Not all breakfast nooks of the past were created equal. Especially popular in the 1920’s, breakfast nooks retained their popularity in various forms for decades until finally devolving into the now-ubiquitous “breakfast bar” — a euphemism for an over-sized kitchen counter with some bar stools shoved under it.
Breakfast nooks as originally popularized consisted of a small square space enclosed on three sides, typically with a window on the wall opposite the open side. The open side was often cased with woodwork or given a shaped arch. Built-in benches flanked a built-in table. So practical, one can only mourn their omission from new construction. Though found in all kinds of twentieth century houses, breakfast nooks were more likely to appear in styled houses of the twenties and thirties.
One of the more charming versions of an already charming concept was that of the Breakfast Tower. I don’t think that the term is officially recognized as I just made it up to denote a rare but noteworthy quirk of residential design. An image search for the term yielded an assortment of culinary creations which are unfamiliar to my palate, yet none of the architectural images I was hoping for.
Breakfast Towers seem to be a product of the depression years as they are found most commonly in houses of that era. It must have been hard to stay depressed when eating in one of these magical spaces. Though rare, I was able to find a few vintage examples of this under-appreciated twist on a familiar concept. The following images are all from Zillow unless otherwise noted. Just putting this post together has made me hungry, so you might want to get a snack, or at least some coffee, for the tour:
For those whose budgets did not allow for a well-defined tower in which to dine, glorified bay windows could achieve the same kind of magic on the inside. This abbreviated form of a towered breakfast nook became more popular in the 1940’s but was also found before then:
In the 1950’s bay windows remained popular as a way to define a breakfast area or room and distinguish it from the rest of the kitchen.
These days few can afford to build new or buy an existing house. Fewer still can dedicate a room (or even a nook) to the art of breakfast in the manner once commonplace.
If it becomes too depressing to eat at home, you can always go out….
I’m glad to see that you’ve come out of your funk and are posting again.
Great post. I enjoyed it.
Thanks, Ross! “Funk” isn’t exactly the right word, though, as my breaks from posting aren’t symptomatic of some depressive malady from which recovery is possible. They are a result of an intentional rearrangement of priorities in acknowledgement of very real and ongoing social engineering events, decades in the making, which are not only accelerating but remain unlikely to stop (absent some sort of improbable mass shift into higher consciousness which causes people to stop complying with their own enslavement, degradation and demise).
As a kid I was fairly certain that by the time I grew up everyone would understand the inherent value of old buildings and incredible architecture. Needless to say, at some point as an adult I accepted the fact that, no, people were not going to suddenly wake up and embrace both quality and history. That kind of awareness would always be limited to a relatively small group—those with eyes to see and ears to hear. Those who were able to reject the messaging and marketing that new is better. Those who could see past the programming and think for themselves.
And so it is with our present day predicaments. The digital cage being built around all of us is beyond horrific, yet few seem to be concerned or even aware of it. Worse, they actively embrace the digital products which constantly surveil them and which will inevitably be weaponized against them (while believing them to be for their benefit). People remain, for the most part, blissfully unaware of both their role in facilitating the process and of the scripted nature of the news events they see played out on their ubiquitous screens. They fail to grasp that all is manipulated: their beliefs, emotions. actions, perceptions and search results (to name a few) are being shaped to such an extent that even Edward Bernays might squirm were he alive to experience it. Yes, some people are waking up, but not nearly enough to stop what’s coming.
Ooops! I forgot, we’re not supposed to talk about that! Looks like my Global Social Credit Score just took another hit! It’s best to not look up, or over there, or think for yourself. Group-think is the mandatory way forward in the planned new society.
I’ll post when the mood strikes me (and while still possible to do so) but it seems sort of pointless to spend my time posting about obscure architectural quirks when a good chunk of the planet is being actively poisoned and dismantled by psychopaths and sociopaths and the population is being culled. Sadly, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet! Oh, no! Another ding to my Social Credit Score! (This 3-1/2 minute video link will likely be disabled or replaced with something innocuous, so contact me if you can’t watch it.) Here’s a 14-1/2 minute video expanding on the same subject matter. It’s beyond tragic that so many are still in denial… I guess it’s just too scary for some to look behind the curtain to see the manipulation and agenda behind it.
Personally, I pity those still invested in the fake left/right paradigm—-those who can’t see that it’s a pathetically blatant
(but highly effective) divide and conquer technique. I fell for it myself for many years until it became perfectly obvious that we don’t really have a two party system—-for all intents and purposes we have a uniparty. George Carlin had the game figured out long ago, and explained it it rather plainly in less than a minute. If people have leaned anything from the bizarre spectacle surrounding the frequently delayed release of the infamous (and highly redacted) “Files” it was that both parties have prominent and influential members who are compromised and therefore easily controlled by the same “donors”.
I’d rather bond with nature, work on my house and engage with the analog world for as long as it is possible to do so. The control grid is shaping up fast and most people are not only clueless about it but willfully ignorant of it. We’re all just mind-controlled livestock on a sick planetary farm being managed by sick and predatory lunatics. It’s impossible to solve a problem without knowing what is causing it, and nothing seems to register in the brains of the oblivious, indoctrinated, masses—if more people don’t see the bigger picture by now they probably never will so we’re pretty much all fucked. Answers won’t be coming from “official” sources, that much is certain. At this rate, things will get a lot worse before they become really, really, bad. I find that the less time I spend online, the more I get done offline. Glad you liked the post!
I’ve never heard of breakfast towers. although there are the ubiquitous breakfast nooks tucked in between the kitchen and dining room with built in bench seating during the same period. Interesting.
No one else has heard of them, either! It’s just a made-up term to acknowledge a rare quirk that I thought would be fun to call attention to. A breakfast tower is just a breakfast nook wrapped an a more interesting package. Bench seating optional!
You get full rights for naming your discovered typology. My aunt had one in her 1930’s Spanish Colonial Revival house, and we loved it and all the little casement windows. Special memories there; thanks for that AO. Sadly, the breakfast tower was removed when the little house was expanded in the 1980’s. Sigh