I think the picture rails should be added in rentals and apartments. The tenants can be told what they are used for, so the walls don't get turned into swiss cheese between tenants.

@emmimiller3677

Жыл бұрын

That's a really good idea, especially for long term rentals where people will want to express themselves in their space and in places like college dorms where you get high turnover with a category of people highly likely to a) want to personalise their space and b) not have all the skills necessary to seamlessly repair the wall.

@g00g01p1ex

Жыл бұрын

We added them in living room of 1939 home we own due to the walls being plaster. Had to buy that moulding from a special store in our town that sold older styles of moulding. Chasing down picture hooks was also a fun task. Made for super easy way to run lighted green garland around the the upper part of the room for Christmas! 😊

@3810-dj4qz

5 ай бұрын

They are paying to live somewhere. Why shouldn’t they be allowed to hang pictures? Patching holes is the easiest thing a landlord can do after they move out. You’re already going to paint the place anyway.

@zombiedoggie2732

5 ай бұрын

@@3810-dj4qz And the landlord is gonna nickel and dime you for everything "Wrong" with the rental, even if it's normal wear and tear.

@zombiedoggie2732

5 ай бұрын

@@g00g01p1ex That. That sounds awesome!

My parents still live in my childhood home - built in the mid 1920's. It still has almost all of those features. Friends thought the radiators made scary noises during sleepovers. I would leave notes for mom in the milk-shoot, throw toys down the coal-shoot; the bottom of the clothes-shoot was my fort. As an adult, im still creeped out by the fruit/root cellar. They still have a working rotary phone in the nook. The list goes on . . .

@NachaBeez

Жыл бұрын

*chute, not shoot

@eviesmail5447

Жыл бұрын

Awesome comments

@corinnefarmer9950

Жыл бұрын

1

@denisepellettier5524

Жыл бұрын

Still creeped out ur funny

@helenamcginty4920

Жыл бұрын

Wow. Central heating in those days? My mother (b. 1920) at least had piped cold water and an outside lavatory in their East London house. I grew up in a house built in 1948 (brick built. No need for iron stabilising bars) we had a coke stove in the kitchen that heated the water and a coal fire in the living room. Bedroom fireplaces were only used if someone was ill. So rarely. My parents invested in central heating in their 3rd house in the late 1960s. Prior to that we had a coke fired stove and oven in the kitchen0 and a coal fire in the living room. We were cold a lot of the time in winter.

Someone on Craigslist some years ago advertised coal. My husband was a hobby blacksmith and was out of coal and couldn't find any; all his sources had gone out of business. We ended up going to an old house and the coal was in the basement from when the house had been heated with coal. (Yes, it had a door and coal chute into a bin.) The owner wanted to make the basement usable and rather than throw out the coal, he said, maybe someone will want it. We hauled it out and took it home. My husband loved that coal so much. He said it was the best coal he had ever worked with because it was so pure. He thought it might have come from the Pocahontas Vein that runs through the Cumberland Plateau and was famed for its purity.

@DG-sc1yu

Жыл бұрын

Interesting 👍🏻

@caeligood6607

Жыл бұрын

I went to Eastern Ky some years back, right in coal country. The hill out back behind the motel was littered with Coal. You just picked up all this coal..

@HobbyOrganist

Жыл бұрын

Back in the early 1980s I lived in a building in NYC that was a power station for a cable car line, it originally had 12 high pressure boilers and four 1200 HP steam engines in the basement, so under all the sidewalks on 2 sides of the building were little brick rooms where coal was dropped in from above. After they stopped using coal for the cable car power, and heating the building, the remaining pea coal was left were it was- tons and tons of it still piled up in those little rooms under the sidewalk.

@MsChaCha-45

Жыл бұрын

Our home where I grew up was c. 1812; historical; brick; fireplace in each room; dirt floor cellar and that, my friend, is where the COAL BIN was located @ 1920’s and we used COAL until @ 1955. I remember getting the coal furnace reconfigured for oil. My husband and I bought a c. 1890 4-story all brick 🧱 Victorian home; historical; w/ leaded stained glass windows and doors; 11’ high ceilings; front n back staircases; sleeping porch…original gas fireplaces and light fixtures…truly amazing! we were blessed to be able to buy the house ($43K) and the family who owned it kept it perfect! We opened it for tours every year for HISTORICAL DAY Weekend in October. Great memories!

