National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Resource History and Description of Existing Conditions
shelf has two brass towel bars mounted underneath and nailing evidence for five small hooks
behind the bars. Divets in front of the hooks indicate heavy use. The right shelf has five similar
holes with indications of heavy use and nail holes for a single towel bar. This bar may have been
moved to the left shelf. Both shelves have nail holes indicating a tacked-on covering, probably
zinc as recommended by Charles Hooper, " . . . all counter shelves should be zinc covered,
particularly those adjacent to the sink." 873 The shelf brackets were originally black enamel and
are now painted white. Molly bolts indicate the location of a wire soap or sponge dish above the
sink faucet. A line of molly bolts running vertically above the sink wall sconce and two bolts
near the left shelf indicate the location of other fixtures. Clearly, most cooking pots and utensils
were hung on hooks or the pot rack rather than stored in the dresser or closets. To support this
point, the furniture in the room offered no storage space, only work surfaces. Alfred Martin
noted, "Copper pots and pans and cooking utensils were displayed on the walls." 874 A 1906
source on kitchen design and equipment refers to this method of equipment storage as
traditionally French or English, not surprising given the French firm supplying the Kitchen and
the family's preference for French chefs. 875
A built-in china dresser with six drawers and enclosed shelves is installed on the west
wall. The Kitchen contained two marble-top and one zinc-top kitchen table, a wall clock on the
pier between the closets, four chairs, a butcher's chopping block, and a mortar and pestle
erroneously labeled a mixing bowl with stand in the inventories. Doug Crapser noted a narrow
table covered in a red and white cloth under the clock. 876 Mary Allt, a former parlor maid, noted
that the small table by the sink had a metal top and that there was no dining table in the
Kitchen. 877 By 1940 one marble-top table and the chopping block were gone, and the zinc had
been removed from the kitchen table. 878 The crockery, Pyrex glassware, white enamel pots, and
thirty-eight copper pots and saucepans in the 1938 inventory were all removed by 1940. 879 Mr.
William L. Van Alen donated twenty-five copper pots from Wakehurst to the Preservation
Society of Newport County in 1993 for use in The Elms kitchen. These surplus pots may have
been part of the household material which Mrs. Van Alen removed from Hyde Park to
Wakehurst in Newport. 880 The current copper cookware was purchased after 1971. 881
At an unknown date, a small cupboard was set into the niche under the north window. It
was used by NPS staff to store personal items when the room was used as a staff lunch room. 882
A small oak wash stand from a service room has been added to the room as well as a small oak
dining table on the pier between the closets.
Nailing evidence for rods at the top and bottom of the hall door window indicate sheers
were hung here. Nailing evidence for an automatic door closer is also on the hall door. The two
east windows have two sets of nail patterns from previous window treatments as well as NPS
873
Charles Hooper, The Country House (New York: Doubleday, Page and Company, 1906), 175.
874
Martin, Letter, October 1, 1970.
875
Hooper, 173.
876
Doug Crapser, unnumbered typescript.
877
Partridge, unn.
878
Curry Inventory, 96; Hopkins, 41.
879
Curry Inventory, 96; Hopkins, 41.
880
Armin B. Allen to William L. Van Alen, December 6, 1993, Preservation Society of Newport County.
881
Partridge, unn.
882
Conversation with Harmon Simmons, January 21, 1999. Simmons began working for the NPS in 1962.
158