Kids, does your toilet look anything like this? This is a chamber pot from the late 1800s. You kept it under your bed and took it out to use it, especially at night when it was too dark to go to the outhouse. Then, in the morning, you had to empty it! Ask the adults you know if they ever had to use a chamber pot.
Around the 3:30 mark begins a five-minute discussion of plumbing history in Epsiode 218: The Monaco | Plumbing August 19, 2024 Granite Ridge Builders on YouTube.
Join the BTS crew as they lay the groundwork for this luxurious masterpiece, ensuring every pipe, faucet, and fixture is perfectly placed. From innovative solutions to top-notch craftsmanship, you’ll see how our attention to detail guarantees a flawless, custom home experience. Stay tuned to witness the magic of bringing a dream home to life, one pipe at a time!
Today's attitude towards outhouses is different from the days when they were a functional necessity.
It's not too late to build your outhouse and enter the Allen County Fair Outhouse Races. Registration is only $40 and...
It's not too late to build your outhouse and enter the Allen County Fair Outhouse Races. Registration is only $40 and the winning team gets $500, second place $300 and third place $150. This is a new event and we can't wait for Sunday, July 31st to see what people have made and put them to the test. You can register the day of the event.
Most Montanans have seen the inside of at least one outhouse, but did you know that the federal government built about 2.3 million outhouses during the 1930s and early 1940s? While the Depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) economic relief program is known for large-scale infrastructure projects like dams and civic centers, it also worked to improve rural sanitation and public health. The WPA provided the outhouse plans and labor, and the property owner provided the materials.
We hate to bring up the subject of , but this post is historically interesting!
Did you know that the federal government - through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) - built about 2.3 million outhouses during the 1930s and early 1940s?
The WPA was established during the Great Depression as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's “New Deal,” which provided jobs and improved infrastructure around the nation. While the program was best known for completing large scale projects, 2.3 million outhouses were constructed across the country to improve sanitation and public health in rural areas.
Every WPA outhouse was identical in both design and construction. They were built with a 4’ x 5’ foot wooden frame, a hanging roof with a 6” wide fascia board on all sides, square pots set at a 45-degree angle, and a ventilation chimney with a metal screen that vented polluted air outside and kept flies from coming inside. Each outhouse was also constructed with a concrete foundation, floor, and vault because it was quickly discovered that outhouses with wooden vaults and floors were extremely difficult to clean and deteriorated quickly.
Because of its association with the WPA and the “New Deal” program, this one-hole outhouse was known on the ranch as the “Roosevelt Building.”
WPA Outhouses: Humble But Historic at the Franklin Township Historical Society, Marion County, Indianapolis, Indiana.
A few of these WPA constructions still remain standing in Franklin Township. Our latest publication, Humble but Historic, The Surviving WPA Outhouses of Franklin Township, Marion County, Indiana, includes a brief history and photograph of each of the 10 remaining outhouse buildings, as well as a copy of the “Indiana Community Sanitation Program Regulation Manual, Sponsored By United States Public Health Service, Indiana Division of Public Health Works Progress Administration,” which directed the workers in building the structures and a copy of the “Maintenance Rules” to be tacked to the wall of each finished outhouse. (One of the township’s outhouses still has these rules fastened to the wall!)
Local History Nugget: Ever wondered about the early comforts of presidential homes? President Buchanan's Lancaster residence, Wheatland, offers a unique glimpse into the past with its eight-seat privy!
This fascinating historical feature wasn't just any old outhouse—it was designed with five seats of varying sizes and heights, thoughtfully accommodating the Jenkins Family's eleven children who first lived there. It's a testament to the ingenuity of the time, ensuring everyone from toddlers to adults could access the facilities comfortably.
Fast forward to post-1868, and Harriet Lane, Buchanan's niece, brought a touch of modern luxury to Wheatland by introducing indoor plumbing and even a bidet, marking a significant upgrade in-home amenities. Next time you visit LancasterHistory, take a closer look at this "robust" privy and appreciate a piece of presidential privy history!
Modern-day visitors to Mount Vernon often ask about the location of the bathrooms in the Mansion; there were none. Mount...
Modern-day visitors to Mount Vernon often ask about the location of the bathrooms in the Mansion; there were none. Mount Vernon had outdoor toilets called necessaries.
In the 18th century, there were probably four necessaries spread out around the Mansion House grounds. During cold nights, the Washington family, their guests, the estate’s enslaved workers, and servants used chamber pots in their rooms.
Today, there are two restored necessaries at Mount Vernon. They are located just outside the Upper and Lower Gardens, but they are no longer used. Each has three seats fitted with large, removable wooden drawers for cleaning.
