I live in a place called the City of Homes. It's in MA, and ports of beautiful Victorians and the like. Its customary around here to keep homes as original as possible. My childhood home was a feudal colonial that hadn't had a thing updated when my parents bought it. I still vastly prefer the creaking wooden floors and the details of those homes. They knew how to build quality homes then
I'm 49 and back in the early 80s when I was just old enough to get into real trouble friends and I would tie fishing line to door knockers and then hide in bushes. We'd do this at night when the fishing line couldn't be seen and we infuriated our fair share of families. They would come running out or peep through the window getting frustrated. Finally one night a guy saw the line from the glare of a street light and followed it towards us. He chased us for at least two blocks and that was the last time we did that. This video reminded me of just how common knockers were back then. Thanks for the nostalgia.
My dad built our house in 1961, and included a whole house fan, central vacuum system, hidden fold-down ironing board and bathroom scale. We also had a speaker and intercom system for every room and even outside spaces. It was centered around the reel to reel tape player, radio and turntable that also folded down out of the wall, but you could also talk to people in other rooms or answer the front door. Many of my little friends were intimidated by answering the adult voice that appeared out of nowhere on the front stoop! 😄 That usually just happened if we were eating dinner three rooms away….
I trained as a RN in the ‘60-‘70s. My dorm and hospital were built in ‘32, so had most of these features. The push button light switches, radiators, dumb waiters, and laundry shoots! We even had manually operated elevator doors with the accordion cage and a sliding door and a big brass lever to activate motion. Yes, I wore all white with a wide cap, just like the very old movies.
The door knockers (we had a very loud one when I was growing up), push button light switches, and communication devices were breaking technology at the time, very cool to see these amenities still in use. I remember burning the daylights out of myself when I was young on a radiator, it was like a learning experience right of passage
In some states it is now illegal to build a house with a laundry chute because of potential fire hazards (ironically i just found out about this a few days ago).
I am 76 and grew up in Baltimore. Our house had those windows that opened over the doors. I remember my dad taking charge of that as well as the tremendous relief of putting in a huge window fan when I was around 9 or 10 years of age. The summer heat and humidity were terrible. Those windows and the fans made a big difference. I remember when our local movie theater had air conditioning installed! Wow! What an experience that was! Everyone got to see a movie and get cool at 35 cents...no kidding. Popcorn was 10 cents a bag. This was the Grand Theater located on Conkling St. and Eastern Avenue.
@@lynnjacobs8728 Yes indeed. Those were the days! When I was very young, my mother took me to the Grand Theater and there was a big organ in the front where a man played music during intermission. There was also a vaudeville act I recall. I think that was the last time that entertainment was offered before they went strictly film. Lots of memories. :)
I'm almost 69, and I think the prices were the same when I was 9-10 (1965ish) Then when they started to raise, the prices just kept raising over and over! I now haven't been to a movie since 2009, and that was the cartoon UP. 🎈😂
No matter how hectic my present day is, your videos always give me a pause to catch my breath and just remember back to earlier, simpler times. Thank you!!
My grandmother had a Victorian home that was built in the 1890’s in South Texas. The house ha 12’ ceilings and transoms over every door. She didn’t get the house air conditioning until my dad told my mom that he wasn’t going back until there was A/C, and I sided with him. So, in the mid 1960’s my mom bought central HVAC for her mom. Grandma also used an oak icebox that held a 25lb. block of ice that she would have delivered every morning. My uncle came down to visit her and bought her a new refrigerator about that same time. I always loved the house and its huge wrap around porches. I would always sleep in the turret bedroom because of all the windows.
When I was a kid in the 50's we had steam heat in our house. The boiler was fired with coal and the coal truck would deliver coal at the back of the house down the chute. The popping sound was usually from the pipes and radiators heating up. My mom would put a pan of water on top of the radiator in the bedrooms to try and help keep us from drying out like mummies in a crypt during the night. A lesson we learned pretty quick, early in life, don't touch the radiators. We also had milk and other dairy products including bread delivered. We didn't have the door in the side of the house for it but a good sized insulated galvanized bin with a lid that sat on the porch. We didn't have air conditioning but, dad put a window fan in a window at one end of the house and turned it on exhaust then opening all the other windows created an air flow that helped you get to sleep on sweltering nights. The air would eventually dry up the sweat on your body and you could fall asleep. 😅
We live in a tri level built in 1967. We have an attic fan in the upper level along with a clothes chute to the lower level. When we moved in 25 years ago, the house still had an intercom system.
A whole house fan is a MUST. It is not so much for temperature but for a constant nice breeze. I love mine. Summer = warm breeze, winter = much needed fresh air.
I grew up in the 80s, but the home I grew up in my dad built in 1976 and I distinctly remember the ironing board that came out of the wall in the laundry room. I never remember my mom ever putting it up but it always stayed down and at times acted more as a table than an ironing board. 😂
I installed one of these in my home a couple of years ago. It's awesome! The Iron stays plugged in, there is a light and it's always ready. When the iron folds up, the power goes off.
