In-law apartment most likely.

The Portuguese side of my family and lots of friends have a kitchen in the basement. The first floor kitchen is for show and holidays the basement kitchen is for daily use. Or it’s an in law apartment.

Italians

The kitchen in the basement is largely used in summer when it's too hot (pee-AC) to cook upstairs.

A lot of these are the first generation appliances of the house. So when they would redo the primary they would throw the old appliances in the basement.

This is the explanation I got from the old Portuguese man I bought my first house from.

i have an unfinished, walkout basement. i'm considering moving my kitchen there when we renovate because it opens out onto a part of my property with really nice views.

If you're in or around newport it's probably a servants kitchen. There's lots of those, they used them for parties and stuff so they could cook without being seen but it'd have to be an old fancy house for that

Italians cooked downstairs to keep the upstairs clean.

It is a Portuguese thing...my Grandmothers house also had a kitchen in the basement for entertainment when it wasn't being used as a living are for my Uncle when he came home from the Service.

It’s a Portuguese/Cape Veridian thing. East Providence is full of them.

The upstairs kitchen is the “show” kitchen. My friends that had these had a full getup like burner covers so you wouldn’t even see them. They literally never used the upstairs kitchen. They tended to have a show living room as well that had furniture covered in plastic and too we’re not allowed in there.

They actually cooked in the downstairs kitchen.

Everyone’s like “oh it’s the Italians of oh it’s the Portuguese”. It’s the immigrants that were like “we have 14 wide going in here, but we need a place to accept people for reasons”.

‘‘Twas a weird time.

Italian’s are basically the same. Our house is in N Prov built in 1955 and has one too. We kept the sink and cabinets

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Growing up, I've seen this everywhere I went. The basement was fixed up to be like another apartment, with kitchen and full bathroom.

I recently bought in EP and the upstairs kitchen had a high end rangetop that is about 20yeard old looking up the model number and everyone thinks it's new because the old owners never used it, was in excellent condition. they had a basic kitchen downstairs that was thier everyday kitchen.

It's called a summer kitchen, kept the upstairs cooler on the hot days.

Italians and Portuguese

Keep the upstairs a museum

Source: my grandmother put plastic on the furniture and I wasn’t allowed in the parlor. And I put sheets on my furniture

Canning kitchen.

Kent Heights area I assume? That central EP area has a lot of that going. That and perfectly manicured small shrubs and trees.

Bonus points for a Mary in a half shell

Not sure what the area is called, it's near Henderson bridge. But yeah spot on had a Mary in a half shell that they left. I had thier number so asked them to take it or it was going in the trash lol.

That sounds amazing.

I thought there was one less Mary in that area lol.

Came here to say that I always associated it with Portuguese people.

Same

Yep that’s central EP.

Im not sure if you’re new to the area overall so forgive me if this is redundant. If you’re near the Henderson check out HoneyBird. I finally got there and really liked it.

And if you haven’t ventured to Riverside square for Borealis they have the best coffee around.

Can confirm. Husband’s parents’ house has kitchen basement. (MIL was born in Portugal.) It hardly got used though, from my knowledge.

im peanut butter and JEALOUS

Summer kitchen.

Any culture with big families.

I grew up in NY, very common for Italian grandmas to have a full kitchen in the basement for holiday feast prep and bulk food storage.

Life long Rhode islander who never thought they would livd in EP lol. Grew up in West Cranston so took a little to get used to having Portuguese bakeries near by instead of Italian ones, but I'm addicted to those little custards now. Haven't tried honey bird yet, did see if going up though driving by it all the time, that whole area is still a mess with all the construction. I would recommend Jeff's pizza which is not far from there on waterman st if you haven't tried them, so good, my new favorite pizza place. Mira's cafe, Brazilian joint is great too, I had been to their Norwood location before so nice to have one right down the street now.

First house I owned in Maryland had a partial kitchen in the basement: stove top and sink only and lots of cabinets. We never used it but the basement had a walkout so we thought it was a conversation to an in-law suite that got stalled.

that's the dream. unfortunately, an expensive one that we're a few years away from pulling the trigger on. but we live on a large pond and a basement kitchen would be 30 feet from it. add a sliding door and a terrace and you eat waterside during the warmer months.

It’s just a style of house. Raised Ranch. Front door opens to a set of stairs. Down is the first floor up is the second floor. Usually the main kitchen living and bedroons are upstairs and then downstairs was usually a recreation room, spare bedrooms and maybe garage.

Since the pipes were going up to the second floor kitchen anyways it made sense to make an added kitchen downstairs under the main kitchen for an in-law or secondary kitchen if you’re entertaining downstairs.

Portuguese thing. I grew up in Connecticut and had never seen it until I met my husband. His parents have one in the basement that doesn’t get used, they use the upstairs one. But his aunt only uses the downstairs kitchen. I’ve only seen her upstairs kitchen once in eight years and we go there for every major holiday. Seemed strange to me at first but I don’t even think of it anymore.

Same here. I grew up in New Bedford, MA which had a high Portuguese population. Lots of my friends had houses like this.

When we moved here 4 yrs ago we kind of wondered about his, kitchens and tons of in-law apts in the basement.

Yes, many Italian and Portuguese families have kitchens in the basement. They are sauce kitchens or places to cure meats etc. pretty common in towns like North providence or westerly.

Little info to help with a sale/resale. Remove the stove for permitting issues. Buyers will know they can throw one in but it won’t be approved for some financing if it’s still there and not a “legal kitchen”

Because the basement was made to be a self contained apartment, either for extended family living down there or did it to be rented out. My grandfather finished his with two bedrooms, a living room, bathroom, closets, a private entrance, etc.

When I was a kid, many of my Portuguese friends' homes had essentially a working kitchen and family room in the basement. The kitchen, living room and dining room on the main level featured glistening appliances, furniture and decorations, and were reserved for when special guests came over. Otherwise, family life took place in the basement.

Ditto Borealis

This was a pre-air conditioning thing. You either grilled outside or used the range in the basement.

In law suite.

Why u give a fuck

It’s a Portuguese thing 🤷🏻‍♀️

Don’t forget about the living room that can’t be used with plastic covers on the couches.

My father in laws grandfather had a kitchen in his basement off Mineral Spring near Pawtucket.

My grandparents house in Warwick had a kitchen in their basement. Apparently the house was built without a permit in the 50s and the family (not mine) lived in the basement when it was being built.

this is common in many metro boston neighborhoods too with a large Italian population especially during the 1930-1960 time frame.
They are essentially summer kitchens. Or for cooking giant quantities of food or canning.

Two of my uncles in Waltham MA had kitchens in their basements and were incredible Italian cooks-I miss them

An in-law apartment probably