From Cheverly's Kitchens

What was Cheverly cooking in the 1940s and 1950s? Two cookbooks give us a taste, through recipes compiled by women’s groups of the Cheverly Community Church. Each recipe is signed with the name of its submitter. The books are undated, but research points to publication dates of 1945 and 1954.

Ads give hints of the businesses seeking the patronage of Cheverly citizens. Tuxedo Road and Arbor Street stand out as a lively commercial area in 1954, with such consumer-oriented businesses as a supermarket, drug store, florist, radio and television store, cleaners, and gas station.

Blue Cookbook.pdf

Cheverly Community Cookbook. Circle Bonafide, Cheverly Community Church, [1945], 133 pp.

Introduction by Jane McNally Conover. Illustrations by Roger Stewart, a Cheverly photographer.

The announcement of the book in the Washington Post (September 10, 1945), connects its publication with the postwar easing of rationing.

Red Cookbook.pdf

What’s Cooking in Cheverly. Weco Circle, Cheverly Community Church, [1954]. 169 pp.

A nod is given to the earlier publication with the re-use of one of its illustrations.