The house l grew up in was built at the turn of the century. It still had pipes in the walls left over from gaslights. Instead of having a door knocker, it had bell/chime mounted on the door, which was operated by a turnkey on the outside.
I remember a guy in a horse drawn wagon selling fruit and vegetables in my neighborhood. Also, a man with a pony so the kids can have their picture taken on the pony right outside your house. A man with a stone wheel would come by and all you had to do was bring your knives to him and he would sharpen them all. And many more wonderful things that you no longer see.
There is two things that I refuse to do. 1 remove turn of the century amenities, 2 gut out a well preserved 50’s/60’s home…now I will offer to update the functionality of the electrical, HVAC, insulation, plumbing, and restore the original fixtures, but I will not rip out cabinets, fixtures, sinks, built-ins etc. etc. as I always say “I’m not saying it can’t be done, but I am saying, I won’t be the one doing it”
Many of these were in my home growing up in the early 1960s. We also had a cellar storm door, which had been used for coal deliveries before our old coal furnace was set aside for a modern gas furnace. When the milkman came by, kids would run out to get chunks of ice, some weighing over 5 pounds. We also had a single bathroom, for a household with 6 kids.
@@SpotTheBorgCat I had two great aunts and a great uncle who lived on their northeast Ohio farm until they were in their 90s. We'd go visit them, and even in the 1970s they had no indoor plumbing or electricity. When my great uncle died, the family convinced the aunts to move into the city. People were made differently in those days.
Missed the little metal door on the outside of fireplaces. It helped when cleaning out the firebox. With today's insert fireplaces, the door is now gone.
My house was built in the late 1800's one feature that the house still has is an old cistern in the basement, it is used to hold rainwater to use for washing dishes, washing your hands, etc. But not for drinking, though.
My grandparents house had so many of these things. It had transom windows throughout and a sleeping porch. There was a phone nook with an old rotary phone, a boot scrape and a hitching post identical to the one in the video. It also had the milk and ice doors and even a coal shoot, although I don't think any of them were still in use by the time I came around. I have very fond memories of that house.
11:45 The home I grew up in had a small iron door on the side of it like that, but it wasn't for a Kohl shoot. It was on the back side of the fireplace so it was a small door that could be used from outside to clean all the ash out of the fireplace.
1989-1992, Gilchrist Hall, at Florida State University, had steam radiators when I went there. The first time maintenance turned the steam on, it was in the middle of the night. The pinging and clanking they made had EVERYONE out in the halls asking, What was that noise! The Resident Assistant had to stand on a chair to get folks to calm down, as he explained what was going on. The heat was not adjustable and bone-dry, so you had to keep the window open, or else you couldn't breathe. But when the heat shut off, the room would be freezing in no time. Oh, and the pinging and clanking? Nonstop and irregular. So there wasn't any white noise rhythm. You went to sleep, because you were just too tired to stay awake. However, for double the dorm fee, and if there were any vacancies, the newer dorms had central heat and air. My senior year, I had enough seniority on the waiting list.
I have lived in houses with alot of these things. In houses of the 1920,s I have seen the refrigerator in a separate spot sometimes near a side or back door. This also was for the ice man to deliver the blocks of ice for the icebox without going far into the house. Also the coal room was a feature in the basement with a coal door on the side of the house to the outside. Also push button light switches were the new thing. do not forget the milk door for storing the milk delivery! Laundry chutes are the greatest!
Had it in one of our childhood homes. My mother and dad, both, considered it nothing short of a miracle. Sure made doing laundry much much easier. -Like you humorously pointed out 😅
We also had a Laundry Chute in our first house we bought it was in the very small hallway.. Unfortunately,it didn't land in the laundry room it landed on top of our wet bar!! Needless to say we obviously never used it!!
Growing up in deep South Texas, near the coast, the weather was always hot and humid, so my parents always had central HVAC. The first unit we had was a commercial unit that my dad had installed shortly before I was born. He had built a new super market a shopping center and had the HVAC contractor install a unit in our house at the same time in 1951. It ran on ammonia instead of Freon and had a large cooling tower in our backyard instead of a normal heat exchanger. My whole life he would keep the air in the house set at 68°, year around.
Whole house fans are still great today. Especially when it's going to be hot but the morning is cool. You can get the cool air in and close the windows and save lots of money. We intalled one in a house a few years ago. We used it all the time.
One aspect of old houses that I always wonder about is the narrow doorways. It was an era of giant heavy solid wood furniture, but an inside door over 31-32 inches wide was rare. I once found a beautiful huge roll top desk at an estate sale. But it was on the 3rd floor of a Victorian house. It would've taken a hole in the roof and a crane to get out. It was so ridiculous, it caused dudes to congregate and theorize how it got up there.
