Strange niche in pre war wall beneath window

If this is in the kitchen perhaps an old garbage storage or garbage chute. My dad grew up with this and referred to it as a potato cooler (I have also heard it was used to store onions).

Not sure I described it properly... It's just a niche. If it were high up, close to the ceiling, and in my Catholic grandmother's home, it would be recess in the wall built for a shrine. But I'll google "potato cooler" anyway! thanks!

In a kitchen, small metal "niches" beneath windows used to be for storing potatoes and the like during the winter if I recall what my grandparents told me once. They were from the 1910's-30s I think.

Kyle is 100% correct again.

If this is in the kitchen, it is indeed for food storage. My guess is that there may have been a small cubic metal box in there -- not sure how you're describing it if the box has been removed or if merely the front cover has.

Where this board is divided is on what food went in there. (There's another thread on this somewhere). I too have heard KW's "onions and potatoes" theory, but I have been told that such an icebox was for food more perishable than that -- i.e. the day's milk and butter -- because the thinness of the exterior wall at that point makes it the coldest place in the house.

In the summer, of course, ice would have to be purchased to effect that type of refrigeration, but this kind of storage at least allowed families to avoid the expense of paying the iceman in the winter.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

Yep, it's an old-fashioned fridge.

No way! That is so cool - no nerdy pun intended. Thanks all!

So it was probably metal? We're going to strip this whole apartment because the layers of paint are making the details look like globs on the walls. I was wondering if I needed to get a different kind of stripper if, indeed it was made of metal. But I heard 'RemoveAll' is good on all surfaces (and nontoxic) as is 'Silent Paint Remover' - and both are good for removing (likely) lead paint!

Lead paint removal is serious business--you want to be sure it is done with proper haz-mat protocols. Stripping a tiny area is one thing, but an entire apartment is quite another. Of course, sanding is especially dangerous. Good luck. Sounds like you have a cool old place.

Here's one previous discussion:
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/28767-recommendations-for-retrofitting-antique-cabinets

Hats off to NWT, who was correct in the linked thread: There appears to be a brass nameplate below the little door. I haven't stripped the paint off though. Maybe NWT will come over and do the honors.

Macau: You might look for remnants of a hinge on one side of the "niche". There was probably a door there, once upon a time, with a ventilated storage rack on the inside of the door. (Onions and potatoes tend to rot faster if air can't circulate around them.)

One senior resident of our building said the little space had been used to store fuel/coal, but I don't think that was the intended purpose.

Macau--

Are you stripping plaster moldings, wood detailing and the like? We recently did that and it is time-intensive and costly but well worth it. You will need a vendor who is EPA certified for lead paint removal. Your co-op or condo will now allow otherwise, and it would be very unwise for health reasons to attempt to do it yourself.

"In a kitchen, small metal "niches" beneath windows used to be for storing potatoes and the like during the winter if I recall what my grandparents told me once. They were from the 1910's-30s I think."

Kyle nailed it!

Yep, they were designed to complement the "icebox" back in the early part of the 20th Century, until around the '40s when electric refrigerators started becoming affordable.

Ice was expensive, and as a result, except in the most affluent households, the average icebox was big enough only to hold the really perishable items like dairy and meat products. Heartier foods that didn't need quite as much chilling were kept in these metal compartments -- usually under a window.

As I stated earlier- my dad grew up with one of these and referred to it as a potato cooler- but I have seen a few apartments in different buildings with the original door- with the original manufacturers nameplate. All had reference to Sanitary on the nameplate.

Ah, I see. I knew it would be a lot of work, but we were prepared to take the task on ourselves. Friends recently removed lead paint using the aforementioned RemoveAll and Silent Paint Remover...they live in an old coop in D.C. At least, they called it a co-op. It might have been a pre-war condo and they were free to do renovations as they liked. I understand these two types of paint removers are "revolutionary" and unlike regular methods, are safe on the work environment. But if the co-op forbids it, then there goes that... darn, and we're on such a tight budget, too.

We do want to get as much paint off the walls and baseboards as possible. The baseboards are high and I think the detail will be nice to see.
@bramstar - would you recommend the people you used? Do they do plaster repair?

Also, sort of on the topic of 'niches'... would anybody know what a 'vent' built into the wall (sticking out the baseboards close to the floor) would be for? It sticks out an inch or so out of the wall, is round like a pipe and has cover that flips open. Behind the cover is just a hole into the wall, for no apparent reason. Other than, I suppose, to vent.
Sincere thanks for all this information!

Re: the little outlet with a cover, it might be an old central-vacuum outlet. A few pre-wars had them. Or it could be the outer part of a pre-1920's style electrical outlet, where the plug was screw-in like a lightbulb.

>>@bramstar - would you recommend the people you used? Do they do plaster repair? <<

Yes and yes! It is amazing what a difference there is in the plaster moldings with the decades of paint build-up removed. You can now actually see all the intricate detail! And stripping nine layers of paint off the original mahogany box beam ceiling and trim has absolutely transformed the look of the place.

Feel free to ontact me at bramstar @ gmail.com and I'd be happy to pass along whatever info you need and also answer any questions you have.

Seems like the stripping of lead paint is my bigger issue...

@NWT - I think you may be right. It was my first thought also...but only because I saw an Ad for a modern vac thingy one being sold online

@bramstar - I wrote you an email, hope you get it!

Semerun, you were right and I'm sorry to have sounded skeptical at first...no door unfortunately, but I'll see if there are hinges or some way to build one for it, then it shall live again as cooler. At least in the winter time.

@bramstar - I wrote you an email, hope you get it!

Got it--reply should be in your mailbox.