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I'd worry about attracting rodents and insects. Anything I keep in the kitchen that is edible is either in the fridge/freezer or sealed-up well so bugs/rodents cannot get to it.
I had to rip-out much of my kitchen counter/storage, mice had gnawed through a wall and set-up
home under the void below my kitchen-counter storage, and they also occupied/trashed a big void behind a built-in pantry-wheel.
My wife stores her bulk flour and sugar in large non-canning type mason jar glass containers.
We had mice in our house after we lost the cat that came with the house. We got a brother and sister set of kittens and we have had zero rodent issues since. They are incredible mousers. No mice in the attached garage, none in my shop.
In the Looney Tunes cartoon, "Feed the Kitty" (Bulldog Marc Anthony & Pussyfoot), the Misses is shown getting her flour out of a pull open slot drawer, being next to one marked sugar.
Why don't we do it that way? Was it because they are impossible to keep clean? Too easy for pests to occupy? Some other cleaniness reason?
Or is it just that we don't bake like we once did.....long ago.
Have always had a soft spot for "Feed The Kitty". Some of the faces that butch bulldog (Mark Anthony) pulls are priceless.
House in question was a post war modern split level. These were going up all over USA in new suburbs or other areas like hot cakes in 1940's through 1960's.
Hoosier cabinets were long out of fashion when these homes were built. By pre-WWII home economists and efficiency experts had put tons of effort into home design in particular to make life for Her Indoors easier.
However women who either previously had flour bins as part of Hoosier type cabinets and or perhaps knew of them from kitchens of their grandmothers or other older female relatives often saw the advantages.
Keep in mind also until about middle of 1950's flour came in often quite large sizes of cloth bags. Households often purchased what we would consider "bulk" amounts of flour for many reasons.
Frist was as one stated there wasn't usually many choices in size of bags. You might locally find 2-6 pound bags but things went up to 25 or even 50 pound sacks. Larger bags were favoured by households because once emptied of flour (or whatever else such as grain or sugar) the bags were washed (and if needed bleached) and material then used to sew up clothing or other items.
Post WWII America became decidedly less rural/agricultural along with other changes that meant women/households baked less.
Daily staple of bread now came from supermarkets or grocery stores. Baking when it did occur was likely cakes, cookies, and similar goods. That and flour used for gravies and other cooking. Either way most no longer needed 10, 20, 30 or more pounds of flour.
Other thing was changes in what was considered acceptable hygiene and housekeeping.
Flour and other pantry beetles easily got inside those bins. In old days people would just sift out the bugs and use flour. That just didn't fly with modern housewives so they began to search for other ways to store things. Happily the brave new world of plastics arrived (think Tupperware) which along with other sorts of canisters with tight fitting lids replaced huge flour bins of old. Most canisters hold about five pounds of flour which is more than enough for many households with average baking/cooking needs.
P.S.
Voice of housewife in "Feed the Kitty" cartoon was late Bea Benaderat who starred in tv shows such as "Petticoat Junction" and the "Burns and Allen". She also was an accomplished voice over actress who supplied voice of Betty Rubble in "the Flintstones" and many Looney Tunes characters.
Mel Blanc (usually known as voice of Bugs Bunny), had it written into his contract that only he would receive credit for voices under most circumstances. So even where it's clearly not his voice (as in female) the other actors still usually did not receive credit. In this cartoon however neither Mr. Blanc nor Ms. Benaderat received credit.
Ms. Benaderat's most famous Looney Tunes voice over was for that obnoxious bobby-sox wearing teenager in "Little Red Riding Rabbit". She's the one who's taking a " a little bunny to her grandma, *Ta-HAVE*.
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