The house from the 50s has a view down towards the house of the 20s. Behind we can just spot the house from the 90s. Photo: Maihaugen.

The housemaid working in the kitchen. Photo: Esben Haakenstad.

Foto: Camilla Damgård / Maihaugen

The bedroom to the daughter in the house of the 1950s. Photo: Camilla Damgård / Maihaugen

Dad reading the paper in the house from the 50s. Photo: Esben Haakenstad.

House from the 1950s

The family in house of the 1950s consisted of parents and three children. The father ran a shoe shop in Storgata whilst the mother stayed at home.

The ground floor contains the dining room as part of the living room, not a separate room as was the norm in prosperous homes of earlier times. There is a fireplace for cosiness, a back wall in a contrasting colour, large panoramic windows, teak furniture - all new and modern. 

In the kitchen the surfaces are easy to keep clean, and the fridge has made its way into the home as a welcome innovation. There is a utility room containing a washing machine and a practical dirty clothes chute. Here the housewife has taken the new aids of the time into use!

On the first floor the three children have their own bedrooms. The bathroom has two wash basins, and the sanitary equipment is light blue - this was a luxury during the end of the 1950s. 

There is a large garden surrounding the house. Potatoes, vegetables, fruit and berries were grown in the back garden. Facing the street, you find the representative part of the garden, framed in bushes and fruit trees, with a large lawn and the pride of the housewife, the flowerbed filled with roses.