Valley Girl Views: The Mid Century Modern GE Wall Mounted Refrigerator

In 1953, G-E hired George Nelson as a consultant for their Kitchen Equipment Designers. Nelson designed two products for them - a Mechanical Storage Unit, that raised shelves to accessible heights, and a wall mounted refrigerator. The wall mounted refrigerator was extremely heavy - kitchen walls needed to be reinforced before it could be installed.

Although I'm fascinated with this design for many reasons, while looking at the vintage advertisements, I found that when companies such as G-E released a new line, they ran advertisements for the entire line. Rather than each store running their own ad, they were all listed at the bottom of the G-E advertisement.

Most of the advertisements ran in Life Magazine in 1955 & 1956. Local newspaper advertisements [Central Pennsylvania] often mentioned them, but did not show them.

Prices for a floor sample in 1959. Original price was listed as $589.95

In addition to being extremely heavy and requiring kitchen walls to be reinforced for installation, they were also very expensive. The above 1959 advertisement lists the regular price as $589.95 - or roughly $6,000 in 2023.

More photos & advertisements:

"Built Ins" were all the rage in General Electric advertisements in 1956

“This de luxe refrigerator-freezer has 10.7 cubic feet of storage room — 8.7 cubic feet for fresh food and 2 cubic feet for frozen foods. It is 5 feet 4 inches long, 3 feet 3½ inches high and 17½ inches deep."

Long-lasting baked enamel with a wide band of textured aluminum.

All 3 doors are kept shut by famous alnico magnets. No handles, no catches.

"Hangs on the wall like a picture"

Separate vegetable and fruit compartments have transparent sliding doors.

Top shelf provides space for tall bottles. Shelves are adjustable to various levels.

Separate compartments inside door or butter, egg rack; and door shelves for small jars and cans.

Zero-degree food freezer has room for up to 83 packages of frozen foods.

Four new-style Mini-Cube® ice trays.

Frozen fruit juice storage rack.

Dependable whisper-quite sealed-in G-E refrigeration unit is built into the refrigerator. No need to install it separately.

George Nelson made his first venture into kitchen design in 1943. His pre-fabricated kitchen core, sketches of which were published in Fortune, featured:

Dashboard controls
Deep Refrigerator drawers with glass tops flush with the counter
A separate freezer and ice cube maker
A vertical Broiler "to broil steaks on both sides simultaneously"
Foot-pedal controls for the water taps
Large Double Glazed window box for growing fresh herbs

In 1953, G-E's kitchen equipment designers hired Nelson as a consultant. He developed two specific products - a "MSU" - mechanized storage unit - that would raise or lower shelves to acceptable heights, and a wall mounted refrigerator.

The refrigerator was very heavy, made with the materials available at that time, and the kitchen wall behind it needed to be reinforced before it could be installed.