If I had to guess, Texas, I'd guess that this kitchen was re-modeled. I suspect that the original sink was a single basin (to one side of the receptacle), and that the cord goes to a garbage disposall under the sink.
(How the disposall is switched is anyone's guess!) ~renosteinke
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That does not appear to be true either. It's obvious that those cabinets and counter are at least as old as the 1970s, as well as the faucet.
Unless that outlet was there even before that, I would suspect it was always like that. The GFCI, however was obviously added fairly recently, so the original outlet install was not even GFCI protected.