Learn more about the necessaries:
Did George Washington Have A Bathroom? January 18, 2019 George Washington's Mount Vernonon YouTube
Did George Washington have a bathroom? Of course, people in the 18th century didn't have the same kind of bathrooms we do today, but what they did have was very basic and functional. At Mount Vernon, there are two necessary's on the estate for visitors to see.
Toilet History Museum The Toilet History Museum is a private museum in Kyiv, Ukraine, that contains the largest collection of toilet-related souvenirs and items in the world, including historic chamber pots, squatting pans, and urinals. The museum was founded in 2006 by a Ukrainian couple who worked in the plumbing business and is currently housed in a building within the Kyiv Fortress. In 2016, the Guinness World Records recognized it as "the largest collection of souvenir toilet bowls in the world" on Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
July 23, 2024 post on True Fort Wayne Indiana History on Facebook asks about the former underground restrooms at the Allen County Courthouse. Comments indicate the entrance to the womens restroom was on the northeast corner while the mens entrance was on the northwest corner. A charge of 10 cents or tokens were available at one time. In the 1940s and 1950s a women handed out towels with a tip plate. Conditions were unattractive in the 1960s.
I’m sure you have seen this illustration of the Wabash County Courthouse many times before, but have you looked closely...
I’m sure you have seen this illustration of the Wabash County Courthouse many times before, but have you looked closely at the picture it does reveal much more. For instance, did you know there was a fence at one time around the courthouse? Look again over to the southwest corner of the courthouse lawn at the octagon shaped building. That was a building very important to carrying out business at the courthouse. It was the public privy also known as a necessary or outhouse. Pretty fancy one if you ask me. It was a “three holer” with three separate doors. They were “necessary” just like today for emergencies when downtown. However, in the fall of 1893, it became the center of unwanted notoriety at the hands of the Wabash Plain Dealer. One fall day in 1893 an unnamed man of German extraction visiting the courthouse on official business found the need to use the facilities. He entered the structure and, fearing that the building might not be clean, struck a match so that he might survey his surroundings. Satisfied, he dropped the match down the vault, and instantly there was a loud explosion. The door he had just walked through was blown into the yard, casing and all. In fact, all three doors were blown from their hinges and out into the yard. “Great seams were torn in the building at the corners.” The man was thrown out of the privy with all sorts of debris falling around him. The minute he discovered he was not dead he started on the run for the gin mill across the street. A witness to the explosion said he was dodging debris “with a wild look in his eye, and the hair on his head pointing toward the heavens, and his suspenders extending in a perpendicular line.” The fence was no obstacle for the man “he jumped over the iron fence surrounding the courthouse lawn like a frightened deer.” He rushed into John Pitt’s saloon “grasped hold of the bar and exclaimed, ‘Give me some schnapps!!’” After that he was able to relate his harrowing ordeal to the men crowded about him. The Plain Dealer described the damage to the privy “all three doors were blown from their hinges and out into the yard. Great seams were torn in the building at the corners, and the side toward the courthouse had to be propped to keep it from tumbling.” Oh by the way, the county commissioners rebuilt the outhouse it was “necessary” to the county business.
Remember back in 2020 when people all over the country, including Wabash, went crazy buying up toilet paper? People were...
Remember back in 2020 when people all over the country, including Wabash, went crazy buying up toilet paper? People were frantic to buy the stuff. Shelves of toilet paper were emptied in local stores . Even the price went up. It’s an item we don’t much talk about but greatly appreciate. This is a post card from my collection celebrating a day I’ll bet you never celebrated “A Century of Progress” in 1957, of all things toilet paper.
We Hoosiers like to celebrate events. A while back we celebrated the 200th anniversary of the state of Indiana, 150th anniversary of the 1866 incorporation of Wabash, Christmas, a New Year, Valentine's Day, Presidents Day, Columbus Day and soon St. Patrick's day. But somehow I missed this one and its following sesquicentennial celebration in 2007.
The Chinese were the first to use toilet paper as early as the 6th Century AD. However, it was Joseph Gayetty of the U.S. who is credited with the invention of the modern toilet paper in 1857. As this post card shows we Hoosiers used corn cobs (or husks), newspapers and catalogue books before settling on toilet paper.
Gladys Airgood remembers that her family “used Farmer's Guide and Prairie Farmer magazines as well as newspaper. Catalog pages were stiff and slick.” Tina Schultz Sult adds “I remember visiting one of my aunt’s when I was younger and they had Sears catalogs in their two setter back house for personal use and your readings pleasure.”
With corn cobs and newspaper made of rag content the outhouses would quickly fill up. In that case you called on the town’s "honey dipper" who would clean it out for you and dispose of it in Charley Creek near he present day Ferry St. bridge.
And then along came Sir Thomas Craper who improved indoor plumbing for us, but that is another story. And you thought toilet paper couldn't be exciting!
, but this post is historically interesting!
