What Is a Hoosier Cabinet?

History

• Cooking and baking in the early 20th century was labor-intensive. Supermarkets didn't exist yet and general stores rarely carried perishable products. Housewives had to make most meals from scratch and used a great deal of flour and leavening agents. The Hoosier cabinet was designed with these things in mind.

Features

• The Hoosier cabinet featured a pull-out porcelain counter, large flour bin/sifter, sugar bin, salt box, spice jars, tin bread drawer and coffee/tea canisters. Some had a metal rack for pots and pans. There were also drawers to store kitchen utensils. Racks on the insides of the top cabinet doors were used to display measurement charts or recipe cards.

Specifications

• Hoosier cabinets were made of oak and sat on casters. They consisted of a deep base part containing drawers and one large cabinet, and a more shallow top part containing shelves, bins and cabinets. These two parts were joined by metal channels, which held a sliding porcelain counter. Generally, Hoosier cabinets were 4 feet wide, 6 feet high and 2 feet deep.

The Hoosier Cabinet's Decline

• There were many other manufacturers of Hoosier-type cabinets, such as G.I. Sellers and Sons, McDougall and Boone. However, with the invention of wall cabinetry and counter tops around 1930, the Hoosier cabinet fell out of favor, and most of the manufacturers went out of business shortly thereafter.

Treasured Collectible

• Hoosier cabinets are highly collectible and are becoming increasingly hard to find. They are an important piece of Americana and are priced accordingly.