I wonder if there really was a reason for the smaller doorways, or if they just started doing it that way? The only reason I can think of for them is to limit air (heating and cooling) lost, but that doesn't really seem right. All I know is that once you live in a home with ADA wide doors and hallways, you'll never want regular doorways again lol. On the furniture: yeah, they came apart or were built there. We actually inherited a valuable piece of furniture from my dad's parents that his brother wanted, but since brother couldn't figure out how to move it, he let us have it. I imagine he was pretty pissed when mom went over and popped the top half off lol. I don't remember what it was - secretary or barrister's bookcases, or whatever - just remember that victory lol
My house is over 200 years old, has a tone of history . It all started with the mines, the area was a huge mining area and my house was owned by the bosses, the blacksmiths, pitpony stables and the foremen. The house itself is just a 'Frankenstein'. It was built with whatever materials they had and still works well. Apart from it being freezing in the winter though.
Born in 1955 I remember or used each and every one of these items. You did forget, however, the double front doors on early homes; those WERE so the coffin could get into the family parlor for a wake.
Central Vac systems. I worked for a security company a few years ago that did "Whole Home Solutions". We would install alarms, cameras, Entertainment Systems, & CENTRAL VAC! I hated installing them, especially if the GC called us AFTER the drywall was already installed.
We had a laundry chute in the house I grew up in. That house was built in 1966. In 1986 I built a new home and had a laundry chute put in. I remember as a kid being in older homes that had push button light switches.
Wrap around porches were much more common then. Fancy front doors such as made with stain glass fronts are rare nowadays. Roofs were rarely made with high pitches at least in the South. Windows were made of a single glass piece vs double paned commonly done today.
High pitches are needed for places that get a lot of snow. Despite not getting a lot of snow, the South still does get SOME and should really consider winter-proofing.
@@katie7748 A house I once owned near Jackson, MS. had an extremely high pitched roof. All others in the South were low pitched roofs and were easy to walk on for repair.
Whole house fans are back. I always thought that would be a great idea and had no idea it has been around for a while. My last house had one installed in the 2000's.
You didn't include the "California Cooler". A California cooler or cold air box, is a device to keep food in storage at low temperature by passing a current of outside air through apertures in the wall into a closed container built into the wall - at great savings in the ice bills.” Our house in the Berkeley hills has one in the kitchen, a wooden cabinet with slats for shelving. It has an opening allowing air from outside to enter from the bottom and exit thru the top vent.
My great-grandparents house had all of these old features including 12 foot ceilings. My parents, born in the 1920s often mentioned spending the night on the "sleeping porch" because there was no air conditioning back then. Thanks for this video. It brings back fond memories.
I think I’d like a sleeping porch. I would definitely sleep on it in the hot summer because I don’t like air conditioning. I like to hear the night sounds. 🦗
There are so many practical and interesting things that I wish were still in use. I have a Hoosier Cabinet and it is my pride and joy. I am short. The counters and cabinets in kitchens are too tall for comfortable work. I can only reach to the second tier of the cabinets so 3 or4 go to waste. It's horrid and the storage in these cabinets are not the best. With my Hoosier I have massive storage. Both for things like utensils and pots, pans and baking and bowls. cake pans and cookie sheets. Plus my cooking stuff like spices, and bake stuff. And it takes a NY minute to clean up after making stuff. I also have 2 butcher blocks that pull out. It is the dream of kitchen work. Easy and quick to clean up and storage galore. Plus the work counter is lower which for me is a dream. I don't see the benefit of cabinets and such when these little gems are amazing. Have 2 Hoosiers and all your kitchen things have a place and take up less room. There are so many things on this video I think are superior. The Transom windows and other ways to let summer breezes in so you don't have to run an air conditioner unless it is really hot. Fresh air. I hate having to be stuck inside with air when it is not that hot but cannot get a good breeze to cool it down. I think the vacuum systems look interesting. You don't have to lug a vacuum around. A sleeping porch also looks cool. Push button lighting is also cool. When I was a kid, and I lived in regular suburbia, we had a laundry Shute. They are great and I've always missed those.
I had never heard of the coffin corner. Weren’t people usually laid out in a parlor which would be downstairs? It seems like you wouldn’t carry them down in the coffin. Maybe on a board?
We had an attic fan in our first home. The home was 1000sq ft with no AC. The attic fan worked really well And would pull hot air out of the house very quickly.
I was born in 1959.My family lived in a small house in a rural area in Western New York. The basement had a large open cement water cistern. On occasion a large water truck would come to the house.The delivery man opened the basement window,ran a long hose from the truck to the cistern and pumped in many gallons of water. That was the water supply for the house. I never seen or heard about anyone ever having something like that to this day except for that house.
As an aficionado of old houses, I loved this video! I still have my grandmother's Hoosier. The height is perfect for rolling and cutting out cookies! Our 1950s house had huge plate glass windows called picture windows, not seen so much in later homes.
We still have a milk box. Get deliveries from Royal Crest Dairy every Thursday morning, before we even think about getting out of bed. Must only be a Colorado thing. Not an outside/inside thing, just a wooden box on our front porch.
I have seen the root cellars around the older properties here. Now I know what these things are! My grandmother had a coal door on the side of her house, it was sealed off, though.
