VIDEO HERE (8:16 minutes)
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The first house I bought in California was a Craftsman house, built in 1921, and had both a milk door and knob and tube wiring.
Monday, December 11, 2023
10 Old Home Features That Have Faded Into History
Explore the fascinating world of historic old home features and architecture! Discover how features like icebox, picture rail, butler's pantry, milk doors and dumbwaiters added unique charm to the houses of yesteryear. Learn about the evolution of home heating from coal chutes and transom windows. See how knob and tube wiring, wash basins, and servant quarters tell a story of past lifestyles. Join us on a journey through the architectural history of houses, where each room, from the parlor to the pantry, reveals a piece of our heritage.
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Picture rails make a lot of sense, I'm surprised they aren't more popular.
ReplyDeleteI had a couple homes built. First one had cable I tried to run every where. Second had ethernet and cable run everywhere. Now it is wireless.
ReplyDeleteKnob and tube wiring may be quaint but it was replaced for good reason. It wasn't safe.
ReplyDeleteThe tubes make a good sharpener for a knife. Won't do it all, but a nice touch up snd easy to carry or stash.
DeleteKnob and tube is the only wiring system that is still serviceable after a flood.
DeleteIts only shortcoming is, polarity must be checked at each outlet, and double insulated devices should be used.
The NEC still recognizes it, but any device replaced, must be GFCI.
Local jurisdictions vary.
I'm a fan of conduit esthetic!
ReplyDeleteChutes Magoo
That's nuts. I watched that about 4 hours ago when YouTube recommended it, for some reason I did not understand. I really only watched it to see why YT might have suggested it, and while I wouldn't have sought it out, I didn't mind the time spent. At least at 2x speed...
ReplyDeleteI used to have friends (both now deceased) who lived in a house with a dumbwaiter. Wasn't an old house either - probably 60's. I can see the utility; in that case, bring groceries up from the garage level to the kitchen.
ReplyDeleteYou still see transom windows, but they typically don't open.
He included wash basins, but not the chamber pot? Especially when one of his stills shows the pot right there on the bottom shelf? Indoor plumbing is certainly a major improvement.
You also don't often see chair rails these days.
-- Mr. Mayo
The ice box is a terrific solution to storing perishables. I'm surpised it isn't discussed more on 'prepper' sites. They all seem too optimistic that their solar panels are going to do the job of keeping their lifestyles unchanged whatever the circumstances.
ReplyDeleteTo do prepper ice boxes correctly, one needs to know how to harvest and store ice. Which is mostly a lost art. Very time consuming but uses a lot of sawdust.
DeleteBeans, I sure do remember the old ice houses. I helped cut ice in the lakes and ponds in the fifties. Big blocks. You would start the ice house by throwing down several inches of saw dust, than blocks of ice. Another layer of saw dust then more ice and so on until the ice house was full. On a hot summers day we would grab an ice pick which was always present at ice house and chip off a piece and rub in on our necks and chew on it. Good days.
DeleteAt the beginning of the 1800s, America's biggest export crop (by weight) was ice. It was harvested in New England in purpose built shallow ponds, stored in ice houses, and sent by ship as far as India, insulated in sawdust.
DeleteArmour Sarkela, the last White shore-launched commercial fisherman on Lake Superior, ran a small sawmill on the side and my family helped him haul in blocks in the winter.
DeleteI always liked the Eskimo Candy, smoked lake trout eyeballs.
Milk Chutes. Coal chutes. Laundry chutes. Finished wood floors just around the walls.
ReplyDeleteMy Grandmothers house in Detroit is still occupied and fromt he looks of Google street view is in good shape. That house had a milk door and a coal chute but was later converted to fuel oil. There was also a laundry chute that went from the bathroom upstairs to the laundry room in the basement. The interior walls were lath and plaster. Grandma would phone an order down to the corner grocer and they would sent over a boy with the groceries in the boxes stuff came to the store in. On line ordering, home delivery, and recycling are nothing new.
ReplyDeleteI own a Craftsman-built house circa1934ish. Had to do some work on it after I bought it. Among other issues was that some SOB had convinced the little old Lady who owned it that she needed to cover the original two and a half inch ship-lap-siding with *@#%$&*% cheap white vinyl siding. Couldn't save the original siding cause the SOB installed the new siding with roofing nails. Ripped it off and installed 6" (period correct)Florida red cedar. What's really neat is there are four other Craftsman houses on the same street.
ReplyDeleteI have a cottage in western North Carolina that has some non-working knob and tube wiring still in the basement. When I started restoring this place almost 20 years ago it had kitchen cabinets with hidden compartments that had empty Canadian whiskey bottles in it. The cabinets were too far gone to save. There is also a hidden compartment in the fireplace large enough to put 2 rifles in it.
ReplyDeleteRented a house on the Gulf of Mexico in the late 80's.....the kitchen had an ice box complete with a drain tube through the floor....house was built in the early 20's....neat ol' place....6" V joint heart pine walls throughout....
ReplyDeleteDisappointment rooms
ReplyDeleteI still call the fridge "the icebox" every now and then. The old folks called them that or "hieleras" (spanish).
ReplyDeleteGrumpy - Used to own a very modest Eaton's Catalog House. The rooms weren't entirely spacious, yet were easy to heat. It was surprisingly quiet, as conversations in the next room didn't interfere with ones in the room you were in. Had chair rails out of fir..... which leads to the major issue in old homes: this one was made of fir, and fir from those days wasn't filled with knots but harvested around 1905 and when I had to redo some drywall, it necessitated every screw hole be pre-drilled for the drywalls screws, as the wood had cured so hard.
ReplyDeleteThe building had been moved from its original location back in the 1950s, so it had a full basement with a cistern underneath the floor of the basement - it was ten feet deep and twenty feet across; huge by any standards, and it was still water tight. The spot for the coal chute had been converted into access for the central air conditioning.
Grew up in a house with coal heat, remember the coal truck coming up the driveway. Parents changed to oil in the 60's.
ReplyDelete