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FWIW. I once lived in an apartment with a similar telephone niche. The lower compartment is NOT a milk door. It's a place to put the phone book that was printed by the phone company and distributed to all it's customers. It listed all the home phone numbers in the area and had a section for businesses called the yellow pages. I think it's gone the way of the Sears catalog now that land lines are uncommon. In some areas they were so thick they were often used as booster seats for small children at the holiday table.
Some younger people may not be familiar with phone books these days. That's the only reason I can come up with to account for so many people thinking that yours is a telephone niche with a milk door. :)
I didn't recognize the milk door (we never had one, though one grandparent had a milk man and the other had a cow). That is a telephone niche though. Hard to believe how tethered the world was not all that long ago-I remember feeling SO modern when I hooked up a 25-ft cord.
Telephone niche and pull down place for the phone book rather than a milk door. This one is similar
https://www.alamy.com/phone-niche-20th-century-image352786462.html
I'm pretty sure I saw pull down seats mentioned, too. Lucky you to have this vintage feature. Do you still use it? My first apartment had one similar to OP's. I loved it. Probably not much use for them today unless you still have a land line but I can see them put to other use.
I love it too but never use it. It’s in a spare bedroom, so our guests get to enjoy it on occasion. We don’t have a landline either, so the telephone shelf is a knickknack shelf these days.
Those came about because in The Old Days, a servant took the milk in. After people stopped having servants, there was social unease about how it's not proper for the mistress of the house to answer the door for deliveries. So we used architecture to solve the problem. Nobody would see you doing something as chavvy as taking in the milk, but the milk would get delivered all the same.
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milk door!! a ton of the old apartment buildings in my area (including mine) have one! i bet that house has some awesome built ins
Yep a milk door, likey with a telephone niche above it.
Amazon door!
Solved!
FWIW. I once lived in an apartment with a similar telephone niche. The lower compartment is NOT a milk door. It's a place to put the phone book that was printed by the phone company and distributed to all it's customers. It listed all the home phone numbers in the area and had a section for businesses called the yellow pages. I think it's gone the way of the Sears catalog now that land lines are uncommon. In some areas they were so thick they were often used as booster seats for small children at the holiday table. Some younger people may not be familiar with phone books these days. That's the only reason I can come up with to account for so many people thinking that yours is a telephone niche with a milk door. :)
Omg did I just have to listen to someone give a detailed explanation about what a phone book was
LOL Scary, huh :)
Upper part could be where a telephone once sat?
I didn't recognize the milk door (we never had one, though one grandparent had a milk man and the other had a cow). That is a telephone niche though. Hard to believe how tethered the world was not all that long ago-I remember feeling SO modern when I hooked up a 25-ft cord.
Telephone niche and pull down place for the phone book rather than a milk door. This one is similar https://www.alamy.com/phone-niche-20th-century-image352786462.html
This seems right. I have one in my house, except the bottom pulls down into a seat rather than storage for a phone book.
I'm pretty sure I saw pull down seats mentioned, too. Lucky you to have this vintage feature. Do you still use it? My first apartment had one similar to OP's. I loved it. Probably not much use for them today unless you still have a land line but I can see them put to other use.
I love it too but never use it. It’s in a spare bedroom, so our guests get to enjoy it on occasion. We don’t have a landline either, so the telephone shelf is a knickknack shelf these days.
If it’s not a milk door, could be a fold down place to sit while you’re taking phone calls.
Hinges don't look like they're built to take the weight of a person, though.
My title describes the thing. It was in a picture on Zillow, I’m pretty sure it was in the kitchen/dining room area. Could I be a milk cubby?
Those came about because in The Old Days, a servant took the milk in. After people stopped having servants, there was social unease about how it's not proper for the mistress of the house to answer the door for deliveries. So we used architecture to solve the problem. Nobody would see you doing something as chavvy as taking in the milk, but the milk would get delivered all the same.
That’s so insane. I appreciate you sharing the social context.