In the south many of the real old homes had a cupola on the roof in the center of the house. All of the hot air went up a shaft in the middle of the house and out the roof. That along with very high ceilings, made the home much cooler in the summer. I don't think the attic fans were invented then and they came later to blow the air upwards.
This was extremely interesting to me. Thank you for giving me a bit of a history lesson that otherwise I would have never known. My great aunt had a dumb waiter and it worked quite well. I think my Great uncle Leo redid it- it was super smooth. When we visited it was a real treat to get orange juice sent up before breakfast.
One reason I bought my home in 1990 was because it had a laundry chute in the bathroom. My daughter has a laundry chute in her home too. My grandmother had a milk door and a built-in ironing board in the kitchen of her home. I almost found out the hard way that there was a board in a closet. Also, every military household has an ironing board in it. A fact of military life. I had a very rich aunt who had a central vacuum system in her home. My home still uses oil heat. It has been cheaper than natural gas. Every house I lived in from 1959-1971 had push-button light switches. You should have touched on fireplace andirons and heat screens when you showed off the fireplaces.
There are still boot scrapers outside the entrances to our ranch house. They’ve been there for years, and if you’re heading indoor you check your boots. lol
Had laundry chute growing up. Later I owned an arts and crafts bungalow that had cool features including a slot in the medicine cabinet for used razor blades. I remodeled and found a coffee can full of rusty blades in the wall. It also had a pantry and a coal room.
Built a new house in 2008. We decided to install a central vacuum system. 5 years later the wife decided it's a pain and bought a Eureka vacuum cleaner. The central system is never used now. So much for "innovation."
Beautiful houses and home.Speaking tubes are replaced with texting and phoning you plus face time now.i still miss the old days and times.i still dress up and steam and iron my clothes.Love this channel❤
I remodeled, a previous 80’s remodel, that still had razor blades in the wall. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what was going on, being that the old medicine cabinet was already eliminated, and I’d never heard of this prior.
We had oil baseboard heat in the house I grew up in, but the tank was buried in the backyard. We also had an attic fan which was great in spring and fall. We ran A/C in summer though.
I live in a place called the City of Homes. It's in MA, and ports of beautiful Victorians and the like. Its customary around here to keep homes as original as possible. My childhood home was a feudal colonial that hadn't had a thing updated when my parents bought it. I still vastly prefer the creaking wooden floors and the details of those homes. They knew how to build quality homes then
I love old houses--the architecture, all the neat practical features!
I'm 49 and back in the early 80s when I was just old enough to get into real trouble friends and I would tie fishing line to door knockers and then hide in bushes. We'd do this at night when the fishing line couldn't be seen and we infuriated our fair share of families. They would come running out or peep through the window getting frustrated. Finally one night a guy saw the line from the glare of a street light and followed it towards us. He chased us for at least two blocks and that was the last time we did that. This video reminded me of just how common knockers were back then. Thanks for the nostalgia.
It's always a good day whenever Recollection Road uploads
My dad built our house in 1961, and included a whole house fan, central vacuum system, hidden fold-down ironing board and bathroom scale. We also had a speaker and intercom system for every room and even outside spaces. It was centered around the reel to reel tape player, radio and turntable that also folded down out of the wall, but you could also talk to people in other rooms or answer the front door. Many of my little friends were intimidated by answering the adult voice that appeared out of nowhere on the front stoop! 😄 That usually just happened if we were eating dinner three rooms away….
I trained as a RN in the ‘60-‘70s. My dorm and hospital were built in ‘32, so had most of these features. The push button light switches, radiators, dumb waiters, and laundry shoots! We even had manually operated elevator doors with the accordion cage and a sliding door and a big brass lever to activate motion. Yes, I wore all white with a wide cap, just like the very old movies.
It’s so nice to reminisce of so many features! I miss the white uniform and cap!💕
Laundry CHUTE, not shoot.
The door knockers (we had a very loud one when I was growing up), push button light switches, and communication devices were breaking technology at the time, very cool to see these amenities still in use. I remember burning the daylights out of myself when I was young on a radiator, it was like a learning experience right of passage
Did you ride a horse 🐴 😅😅😅
@@lesjones5684 Yes, a '68 Mustang.
If I ever build a house, the laundry chute is a must.
In some states it is now illegal to build a house with a laundry chute because of potential fire hazards (ironically i just found out about this a few days ago).
Hotels and Condos have them. Why not?
I had a childhood friend with a laundry chute and was always fascinated with it. I prefer one story houses tho.
@@jchow5966Screw what the guvvv says you can and can't have in your house (gas stoves come to mind as a recent example). Do it anyway!!
Having the laundry room where most of the bedrooms and bathrooms are reduce having to lug it up and down stairs is helpful.
When we built in the 1990s we had a whole house fan installed and love it. What I wish we had that I never see anymore is a true attic.
