Kitchen

Kitchen

The kitchen is large, well lit, with both electric and natural lighting, and well equipped.

This room is quite nice but it has almost none of the decorative elements found on the family side of the house. The servant areas of the house were designed for work and were never shown to guests.  For example, this room features plain woodwork, a simple pine floor, lower ceiling, and functional rather than decorative lighting fixtures.  (Instead of using Bergman fixtures, these are from the 1910 Sears and Roebuck catalogue.)

The cook was the most important position in the house as well-prepared meals were essential.  The cook’s day started at four in the morning with lighting the stove with wood from the wood box and did not end until late at night.  She worked 16 to 18 hours a day.  Because of her long hours, the cook slept upstairs in a small, simple bedroom.  Despite the long days, being a cook was a covetted job. 

Below the cook on the servants pecking order was the scullery maid who had the dirty jobs in the house including cleaning fowl and fish as well as butchering meat.  She would also wash the pots and pans.  The scullery maid and other servants - there likely were three to four servants working here in the 1880s - came in each day from their own homes to work and returned at night.  The day servants would clean, do laundry, and other necessary jobs.  Importantly, the strict social rules of the day meant that the servants would only use the kitchen door to enter and leave the house.