Comments on: California Coolers

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 19:29:18 +0000

We live in a 1925 Colonial Revival home in Corvallis, Oregon, which has a “California Cooler” – two nicely-framed mesh squares that open to what were originally cupboards with wooden slatted shelves. The inside openings had been sloppily covered over with scrap wood during a remodel probably done in the 1960s. However, when we bought the house, it had (and still has) attractively-framed exterior inlet squares; the exterior framing matched the attractive trim on the windows. The openings had been neatly covered with wood. We think they are so “cool” that we’ve highlighted the original slatted shelves with a different color paint than what we’ve used on walls of the cupboard. We’ve set about looking for other “California coolers” in Corvallis and found some neat ones, in single-family residences and in an early apartment building. Since we’re into architectural history, we plan to formally document them to see what time period they bracket, and whether they cluster in certain neighborhoods or are associated with particular builders. Then we will see if we can sell movie rights to “California Coolers of Corvallis” – sort of like “Bridges of Madison County.” Corvallis is in Oregon’s rainy Willamette Valley, but we have a Mediterranean climatic regime, so we usually get our rain between October and April. We do have a large original “canning room” in the basement for food storage, but the cupboard cooler would have been more convenient than running up and down stairs. Thanks so much for this great article…it’s given us one more weird interest.

By: Caitlin

Caitlin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:45:43 +0000

Thanks for this great post. I am an architectural historian and though I have seen California Coolers in many houses (including up in Oregon and Alaska), I never knew they had a name. I generally knew what they were for and how they worked, but not precisely, and just referred to them as cold cupboards.

This evening, helping my boyfriend move into a new apartment in Palo Alto, I discovered one in his kitchen. I was really excited about it (he thinks I’m crazy), did some Googling, and came across this article. Thanks!

By: Eric Taylor

Eric Taylor — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:33:59 +0000

I live in San Diego and just bought a home built in 1923 – and it had one built in one of the cabinets. The slatted shelves were still there, but the opening to the underside of the home had been covered. Really neat bit of history I’ve never heard of (until my handyman pointed it out). Thanks for writing!

By: Smreil

Smreil — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:22:06 +0000

Who can send me any web links to instructions on how to build a California cooler!???? Please email to smreil@aol.com

By: chris c

chris c — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:55:22 +0000

We have our original Cooler in the kitchen of our 1915 house. Other than an old Chambers stove in the garage, it’s all that remains of the original kitchen. It’s pretty neat, although we keep veggies in the fridge and use it as a general pantry. Thanks for the article!

By: Evelyn

Evelyn — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 20:31:58 +0000

I docent at a Historical House in Glendale, CA. Calif Coolers weren’t for the lazy or cheap! Ice was very expensive & ice boxes were very small! You could keep everything & anything in a CC. Often they were in the center of the house, because the air is cooler there than outside in the summer. I am seriously thinking about putting one in my 1924 house, that’s never had one. I’ll have a root cellar attached to the house that I’m building into the side of a hill at the farm in MO.

But, CCs are just soooo cool! And, if you open them up, they’ll help keep your kitchen cool as well. I use convection cooling in my house all the time. I hate airconditioners. I open the door of my basement (yes, basement in SoCal!) & run the attic fan on the 2nd floor. It cools the 3 floor whole house down in less than 1/2 hour. Much cheaper than A/C as well!!!

By: Bill Tantau

Bill Tantau — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:45:33 +0000

We had a CalCooler (just called the “cooler”) in the old ranch house in Cupertino – built in the early 1900′s, then found one in the old manse adjacent to the St. Helena First Pres Church. It’s not just the ocean air that will provide the cooling but the air from any typical crawl space will work just fine. It only needs a drafting shaft to bring it up through the cooler. I doubt that any apartment would be so equipped unless it was on the ground floor. So COOL!!
BT
Clio, CA

By: Thy Tran

Thy Tran — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:41:26 +0000

Rachel — thanks for telling me about the eco food safe. I hadn’t heard of that before but am very glad to learn about it. Is there another term for it? I’m having trouble finding more information but would love to learn more–I have a feeling my parents would love one!

Art — I stand corrected. Of course there was an overlap in decades, so I can imagine both being well used during the turn of the century. Perhaps now again with the increasing cost of energy, we should rethink the need for bigger and bigger fridges.

By: Art

Art — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:58:51 +0000

Actually, I think California coolers were usually used in conjunction with iceboxes–it was cheaper to keep things that didn’t need to be “ice cold” (so to speak!) there, while reserving the icebox for things that would spoil and needed the ice. They went out of fashion in part because refrigerators came into play and had much more space. We’re lucky to still have one, though–it’s home to oils, spices, root vegetables, and canned goods, and is pretty awesome at keeping those things as fresh as my parents’ root cellar back east did (and way more convenient than the cellar, too).

By: Rachel

Rachel — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:12:55 +0000

I’ve just had an “eco food safe” installed at home, which works on a similar principle. It’s a wooden box, with a door at the front and a shelf inside. The top “tray” and hollow sides are filled with soil, so you can grow herbs while you insulate/chill the foods stored inside. It’s outside the front door and is working really well. Hurrah for traditional technology!