I am 76 and grew up in Baltimore. Our house had those windows that opened over the doors. I remember my dad taking charge of that as well as the tremendous relief of putting in a huge window fan when I was around 9 or 10 years of age. The summer heat and humidity were terrible. Those windows and the fans made a big difference. I remember when our local movie theater had air conditioning installed! Wow! What an experience that was! Everyone got to see a movie and get cool at 35 cents...no kidding. Popcorn was 10 cents a bag. This was the Grand Theater located on Conkling St. and Eastern Avenue.
I’m in Baltimore too, and you got two movies, and a cartoon. And you could watch the movies, as many times as you wanted.
@@lynnjacobs8728 Yes indeed. Those were the days! When I was very young, my mother took me to the Grand Theater and there was a big organ in the front where a man played music during intermission. There was also a vaudeville act I recall. I think that was the last time that entertainment was offered before they went strictly film. Lots of memories. :)
I'm almost 69, and I think the prices were the same when I was 9-10 (1965ish) Then when they started to raise, the prices just kept raising over and over! I now haven't been to a movie since 2009, and that was the cartoon UP. 🎈😂
As always, excellence in historical accuracy, in a fun and friendly manner.
No matter how hectic my present day is, your videos always give me a pause to catch my breath and just remember back to earlier, simpler times. Thank you!!
The home I grew up in (Late 1950's to mid 1970's) was 1892 vintage, had MANY of these features! So nostalgic!
i remember many of these...not necessarily in the home i grew up in but grandparents and greats. we really need some of those things again!
Still have a attic fan! And love using it! In the spring and fall!
My grandmother had a Victorian home that was built in the 1890’s in South Texas. The house ha 12’ ceilings and transoms over every door. She didn’t get the house air conditioning until my dad told my mom that he wasn’t going back until there was A/C, and I sided with him. So, in the mid 1960’s my mom bought central HVAC for her mom. Grandma also used an oak icebox that held a 25lb. block of ice that she would have delivered every morning. My uncle came down to visit her and bought her a new refrigerator about that same time. I always loved the house and its huge wrap around porches. I would always sleep in the turret bedroom because of all the windows.
When I was a kid in the 50's we had steam heat in our house. The boiler was fired with coal and the coal truck would deliver coal at the back of the house down the chute. The popping sound was usually from the pipes and radiators heating up. My mom would put a pan of water on top of the radiator in the bedrooms to try and help keep us from drying out like mummies in a crypt during the night. A lesson we learned pretty quick, early in life, don't touch the radiators.
We also had milk and other dairy products including bread delivered. We didn't have the door in the side of the house for it but a good sized insulated galvanized bin with a lid that sat on the porch.
We didn't have air conditioning but, dad put a window fan in a window at one end of the house and turned it on exhaust then opening all the other windows created an air flow that helped you get to sleep on sweltering nights. The air would eventually dry up the sweat on your body and you could fall asleep. 😅
We live in a tri level built in 1967. We have an attic fan in the upper level along with a clothes chute to the lower level. When we moved in 25 years ago, the house still had an intercom system.
Thanks for the memories, my time has surely changed in the last 5 decades!
A whole house fan is a MUST. It is not so much for temperature but for a constant nice breeze. I love mine. Summer = warm breeze, winter = much needed fresh air.
I grew up in the 80s, but the home I grew up in my dad built in 1976 and I distinctly remember the ironing board that came out of the wall in the laundry room. I never remember my mom ever putting it up but it always stayed down and at times acted more as a table than an ironing board. 😂
I installed one of these in my home a couple of years ago. It's awesome! The Iron stays plugged in, there is a light and it's always ready. When the iron folds up, the power goes off.
How sad that the ironing board always stayed down.
That means that ironing was never finished, meaning that there was ALWAYS ironing to do.
@@ilovenoodles7483 Horizontal spaces are the devils playground for clutter.
🤣🤣🤣
@@ilovenoodles7483 Ehh, some people don't mind ironing.
Great video as usual 👍👍
The house l grew up in was built at the turn of the century. It still had pipes in the walls left over from gaslights. Instead of having a door knocker, it had bell/chime mounted on the door, which was operated by a turnkey on the outside.
I remember a guy in a horse drawn wagon selling fruit and vegetables in my neighborhood. Also, a man with a pony so the kids can have their picture taken on the pony right outside your house. A man with a stone wheel would come by and all you had to do was bring your knives to him and he would sharpen them all. And many more wonderful things that you no longer see.
I would love to have ALL of these commonsense additions in my home.
There is two things that I refuse to do.
1 remove turn of the century amenities,
2 gut out a well preserved 50’s/60’s home…now I will offer to update the functionality of the electrical, HVAC, insulation, plumbing, and restore the original fixtures, but I will not rip out cabinets, fixtures, sinks, built-ins etc. etc. as I always say
“I’m not saying it can’t be done, but I am saying, I won’t be the one doing it”
May I second you
What about a Lawn Jockey?
@@angeldesigns1385 improve not replace, I like
@@jimdandy8996I have one. Do you know the history of them?
