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Ebony Test Kitchen

Excellent
  • Mid-Century Modern
  • Identity of Building/Site

Ebony Test Kitchen

Lisa DiChiera, former Landmarks Illinois Director of Advocacy; Jean Nihoul, Former Curator & Culinary Operations Manager at the Museum of Food & Drink; and Charla Draper, former Ebony Magazine’s Director of Food & Home Furnishings; in the Ebony Test Kitchen at MOFAD in February 2022.

Credit

Landmarks Illinois

Site overview

Ebony Test Kitchen

Ebony Test Kitchen

Credit

Francis Dzikowski

Site overview

Awards

Advocacy

Award of Excellence

2023

An Advocacy Award of Excellence is given for the outstanding efforts to save the historic Ebony Test Kitchen. Used for decades by Ebony Magazine food editors, the Test Kitchen is a significant part of the legacy of Johnson Publishing Company, the nation's foremost African American publisher during its prime. Originally housed within the Publishing Company’s headquarters, itself a Chicago Landmark designed by John Moutousammy, the first Black architect to have a building on Michigan Avenue, the Test Kitchen got its signature funky aesthetic with the help of Palm Springs-based interior designers William Raiser and Arthur Elrod. In 2018, as the building faced redevelopment, Landmarks Illinois secured the Test Kitchen's future by purchasing it for $1. With the aid of dedicated volunteers and the Skyline Council, it was meticulously documented, dismantled, and stored. The next year, it went on loan to the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD), which reconstructed two rooms, refurbished the kitchen, and reproduced key elements, including its iconic wallpaper, for the exhibition African/American: Making the Nation’s Table. Following the exhibition, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) expressed interest in acquiring it. In June 2023, Landmarks Illinois and the NMAAHC announced the donation of the Ebony Test Kitchen, which will become part of the museum's permanent collection, ensuring its pivotal role in Black, culinary, and architectural history endures. While conservation is underway, visitors can explore the Ebony Test Kitchen on the award-winning Searchable Museum site. 

“It is rare to find a site that combines midcentury design, historic foodways, and Black history in such a symbolic way as the Ebony Test Kitchen. It is a gift to us all that it is being preserved and we look forward to when the public is able to visit the physical space once again.”

- Todd Grover, Docomomo US Vice President of Advocacy
Restoration Team

Landmarks Illinois (Frank Butterfield, Lisa DiChiera, Kaitlyn McAvoy, Bonnie McDonald); Skyline Council of Landmarks Illinois and volunteers (Justin Barnes, Susanna Craib-Cox, Eric Dexter, Jill Dexter, Chris Enck, Lauren Garvey, Monica Giacomucci, Michael Johnson, Rachel Leibowitz, Chelsea Medek, Gloria Moy, Lewis Purdy, Anthony Rubano, Erica Ruggiero, Laura Schuetz, Matt Seymour, Meredith Morgan Stuart); Ebony Test Kitchen Advisory Panel (Adele Cygelman, Chris Enck, Graham Grady, Ra Joy, Yvette LeGrand, Nathan Mason, Eric T. McKissack, Langdon Neal, Angelique Power, Sandra Rand, Joseph W. Slezak, Amanda Williams); Lee Bey (formerly of the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center); Chris Enck (Revive Architecture); Joe Slezak (3L Real Estate); Museum of Food and Drink (Peter Kim, Nazli Parvizi, Catherine Piccoli, Jean. Nihoul); Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (Kevin Young, Joanne Hyppolite, Ph.D.)

Additional Thanks:
W.E. O’Neil Construction; Movetastic; The Africa Center; Eden Bridgeman Sklenar (EBONY Media); Flatbush Moving and Storage

 

How to Visit

Conservation is underway at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. In the meantime, visitors can explore the Ebony Test Kitchen on the award-winning Searchable Museum site.

Location

National Museum of African American History and Culture

1400 Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC, 20560
More visitation information

Case Study House No. 21

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Lisa DiChiera, former Landmarks Illinois Director of Advocacy; Jean Nihoul, Former Curator & Culinary Operations Manager at the Museum of Food & Drink; and Charla Draper, former Ebony Magazine’s Director of Food & Home Furnishings; in the Ebony Test Kitchen at MOFAD in February 2022.

Credit:

Landmarks Illinois

Ebony Test Kitchen

Credit:

Francis Dzikowski

Designer(s)

John Moutoussamy

Architect

John Moutoussamy is best known as the designer of the Johnson Publishing Company Building, the only high-rise office building in downtown Chicago with an African American client (publishing titan John H. Johnson, whose growing media empire included Ebony and Jet magazines) and architect (Moutoussamy). Moutoussamy was the first black architect to become a partner in a major firm, Dubin Dubin Black & Moutoussamy.

Other designers

Kitchen design: William Raiser and Arthur Elrod

Related chapter

District of Columbia

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