The Awning

[Retro Spectator]

On many late 40s, and 50s homes, you seem to see plenty of aluminum awnings. I personally love how they look. I was wondering, when did awnings first start getting put over windows and doors, and were they always aluminum?

 

[pawineguy]

I remember from my visit to The Colosseum that they had enormous retractable awnings to shade the spectators. Most awnings in the Northeastern US were historically made from canvas fabric, and I'm sure aluminum didn't become used regularly until after the growth of the airplane industry, circa WWI, which was when governments tended to subsidize the aluminum producers, and ensured that they received the large electrical supply that they required. Prior to that, aluminum was too expensive to use as a building material in most applications, but was starting to trickle into use from the very end of the nineteenth century.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Awings have been around for thousands of years. They were very popular on homes in the late 19th century up through the early 1970's, depending on where you live. Where I grew up in Florida, most homes had them or some type of extended window cover, as we didn't have air conditioning and the windows were open most of the time. They weren't always made of aluminum, of course, they started out as fabric, and included various metals including copper. By the 1940s/50s though, alumimun was pretty common. I hated them growing up, mainly because they have to be cleaned all the time, and I was the one who had to scrub them.

I actually have one over the entrance to my house that is being removed as I type this.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, built in 1913, had a large painted-metal awning over the main entrance gates. I don't believe this was aluminum, more likely either copper or thin-gague galvanized steel, but the fact that it was metal was unusual enough to receive mention in a number of articles published around the time the ballpark was being built.

Canvas awnings were very common on houses, except in areas where severe weather interfered with their use. The aluminum awnings became very popular just after the war.

 

[scottyrocks]

Funny this should come up when it did as I just moved into a house (cape cod style) with an aluminum awning over the front stoop. I think it's charming.

 

[Feraud]

There are still plenty of homes in Queens, NY. with awnings. Our stoop has one.
While growing up the family grocery had a retractable canvas awning. We used a long metal rod to adjust it.

 

[GHT]

While growing up the family grocery had a retractable canvas awning. We used a long metal rod to adjust it.

Before the advent of the large multiple stores, when our High Streets were all proprietary owned retail businesses, there would be a retractable canvas awning, similar to which you describe, virtually over every shop front. They were left open in all weathers, only being retracted at the close of business. Often the shop keeper would come out during inclement weather and prod the awning, causing rainwater, or snow, to cascade down.

You don't want to be standing at a bus stop if it's adjacent to a shop awning. You don't see such awnings in the UK, but a similar structure is quite common, attached to the side of a house, it creates a carport where a garage is impractical.

 

[Feraud]

Often the shop keeper would come out during inclement weather and prod the awning, causing rainwater, or snow, to cascade down.

Ha, yes. We did this with a broom stick when I was a kid!

 

[Stearmen]

Before the advent of the large multiple stores, when our High Streets were all proprietary owned retail businesses, there would be a retractable canvas awning, similar to which you describe, virtually over every shop front. They were left open in all weathers, only being retracted at the close of business. Often the shop keeper would come out during inclement weather and prod the awning, causing rainwater, or snow, to cascade down.

You don't want to be standing at a bus stop if it's adjacent to a shop awning. You don't see such awnings in the UK, but a similar structure is quite common, attached to the side of a house, it creates a carport where a garage is impractical.

It is amazing how many gallons of water one awning can hold!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Getting back to the original question, Sears was offering canvas awnings and "porch curtains" as far back as my collection of catalogs goes. By the thirties, the Summer catalogs routinely featured at least two pages worth in various sizes designed to fit any sort of household window. Solid colors were available, but broad, colorful stripes were the most popular style offered. These were constructed over rigid frames and were designed to be put up and taken down on a seasonal basis in the same manner as storm windows.

Awnings disappear from the catalogs during the war era. Canvas was a critical war material and there was no place for such fripperies in wartime.

Awnings reappear in the 1948 Summer catalog, but only in the same sort of canvas style popular prewar.

There's a hole in my catalog collection from 1948 to 1955, but Summer 1955 prominently features aluminum awnings, which have entirely supplanted the earlier canvas styles. They're offered either in rigid styles which are promoted for "year round use -- no put-up or take-down bother," or in a slatted roll-up style which "combines fabric awning flexibility with metal awning strength."

As a harbinger of things to come, there's also a 1/6 page section of Fiberglas door awnings. which come as a corrugated "crackle finish" panel fitting into an aluminum frame, and judging from the picture, were ugly as sin, and chintzy-looking besides. I remember this type of awning being common on the houses of people who thought they were much more tasteful than they actually were.

 

[Talbot]

Canvas awnings are great for keeping out the summer heat. Not uncommon on pre 1980's homes down under, but have fallen out of style since.