Many of these were in my home growing up in the early 1960s. We also had a cellar storm door, which had been used for coal deliveries before our old coal furnace was set aside for a modern gas furnace. When the milkman came by, kids would run out to get chunks of ice, some weighing over 5 pounds. We also had a single bathroom, for a household with 6 kids.
Indoor plumbing was still a fairly new thing in the 60's! Only a couple of decades old!
We had steam radiators in my apartment in the 1970's when I was a kid.
@@roncaruso931 I had them too, in the 1960s. The furnace just heated the water. At Halloween did you roast pumpkin seeds on the radiators?
@@SpotTheBorgCat I had two great aunts and a great uncle who lived on their northeast Ohio farm until they were in their 90s. We'd go visit them, and even in the 1970s they had no indoor plumbing or electricity. When my great uncle died, the family convinced the aunts to move into the city. People were made differently in those days.
@@bjs301 Yes! We did.
Missed the little metal door on the outside of fireplaces. It helped when cleaning out the firebox. With today's insert fireplaces, the door is now gone.
We had a couple of these items in our old house. We also had crystal door knobs. I loved those in our old house.
My house was built in the late 1800's one feature that the house still has is an old cistern in the basement, it is used to hold rainwater to use for washing dishes, washing your hands, etc. But not for drinking, though.
I remember some homes with the two-part toilets, where you had to pull a chain hanging from the overhead part to flush the toilet.
My grandparents house had so many of these things. It had transom windows throughout and a sleeping porch. There was a phone nook with an old rotary phone, a boot scrape and a hitching post identical to the one in the video. It also had the milk and ice doors and even a coal shoot, although I don't think any of them were still in use by the time I came around. I have very fond memories of that house.
* chute
Theses videos are so comforting to me. Thanks ☺️👍
11:45 The home I grew up in had a small iron door on the side of it like that, but it wasn't for a Kohl shoot. It was on the back side of the fireplace so it was a small door that could be used from outside to clean all the ash out of the fireplace.
1989-1992, Gilchrist Hall, at Florida State University, had steam radiators when I went there. The first time maintenance turned the steam on, it was in the middle of the night. The pinging and clanking they made had EVERYONE out in the halls asking, What was that noise! The Resident Assistant had to stand on a chair to get folks to calm down, as he explained what was going on. The heat was not adjustable and bone-dry, so you had to keep the window open, or else you couldn't breathe. But when the heat shut off, the room would be freezing in no time. Oh, and the pinging and clanking? Nonstop and irregular. So there wasn't any white noise rhythm. You went to sleep, because you were just too tired to stay awake. However, for double the dorm fee, and if there were any vacancies, the newer dorms had central heat and air. My senior year, I had enough seniority on the waiting list.
I have lived in houses with alot of these things. In houses of the 1920,s I have seen the refrigerator in a separate spot sometimes near a side or back door. This also was for the ice man to deliver the blocks of ice for the icebox without going far into the house. Also the coal room was a feature in the basement with a coal door on the side of the house to the outside. Also push button light switches were the new thing. do not forget the milk door for storing the milk delivery! Laundry chutes are the greatest!
I saw remnants of knob-and-tube wiring in the old house I was raised, but the wiring had long since been disconnected (fortunately!).
I miss the LAUNDRY CHUTE. You throw your laundry into the door and MAGICIALLY they showed up in your drawer 2 days later totally clean! 😂
Had it in one of our childhood homes. My mother and dad, both, considered it nothing short of a miracle. Sure made doing laundry much much easier. -Like you humorously pointed out 😅
We also had a Laundry Chute in our first house we bought it was in the very small hallway.. Unfortunately,it didn't land in the laundry room it landed on top of our wet bar!! Needless to say we obviously never used it!!
What is a wet bar I am from the UK
Thank You for the Video (and the memories) 😀
The Laundry "Chute" in my childhood home was actually a trap door in the floor of the bathroom closet... 😱
A kitchen in a separate building was also important to keep a kitchen fire from burning down the whole house. Not only to keep the house cooler.
Growing up in deep South Texas, near the coast, the weather was always hot and humid, so my parents always had central HVAC. The first unit we had was a commercial unit that my dad had installed shortly before I was born. He had built a new super market a shopping center and had the HVAC contractor install a unit in our house at the same time in 1951. It ran on ammonia instead of Freon and had a large cooling tower in our backyard instead of a normal heat exchanger. My whole life he would keep the air in the house set at 68°, year around.
Great nostalgia here. Love it.
Thank you for making this wonderful historical episode!!!!
Whole house fans are still great today. Especially when it's going to be hot but the morning is cool. You can get the cool air in and close the windows and save lots of money. We intalled one in a house a few years ago. We used it all the time.
Thank you i just love this
One aspect of old houses that I always wonder about is the narrow doorways. It was an era of giant heavy solid wood furniture, but an inside door over 31-32 inches wide was rare.
I once found a beautiful huge roll top desk at an estate sale. But it was on the 3rd floor of a Victorian house. It would've taken a hole in the roof and a crane to get out. It was so ridiculous, it caused dudes to congregate and theorize how it got up there.
