A Nameplate in the Woods

We’ve only lived in our new home for 2 months, but I’ve enjoyed a few exploratory walks with the dog in the surrounding woods.  From the beginning I’ve been aware of some old discarded objects that appeared to have been sitting half-buried for decades.  Easily identifiable were an old hot water heater and car rear axle, both completely covered in heavy brown rust.  Adjacent to the water heater were an old wheelbarrow and rectangular, cabinet-like box.  They too were heavily corroded and nearly completely buried in dirt and not as easy to identify. 

The old metal objects were ragged and sharp, posing a hazard to people and wildlife alike, not to mention being an eyesore.  On Thursday, October 18, 2018, I decided to load the pickup truck with the first of what will certainly be several loads to haul to a recycling center.  The water heater and car axle were too heavy to move by myself, so I loaded the truck with the wheelbarrow pieces and the boxy cabinet thing, which fell apart as I carried the disintegrating pieces to the truck.

As I loaded the last of the rusty metal hunks into the truck bed, a metal nameplate fell off the boxy cabinet thing.  It was a nice enamel logo, half covered in the rusted skin of its former host.  I could read the word “Youngstown”, but not much else.  The next day I cleaned the rusted crud from the nameplate.  Youngstown Kitchens by Mullins, read the archer-adorned nameplate.  Now intrigued, I had to investigate.

The rusted carnage was hauled to American Waste, a recycling center near Kalkaska, MI.  With the truck emptied, I returned home to learn more about the nameplate and the product it was associated with.  I soon confirmed that the boxy cabinet thing was a steel kitchen cabinet made by the Mullins Manufacturing Corporation of Ohio.  Mullins turned out products from its plants in Salem, Warren and Youngstown, Ohio.  The Youngstown Kitchens brand was a line of steel kitchen cabinets sold from the early 1940s through the mid 1950s.

Mullins made a large array of kitchen cabinets, offered in several colors.  The advertisements from the period are interesting, and I learned that the archer featured on the nameplate was the Roman Goddess Diana.

I think I’ll keep the little nameplate from the woods, maybe to mount on a tool chest or workbench in the garage.  It’s a survivor and a link back to the days when kitchen cabinets were available in in aqua colored steel.