that was built in the late 30's and 1940's.

Basic Structure of the Kitchen

The kitchen in the Greenbelt museum is located on the side of the house. I made a note while on the tour, I noticed that there were marks where door hinge had been. This leads me to believe that the kitchen was closed off from the rest of the first floor. This is quite different from in my house. Our kitchen is located in the back half of the first floor. It is almost centered in the back of the house. It is opened on all sides and has a large open feel to it. In the Greenbelt kitchen there is a single light fixture compared with our kitchen that has a drop ceiling with six large florescent light fixture panels. When taking the overall size of the house into consideration, the kitchens take up the same amount of space. Our house is about three times the size of the Greenbelt house and comparing the size of the kitchens, ours is almost three times the size of the Greenbelt kitchen.

The kitchens are similar in that we have the same basic appliances with the exception of our dishwasher. These appliances include the stove, refrigerator, stand mixer, coffee pot, cabinets, and double sink. Our appliances may be newer or more modern but they are basically the same.

While I contend that our modern appliances are functionally the same, Ryan Westervelt discusses how aesthetics and the design of the kitchen and its appliances have changed from the 1930's to present day.

Location of the Kitchen

One of the most important reasons my parents bought our house was because of the kitchen.Liptak Both of my parents enjoy cooking, especially my mother. It was very important for them to have a large kitchen. Its central location in the house also reinforces the kitchen's importance. Our kitchen has a large counter top connected to it, and as a result, everything brought into the house seems to land on the kitchen counter top. In the Greenbelt museum, the kitchen is located off the side of the house, separated from the dining room and living rooms which take up most of the downstairs quarters.

What is common to both houses is the proximity of the upstairs plumbing. Just as the bathroom was located above the kitchen in Greenbelt, so is the plumbing in our house. The two upstairs bathrooms are located just above the kitchen in addition to our washer and dryer which are located near the kitchen.

Appliances

The appliances in the Greenbelt kitchen are smaller than ours, but they are appropriate for the size of the house. For example the refrigerator in our house is so big it would not fit through the front door of the Greenbelt Museum!

Refrigerator

The refrigerator in Greenbelt is made by Frigidaire. It is approximately 4 feet tall, 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep. The refrigerator is white which matches the color of the other appliances in the kitchen. It is made almost entirely of metal. There are wire shelves inside the refrigerator to hold food. Given the size of the space, this refrigerator is an ideal size. It was large enough to hold enough food for a small family. The freezer space inside the refrigerator is very small. It looked like it could hold two ice trays at most. Considering that frozen and micro-wavable foods were not around, the freezer space most likely accommodated their needs.
The refrigerator at our house is made by General Electric. It is approximately 6 feet tall, 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep. There is a light inside both the refrigerator and freezer compartments. It also has ice maker and water dispenser. It also has glass shelves, plastic drawers and storage compartments in the door. While our refrigerator is composed of more plastic, it performs the same function as the Greenbelt refrigerator. The only difference in these appliances is the use of our modern technology and materials. Otherwise, they perform the exact same function - to keep food cold.

Another reason to explain the difference in the size of the refrigerators is how women's roles have changed since the 1930's and 1940's. With two working parents, women or men do not have time to go to the grocery store almost daily. Having a larger refrigerator accommodates a modern family who goes to the store once a week.

Looking at the photographs of the kitchens in the Virtual Greenbelt site, only women where shown using the kitchens. The picture above is taken from the Virtual Greenbelt site and is typical of the kitchen photos.This would lead me to believe that the kitchen was run and kept up by the women of the house. Women and their changing role in the kitchen is the basis of Harmony Loube's project. Harmony's project describes how the kitchen was designed to be used by the housewife. This is one reason why the kitchen only needed to accommodate one person. The Greenbelt refrigerator also reflects the Greenbelt lifestyle where the food co-op was nearby and women could go as often as needed to buy groceries. Our refrigerator reflects a modern family where the children are still living at home into their twenties with two working parents. Our community has no town center so going to the grocery store is not a quick trip.
The Greenbelt refrigerator looks very plain, very basic as do most of the appliances in the kitchen. This generation was just coming out of the Great Depression so buying an expensive or extravagant appliance was not a part of the American culture at the time. Our refrigerator however is a reflection of a middle class family of the 1980's and 1990's. Having an ice maker and water dispenser are convenient items which don't affect the overall function of the refrigerator - to keep food cold. These two refrigerators show a transition from function and utility in the 30's and 40's to design and appearance in the 80's and 90's.

The Stove

The Greenbelt stove is an electric appliance located in the left hand corner of the kitchen. The stove is about 3 feet tall, 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep. There are three stove-top burner elements and a small oven. This stove was white in color like the refrigerator and also composed primarily of metal. Our stove at home has a double oven and four stove-top electric elements. It is a self cleaning oven and has glass in the oven door so you can watch your food as it cooks. Like the refrigerator, this electric stove is an ideal size for the Greenbelt kitchen. The oven itself is about half the size of our oven which would only cause a problem trying to cook the Thanksgiving turkey! The size of the oven would have been a benefit for the Greenbelt housewife since these ovens are not self-cleaning. A smaller oven means less area to clean. Despite these differences, both stoves perform the same function - to bake or heat food. Considering the same technology (electric) is being used in both homes, little has changed about the stove since the 30's and 40's. The stove in Greenbelt is much like the refrigerator; it is a plain basic appliance. Our stove has extra features such as a built in fan, timer, lights and the self-cleaning feature, but they are only modern conveniences and do not alter the overall function of stove.

The Stand Mixer

The Mix-Master Electric Mixer on the counter at the Greenbelt museum caught my attention because I noticed how much the appliance looked like the Kitchen Aid mixer we have at our home.
On our tour of the Greenbelt Museum, there was a ceramic bowl in the base of the mixer. It has a metal body and two wire beaters. The top of the mixer lifts up to remove the bowl easily.
Our Kitchen Aid mixer also as a metal body and lifts up to easily remove the mixing bowl. It has several attachments depending on its use for example, general mixing, kneading dough or making whipped cream. The bowls for our mixer are stainless steel and copper specially designed to fit into the base. The Mix Master mixer did not appear to have a special bowl designed for use.

Again, like the stove and refrigerator, the mixer performs the same function in both locations. These mixers are also very similar in that they are both electric and composed primarily of metal. These mixers today cost over 200 dollars which is very expensive for a mixer. A regular hand mixer (made of mostly of plastic) can be purchased for around 20 dollars. This demonstrates that the appliances of the 30's and 40's although not very fancy were made of metal that on today's market would be very, very expensive.

Conclusion

Functionally, these kitchen appliances have changed very little over the past 50 years. We have more choices in the marketplace and most families have more money to spend on these products, but overall they perform the same function as they did 50 years ago. As the kitchen has changed from a "women's" place to the family's place with children living at home longer, the kitchen and its appliances have also changed to meet their needs. After reading Nurun Nahar's project, I think the Greenbelt kitchen also would have been a social area if it was bigger. If your kitchen is so full of appliances that you can not move around easily, no one would hang out and socialize there. With a more modern look and design, the kitchen and its appliances still perform the same function as they did in the 1930's and 1940's Greenbelt community.