I wonder if there really was a reason for the smaller doorways, or if they just started doing it that way? The only reason I can think of for them is to limit air (heating and cooling) lost, but that doesn't really seem right. All I know is that once you live in a home with ADA wide doors and hallways, you'll never want regular doorways again lol.
On the furniture: yeah, they came apart or were built there. We actually inherited a valuable piece of furniture from my dad's parents that his brother wanted, but since brother couldn't figure out how to move it, he let us have it. I imagine he was pretty pissed when mom went over and popped the top half off lol. I don't remember what it was - secretary or barrister's bookcases, or whatever - just remember that victory lol
@@epowell4211 lol nice one
I am familiar with some of these antique designs but others were new to me, much appreciated!
My house is over 200 years old, has a tone of history . It all started with the mines, the area was a huge mining area and my house was owned by the bosses, the blacksmiths, pitpony stables and the foremen. The house itself is just a 'Frankenstein'. It was built with whatever materials they had and still works well. Apart from it being freezing in the winter though.
Thank you.
Born in 1955 I remember or used each and every one of these items. You did forget, however, the double front doors on early homes; those WERE so the coffin could get into the family parlor for a wake.
Central Vac systems. I worked for a security company a few years ago that did "Whole Home Solutions". We would install alarms, cameras, Entertainment Systems, & CENTRAL VAC! I hated installing them, especially if the GC called us AFTER the drywall was already installed.
My parents have central vac in their house. I think it was built in the mid 80s. Nice not to have to drag the vacuum cleaner around in every room!
We had a laundry chute in the house I grew up in. That house was built in 1966. In 1986 I built a new home and had a laundry chute put in. I remember as a kid being in older homes that had push button light switches.
I wonder what 50 years from now will no longer be needed in a home that exists today?
Wrap around porches were much more common then. Fancy front doors such as made with stain glass fronts are rare nowadays. Roofs were rarely made with high pitches at least in the South. Windows were made of a single glass piece vs double paned commonly done today.
High pitches are needed for places that get a lot of snow. Despite not getting a lot of snow, the South still does get SOME and should really consider winter-proofing.
@@katie7748 A house I once owned near Jackson, MS. had an extremely high pitched roof. All others in the South were low pitched roofs and were easy to walk on for repair.
The old house I grew up in had nearly all of these features. Thanks for the memories.
Whole house fans are back. I always thought that would be a great idea and had no idea it has been around for a while. My last house had one installed in the 2000's.
You didn't include the "California Cooler". A California cooler or cold air box, is a device to keep food in storage at low temperature by passing a current of outside air through apertures in the wall into a closed container built into the wall - at great savings in the ice bills.” Our house in the Berkeley hills has one in the kitchen, a wooden cabinet with slats for shelving. It has an opening allowing air from outside to enter from the bottom and exit thru the top vent.
In Sonoma County, we called ours the "pie safe".
Thx for the new upload.. absolutely ❤️ this channel!
!!! I always wondered what that little iron door was for on the side of my house!!!
My great-grandparents house had all of these old features including 12 foot ceilings. My parents, born in the 1920s often mentioned spending the night on the "sleeping porch" because there was no air conditioning back then. Thanks for this video. It brings back fond memories.
My favorite are the homes with a screen in front porch. They are my favorite memories of homes in Idaho.
Great video
I think I’d like a sleeping porch. I would definitely sleep on it in the hot summer because I don’t like air conditioning. I like to hear the night sounds. 🦗
I'm with you there!
Just have to be careful with the number of crazies these days!
All I can imagine is a lazy rainy day napping on the porch
The house across the street had a cast iron hitching post. Place burnt down when a workman hit a gas line. They saved the post though.
I loveeeee these videos ❤❤❤❤❤❤
Awesome video 👍. Cool things in the old houses 😎
Oil tanks are still in use, many homes still heat with oil.
OMG, I remember way too many of these things.
Thank you for the term larger Estates in larger properties as opposed to what the "rich kids" had❤
The staircase niche was where they left a lantern or candle to light the stairs.
There are so many practical and interesting things that I wish were still in use.
I have a Hoosier Cabinet and it is my pride and joy. I am short. The counters and cabinets in kitchens are too tall for comfortable work. I can only reach to the second tier of the cabinets so 3 or4 go to waste. It's horrid and the storage in these cabinets are not the best.
With my Hoosier I have massive storage. Both for things like utensils and pots, pans and baking and bowls. cake pans and cookie sheets. Plus my cooking stuff like spices, and bake stuff. And it takes a NY minute to clean up after making stuff. I also have 2 butcher blocks that pull out. It is the dream of kitchen work. Easy and quick to clean up and storage galore. Plus the work counter is lower which for me is a dream. I don't see the benefit of cabinets and such when these little gems are amazing. Have 2 Hoosiers and all your kitchen things have a place and take up less room.
