City - Chicago - Park Vista Kitchenettes 1941
by Mike Savad
Title
City - Chicago - Park Vista Kitchenettes 1941
Artist
Mike Savad
Medium
Photograph - Colorized Photo
Description
Colorized photo from 1941, April
Original title: Kitchenette apartments
Photographer: Russell Lee
Location: 5000 S King Dr Chicago, Illinois
Originally these apartments were located on 5000 South Parkway in Chicago. The road name changed in October 1968 to King Drive (After Martin Luther).
A Kitchenette unit is a small apartment that first started appearing around 1916. It often featured Pullman kitchens (they are long and narrow), and a Murphy Bed (a bed stored in the wall and pulled down when needed, often seen in old cartoons), these measures conserved space as they were very small apartments.
Back in the days of segregation there were two kinds of kitchenettes. Ones for white people, where each unit had a toilet and running water and were designed with many windows to allow natural light and air and privacy. Where as the ones designated for black people had few windows, one bathroom per floor, the kitchen would have a small gas stove and ice box converted from a clothes closet.
The kitchenette apartments provided 100 sq ft or less of living space to the residents, and in this space people were crammed in, their entire family and even extended families would live in a space that was meant really only for one single person. But they were rented to all races, there was just a level of quality involved.
From the outside it was really quite a nice looking apartment. Today this is an open field, the only thing left standing is that building on the left.
Uploaded
November 24th, 2021
Statistics
Viewed 3,954 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 04/25/2024 at 7:54 AM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet
Comments (3)
Don Columbus
Congratulations, your work is Featured in "Photographic Camera Art" I invite you to place it in the group's "2020-2021 Featured Image Archive" Discussion! L