 

[Stearmen]

Is this what you are talking about for the fiberglass awnings Lizzie? This photo doesn't do it justice, it was really ugly. In the last subdivision I lived in with my parents, almost all the houses had this on the back concrete porch. I think ours was an ugly shade of yellow! My parents were smart, they turned the porch into a room with a proper roof.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yep, that's the stuff. Like a lot of the "modern" styles of the fifties, they dated very very badly.

 

[Stanley Doble]

It had a lot to do with the development of aluminum. Even though aluminum is one of the most abundant metals on earth, it took a long time to figure out how to refine it, and make strong alloys.

Napoleon had a dinner service made of solid gold for special occasions. But on such occasions, he ate off aluminum plates. That is how rare and precious aluminum was.

By the late 1800s science had developed the electrolysis process but aluminum did not come into common use until the twenties. At that time there were two alloys, soft and softer.

In the thirties stronger alloys were developed and whole airplanes were made out of the light, strong miracle metal.

But it was WW2 that brought about great improvements in tougher, stronger alloys and in the mass production of aluminum.

It was the post war era that saw aluminum alloys so strong, and so cheap, that paper thin aluminum siding for houses became possible. This is when the aluminum awnings and aluminum storm doors were developed along with the siding.

So, long story short, the aluminum awnings were a fifties and possibly very early sixties thing because that is when it became possible to make them and sell them at a price anyone could afford.

See the movie "Tin Men" for the story of how aluminum siding salesmen canvassed neighborhoods and towns selling siding and awnings.

 

[Stearmen]

It had a lot to do with the development of aluminum. Even though aluminum is one of the most abundant metals on earth, it took a long time to figure out how to refine it, and make strong alloys.

Napoleon had a dinner service made of solid gold for special occasions. But on such occasions, he ate off aluminum plates. That is how rare and precious aluminum was.

By the late 1800s science had developed the electrolysis process but aluminum did not come into common use until the twenties. At that time there were two alloys, soft and softer.

In the thirties stronger alloys were developed and whole airplanes were made out of the light, strong miracle metal.

But it was WW2 that brought about great improvements in tougher, stronger alloys and in the mass production of aluminum.

It was the post war era that saw aluminum alloys so strong, and so cheap, that paper thin aluminum siding for houses became possible. This is when the aluminum awnings and aluminum storm doors were developed along with the siding.

So, long story short, the aluminum awnings were a fifties and possibly very early sixties thing because that is when it became possible to make them and sell them at a price anyone could afford.

See the movie "Tin Men" for the story of how aluminum siding salesmen canvassed neighborhoods and towns selling siding and awnings.

The Washington Monument has an Aluminum tip. It supposedly cost as much as silver per ounce at the time. $1.00 per ounce in 1884. As a funny side note, it weighed 100 ounces and was a whooping nine inches tall, which was the largest aluminum casting in the world at the time.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Alcoa was running advertising campaigns in the major magazines thru the late twenties and early thirties trying to sell the public on the idea of aluminum as an everyday household product. It was an uphill battle because it seemed so much flimsier than a wooden door or an enamelware saucepan or whatever other use they were trying to promote, and people were very wary of it. The ads had to stress over and over again that the light weight of the metal didn't indicate a lack of strength.

 

[Stearmen]

Just remember Lizzie, only genuine Tin Foil Hats will keep the thought rays away from the brain! Aluminum foil just amplifies the rays! :eusa_doh:

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, now that you mention it, almost from the moment aluminum cookware was introduced, there were those who insisted that it leached toxic substances into food. This was a very big debate during the thirties and forties, and it still lingers today. I've known a number of people who wouldn't touch anything cooked in an aluminum pot, and yet will gladly quaff a beer or a soda out of an aluminum can. Go figure.

 

[EliasRDA]

The difference might be that the aluminum cook ware is subject to higher heats & for longer/more repeated uses than that solo can of soda/beer is?

Its the same nowadays with Teflon cookware, its becoming a proven fact that the stuff is bad is not all that great for your health. Add in that many people throw them in the dishwasher instead of hand washing it, and use metal utensils in it instead of soft plastic so it doesn't scratch.

I do use aluminum cookware, I prefer copper clad but sometimes the price is too high for me as I'm rough on my cookware.

Funny how we are finding out that things our folks & before grew up with are bad for us, be glad as a woman (if you are) that you are not into the Queen Elizabeth look using lead "paint" on your face for that pale white look. 8-P

 

[Nobert]

I grew up with the (I thought) common knowledge that using aluminum to cook could contribute to the possibility of getting Alzheimer's. But, last I heard, that notion had been debunked.

I do think it's not a great idea to cook with nickel silver utensils, but I don't know why.