There are so many things on this video I think are superior. The Transom windows and other ways to let summer breezes in so you don't have to run an air conditioner unless it is really hot. Fresh air. I hate having to be stuck inside with air when it is not that hot but cannot get a good breeze to cool it down.
I think the vacuum systems look interesting. You don't have to lug a vacuum around.
A sleeping porch also looks cool.
Push button lighting is also cool.
When I was a kid, and I lived in regular suburbia, we had a laundry Shute. They are great and I've always missed those.
I had never heard of the coffin corner. Weren’t people usually laid out in a parlor which would be downstairs? It seems like you wouldn’t carry them down in the coffin. Maybe on a board?
I enjoy all your videos. However, this was especially great! learned alot I never knew. Thank you!😊
We had an attic fan in our first home. The home was 1000sq ft with no AC. The attic fan worked really well And would pull hot air out of the house very quickly.
I was born in 1959.My family lived in a small house in a rural area in Western New York.
The basement had a large open cement water cistern. On occasion a large water truck would come to the house.The delivery man opened the basement window,ran a long hose from the truck to the cistern and pumped in many gallons of water. That was the water supply for the house.
I never seen or heard about anyone ever having something like that to this day except for that house.
As an aficionado of old houses, I loved this video! I still have my grandmother's Hoosier. The height is perfect for rolling and cutting out cookies! Our 1950s house had huge plate glass windows called picture windows, not seen so much in later homes.
Transom windows were also quite common in office buildings years ago,oh and dont forget the huge octopus furnaces in older homes
We had the milk box, which evolved into a package delivery box. Unfortunately, after the home was sold the new owner bricked it up.
We still have a milk box. Get deliveries from Royal Crest Dairy every Thursday morning, before we even think about getting out of bed. Must only be a Colorado thing. Not an outside/inside thing, just a wooden box on our front porch.
I have seen the root cellars around the older properties here. Now I know what these things are! My grandmother had a coal door on the side of her house, it was sealed off, though.
In the south many of the real old homes had a cupola on the roof in the center of the house. All of the hot air went up a shaft in the middle of the house and out the roof. That along with very high ceilings, made the home much cooler in the summer. I don't think the attic fans were invented then and they came later to blow the air upwards.
This was extremely interesting to me.
Thank you for giving me a bit of a history lesson that otherwise I would have never known.
My great aunt had a dumb waiter and it worked quite well. I think my Great uncle Leo redid it- it was super smooth. When we visited it was a real treat to get orange juice sent up before breakfast.
One reason I bought my home in 1990 was because it had a laundry chute in the bathroom. My daughter has a laundry chute in her home too. My grandmother had a milk door and a built-in ironing board in the kitchen of her home. I almost found out the hard way that there was a board in a closet. Also, every military household has an ironing board in it. A fact of military life. I had a very rich aunt who had a central vacuum system in her home. My home still uses oil heat. It has been cheaper than natural gas. Every house I lived in from 1959-1971 had push-button light switches. You should have touched on fireplace andirons and heat screens when you showed off the fireplaces.
Aww thank you dear 🙏🌷
There are still boot scrapers outside the entrances to our ranch house. They’ve been there for years, and if you’re heading indoor you check your boots. lol
We had a laundry chute as a kid. My brothers and sisters and I used to climb down it or play hide and seek in it. 😂😅
I can remember when or who but I used a door knocker as recent as last year lol. I just remember seeing it and trying it out at someones house.
Had laundry chute growing up. Later I owned an arts and crafts bungalow that had cool features including a slot in the medicine cabinet for used razor blades. I remodeled and found a coffee can full of rusty blades in the wall. It also had a pantry and a coal room.
Ironically despite all the advances, evaporation air conditioning is still the major way of cooling houses in South Australia to this day ..
My parents had a laundry chute made when they bulit thier dream home. Totally convenient since the bedrooms were upstairs. I miss that home.
I have a whole house fan. My home was built in the ‘80’s. Love it❤
I enjoyed this video. Very fascinating.
I miss the door knockers! We had one!
Our home has a buzzer under the dining room table so you could call in the cook or server!
Built a new house in 2008. We decided to install a central vacuum system. 5 years later the wife decided it's a pain and bought a Eureka vacuum cleaner. The central system is never used now. So much for "innovation."
Beautiful houses and home.Speaking tubes are replaced with texting and phoning you plus face time now.i still miss the old days and times.i still dress up and steam and iron my clothes.Love this channel❤
I remodeled, a previous 80’s remodel, that still had razor blades in the wall. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what was going on, being that the old medicine cabinet was already eliminated, and I’d never heard of this prior.
Grandma's house had a laundry chute, still have the bent nail used to keep it closed.
I'm old enough to remember "party line " telephones and wabash/Ivanhoe phone numbers😄
A adore this playlist. I think I had another life in Victorian/Edwardian times. 💗 Everything about these eras.
❤❤👍❤❤ thank you so much 👍❤❤👍💖
We had oil baseboard heat in the house I grew up in, but the tank was buried in the backyard. We also had an attic fan which was great in spring and fall. We ran A/C in summer though.