Dining Room of the Park Forest House Museum
 

Dining Room

Hammered aluminum was "in." We have several pieces loaned by different people. Notice the ice bucket, pitcher, and bun
warmer on top of the china cabinet, as well as serving trays in the cabinet, and the serving tray on the table.

Chrome and Formica dinette sets with vinyl seats were the "rage." They had come into use in the late 1930s, but really caught on in
the postwar era with all of  the new bright colors available in plastics. “By 1951, chrome dinette sets were being sold at a rate of
125,000 to 150,000 per month, and 85 percent of these dinettes were veneered and upholstered with plastics."
"Between 1947 and 1955, the Formica Company tripled its production."

Entertaining at home was very popular. Cocktail parties were very big. The cocktail mixing glass in the cabinet came from
Park Forest Liquors -- the first store to open in Park Forest Plaza. Cheese serving trays were common. Remember that our couple
was on a tight budget and party refreshments had to fit that budget. It was called "simple elegance entertaining."
Simple recipes such as in our little entertaining cookbooks abounded.

Every hostess had a glass dessert set to use for afternoon teas, card parties, and church meetings. The set on the
lower shelves of the china cabinet was offered as a premium at the gas station. The white china monogrammed dishes were
premiums at Jewel, a grocery store. Our pink and gray china dishes are Russell Wright produced from 1939-1956.
Russell Wright ventured into Melamite dinnerware and influenced the design of subsequent patterns such as the
Boontonware set we have on the table and/or in the kitchen cupboard. The serving pieces were premiums
from the second Jewel store which was built at Blackhawk Center, then known as Tower Center. In our china cabinet and
kitchen shelves we have a set of Fiesta Ware. These brightly colored dishes were common for everyday dishes. Cowboy
motifs were very popular, especially among children who watched TV shows with western themes and wore cowboy outfits to play in.

The standing lamp in this room is a "torchiere." They originally had a brushed aluminum finish and were hard-wired in to the
dining room. Apparently, it was an FHA requirement to provide one lamp. Although many residents came to hate their torchieres
because they could not move them around, several people insisted we must have one.

Venetian blinds were common in the 1950s, but were horizontal rather than vertical. Our housewife is
beginning to work on her draperies. She will sew them on her Singer "Featherlight" portable which was only made
from 1946 until the mid-1950s.

The guest chair is an Eames chair designed by Charles Eames in 1947. The design won several awards. Eames also
designed chairs of FRP-Fiberglass Reinforced Polyester which were known as the "shell" chair. They were stackable and
could be stored out of the way. Eames used industrial materials and wartime technology for his solution to the problem of an
affordable, well designed, modem chair.  -- Jane Nicoll