Worth Sharing: Hazel Dell Brown

 

                                                    The iconic, 'nap in kitchen' design

Over the past few months I've been sharing vintage kitchen images with you.   Many are from the Armstrong collection over the years 1925-1957.  Quite by accident Friday night as I worked up 'This Week in My Home' for publication this week, I discovered that many of the kitchens I've shared were all designed by the same woman, Hazel Dell Brown.   I was fascinated.  I mean what's the likelihood that 9/10ths of the rooms I share with linoleum type floors were her designs?  Obviously I am as drawn to her work as I have been to other artists...This one just happens to be an artist in home design.

I start reading about this woman and I think it's a shame that there are no comprehensive books carrying her life story!   So I've dug about and discovered what I could from other sources and thought you might be as fascinated as I by her story.

Hazel Dell Snepp Brown was born in 1892 to the Snepp family in Indianapolis, Indiana.   Hazel went to her first art class at age nine but was so frustrated with her attempts at art that she went home in tears.  Her mother, a self-taught artist, helped her with her schools and the next year Hazel excelled in her class and surpassed.

Her family was a poor one with misfortune and illness but they had a knack as a family for making lovely things from what they had available.  Mrs. Snepp, mother of the family, was a gifted seamstress and milliner and made over dresses and hats and coats into the latest fashions for her daughters and herself.  At one point the family bought a piece of property and then erected a small efficient home on their own and decorated it.  It was a delight to all those who visited for the many innovations they'd used in design and decor.

Mrs. Brown so loved creative pursuits that she was involved in high school on the annual committee as well as many other artistic pursuits.  She was musical and sang in choirs.   She was civic minded and participated in many activities in her church and community..  She left high school and studied to become a teacher of art and music in the Indiana school system.     Her art classes were a delight to the students who were thrilled with the teacher's eye for unusual color combinations.

In 1918,  she married a young man who worked alongside her in the school system.  His name was Glenn Brown.   They had become friends in high school and their friendship grew over the intervening years. He went off to France and Hazel accepted a scholarship to further her studies at the Pratt Institute in New York that same year.   In 1919, her husband was killed in France.  Mrs. Brown returned to Indianapolis at this time.  She was named head teacher over the art department of all the schools in her city, comprised of 21 schools and some 10,000 boys and girls.   This was where she planned to stay her remaining years.

But in 1921, the supervisor of the art departments was approached the Armstrong Cork Company and requested to recommend someone for their interior design department.  Mrs. Hazel Dell Brown was the choice of her supervisor and so she embarked on a whole new career.   In 1923 she resided in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and there she remained the rest of her life.

Living Room in her Lancaster, Pennsylvania home, ca late 1920's

    An efficiency kitchen design....Note that porthole window which she used several times in designs

Mrs. Brown loved her work.  She considered that she hadn't left teaching at all, but that she now had the opportunity to teach young women who became designers under her as well as the American homemakers and homeowners how to achieve a lovely, colorful and efficient home.   

She created a home interior department within the Armstrong corporation then invited homemakers to send in their decorating questions which she and her staff replied to personally, often enclosing sample fabrics, linoleum and paint samples.  They answered up to 1000 pieces of mail daily.  

Her career grew beyond the bounds of the job.   She dressed windows in New York City featuring Armstrong design linoleums, lectured at sales conventions, spoke all across the country and continued to create designs for every room in the home, from baths to basements, kitchens to living and bedrooms.    The advertisements published each month in various women's magazines were so popular that you could order design plans for them.  Many women wrote in to say they took a magazine as much for that monthly advertisement room design as they did for the stories they enjoyed reading!

Mrs. Brown published a number of pamphlets and books through the company which were sold all across the United States from Florida to Alaska, from California to the east coast.  Her designs were so livable and doable for the average homeowner that she truly had national appeal.

An efficiency apartment design for a WWII homeowner's rental room.  

She  designed a house called a Balcony cottage home that sold many plans following WW2,  which was both economical to build, well decorated and attractive.   This was especially needed as there was a massive housing shortage following the war as many couples returned home or families were reunited and were looking to move into homes of their own, while they'd resided with family or lived in boarding houses during the war years.

                                                     The Balcony Cottage exterior view

                                                  Interior design shot of the model home

I think what I admire most about her work is that so many of her kitchens were not only planned to be efficient and bright but they would be perfectly functional here in the 2020's as much as they were in the 1930's and '40's.    There is a streamlined look to her designs for kitchens that has a modern air all these many years later.   She didn't limit herself to one genre of design either.  She could do cottage, oriental, farmhouse, art deco with equal aplomb.  Her creative use of color and accent colors have a liveliness I like a lot.   What's more her furnishings and pieces are both decorative and multi functional.  That wrought iron furniture above would do equally well in the sunny bright kitchen and on a patio if at some point in the future one wished to change things up.

But more than her overall color choices, I love that so many of her kitchens are multi-purpose.  Room for laundry, playing children, a sewing machine, a desk area for the woman who is on multiple community committees, a pantry, a seating area with a radio.  Mrs. Brown had an instinct for the way the 'heart of the home' truly functioned for families and knew as well that small homes had to have multi purpose rooms.

While she was in residence, Armstrong linoleum was not just used for floors.  Mrs. Brown designed rooms in which linoleum was also used on walls, and counters as countertops.   Her innovative floor designs included insets of stripes of contrasting colors, swirls, or scallops of color rather than a singular pattern used all over the floor.

Here below I'm including several links so that you can see more of her designs than I have space to share.   I've been so enthralled by her story that I actually ordered one of her books for myself.  And you can bet I'm going to be looking far more closely at the Armstrong Linoleum rooms in my vintage magazines.

Five Dream Kitchens published in 1935

Portfolio of Room Interiors published in 1946

Go Ahead and Decorate published in 1951

Album of Room Ideas

Decorator's Answer Book published 1949

A 1935 Armstrong design that I'm willing to bet was also one of Mrs. Brown's designs.  Look at that porthole window in the laundry area!

You can view many more of her designs online.  Websites such as Retro Renovation, Antique Homestyle and The Daily Bungalow on Flickr.

She built her own dream home at age 82 and lived there until her death at age 90.   In her dream home she incorporated one of her favorite designs for a "Closet kitchen" which I've shared here in the past.

Her favorite design, the closet kitchen, was incorporated into her own dream home build at age 82.

The same kitchen with doors closed...

I hope you've enjoyed learning about this prolific designer as much as I have.  I've got several more of her kitchens to share in the future!