By the History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff
The 1950s were a boom era for the United States. Growth in personal income created the largest middle class that America has ever seen. Thanks to the GI Bill that provided financial support to returning vets, union wages, affordable housing stock, and savings from five years of war rationing, Americans had money -- and they were ready to spend. The demand for housing was massive, and rapid construction created new neighborhoods across most of suburban Chicago.
Growth in the northern suburbs was rapid and extensive. Every suburb circling Lake Forest doubled in size between 1950 and 1960. Lake Forest, however, only grew by 30 percent. The community was resistant to becoming a predominantly middle-class suburb, and there was particular resistance to the modern housing style. While more than two dozen midcentury or modern homes were built in Lake Forest during this window, many did not last more than 30 years—they were demolished and replaced with a more traditional home style. The rejection of modern architecture in Lake Forest was not, however, a rejection of modernism or the modern lifestyle that was implicit in the new home design inside the house.
With six children and two maids, the Willard Morrison household needed a practical solution to reduce the number of trips to the grocer, so Morrison developed a home freezer in his own basement and started the company Deepfreeze.
On the interior, with the new midcentury design came a space in which the family could gather at leisure. The family room quickly became a permanent part of the Lake Forest home, either by converting a room within the home or, as was common in the 1950s, adding a room to the home. These additions or conversions were usually in the back of the house, with direct access to the backyard. Less formal than the living room, the family room was allowed to be less formally decorated and was certainly more loaded with stuff. While it could also be used for entertaining guests, the family room provided homework stations, game tables, craft activities like sewing, and space for new media devices like the television.
By the mid-1950s, televisions were a common item in Lake Forest homes. Since the first television sets were expensive, most homes initially only had one TV. The newly popular media console provided a single solution for radio, television, and turntables and became a central item for evening entertainment of the family and for parties.
With the average home watching TV for five hours, the TV tray arrived -- designed for the new experience of eating in front of the television. Frozen dinners, stored in the newly affordable refrigerator-freezer combination appliances, became a staple in the American home as they were quick and inexpensive meal solutions.
The home deep freezer was a contribution of local inventor Williard Morrison. With six children and two maids, the Morrison household needed a practical solution to reduce the number of trips to the grocer, so Morrison developed a home freezer in his own basement. Soon, friends were asking him to make a freezer for them. He convinced the Detroit Motor Products Corporation to invest in this product, and the Deepfreeze home freezer was born. Over 400,000 were produced in the 1930s and 1940s at the Deepfreeze plant on Davis Street in North Chicago.
Modernist style popularized warm, neutral hues within households, giving a sophisticated look in older homes. The interior architecture also changed. Local architects were increasingly called upon for home remodels as residents began to adapt open floor spaces, eliminating the separation of rooms. L-shaped living-dining room combinations became the norm to create an airy appearance. Larger windows, which used the new aluminum framing, provided much more light into home interiors than the older wooden framed ones did.
While it’s true that Nordic design was all the rage in the 1950s, most of the furniture was still manufactured in the United States. Scandinavian-produced furniture accounted for less than .01 percent of the U.S. furniture sales during the decade. Italian imports outranked Scandinavian imports tenfold and were quite popular locally. Yet the era was shaped by the simple lines coming from Danish designers, like Arne Jacobsen, Alvar Aalto, and Hans J. Wegner, who in turn had borrowed freely from Japan. These designers’ materials or styles populated Lake Forest homes through the 1970s.
To find out more about our community in the 1950s, come check out the Modern in the Midcentury exhibit at the History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff. The exhibit runs until Nov. 1. The museum is open 10-4 Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and 1-4 on Saturdays.