@anntrope491

Жыл бұрын

Appreciate this story, as I'm interested in Black Smithing...& the details about the vein, & topography were inlighting, & it sounds so ethereal, & poetic...the," Pocohontas vein, & THE Cumberland", part...that's the most MAGICAL COAL I EVER HEARD OF !! ♡☆♡...... "Keep Forging " ♡☆♡

As a kid in the 50s, my parents would frequently forget their house key after locking all the doors, so I was stuffed through the "milk chute" so that I could unlock the door!!

@billbeliakoff5589

Жыл бұрын

Something tells me that your parents didn't "forget" their keys, how did they lock the door when they left ? I think that they thought you enjoyed going through the milk chute.

@questfortruth665

Жыл бұрын

@@billbeliakoff5589 Lol!! Yeah, you're probably right!

@billbeliakoff5589

Жыл бұрын

@@questfortruth665 I know that I would've liked it

@marywegrzyn506

Жыл бұрын

So was I stuffed into the milk chute which is located to the left of said locked side door of our house back in the mid 60's. My Mom still lives in the house. I recently moved back home to help her. She is going on 80 and I'm going on 61. The house was built in 1939!

@rondaleistiko1227

Жыл бұрын

We had one kid that got stuck halfway down the laundry shoot

The ice and milk doors would be a great feature for anyone who gets UberEats or Amazon. Also the boot scraper seems like a good thing to have despite the era.

@Dallas_K

Жыл бұрын

A lot of old ideas are proving to be good ideas.

@elise85391

Жыл бұрын

In the country at least, we definitely still have boot scrapers. Although, I've never seen a metal one on the ground like that. The ones I've seen are made of coarse bristles to get everything off

@peetabrown5813

Жыл бұрын

@@Dallas_K Yes, they would be great again now. I saw featured in a KZread recently a high end apartment building (or residential apartment in a hotel) that a a secondary door with a closet that also open to the inside, just for deliveries and the like. So from the common hallway the item could be placed inside, and from inside the resident could open the closet to access the delivery

@denisepellettier5524

Жыл бұрын

Funny u should say that cause I live in old house with milk door at side entrance to house that I get my skip the dishes stuff and Amazon parcels put in it

@pennymcclellen5544

Жыл бұрын

We have a boot scraper on our front porch

When I was about five, my family was living in Cleveland, and our house had a milk door. One day we were getting ready to go out for a walk, and I "helpfully" locked the screen door after my dad locked the front door. Of course that meant that we couldn't get back into the house -- we didn't have a key for the screen door! None of the windows were open at all. But fortunately I hadn't been "helpful" enough to think about locking the inside part of the milk door, so my dad picked me up and told me to "be stiff like a board!" He fed me through that tiny door and I ran around to the front door and opened it up. Great memory from my childhood!

@gailmarkitto4546

Жыл бұрын

Smart dad.

@patriciaowens3479

Жыл бұрын

Great

@stephj9378

Жыл бұрын

Aww.....sweet

Im so glad I stumbled on this channel! It's great to watch with my Mama who has dementia. She can remember this kind of stuff and I love hearing her tell me about it. These kinds of videos means so much to me. Thank you for making them! ❤

I'm not even a minute in, but the 'sleeping porch' is far from obsolete. They're called screened in porches now, but here in Tennessee and other parts of the south they are still very popular.

@lesliejaggers2275

Жыл бұрын

Screened in pools are still big in Florida and parts south of the I 10 corridor

@Freakingbean

Жыл бұрын

You still need them in sub tropical environments to keep the insects out.

@bluegirl777

Жыл бұрын

I was going to say that I know of someone who has a large sleeping porch and he still has beds out there for his guests!

@strippinheat

Жыл бұрын

Also "sun rooms."

@leavingitblank9363

Жыл бұрын

But as he said, sleeping porches aren't necessarily by the front door. In some cases, they don't even have external access, so they're not the same as a screened-in porch.

My grandparents' home was in the Missouri Ozarks. They had a sleeping porch. It was pretty cool to sit out there at night and be able to enjoy the evening without the bugs eating us up!😍

@Leguminator

Жыл бұрын

I'd love one more summer night sleeping on our old porch, the quiet compared to what I have now living in a large city would be lovely.

@kristineo6600

Жыл бұрын

The last house I lived in, which is now 140 years old, had both a coal chute and a fuel oil tank, a telephone niche, a Hoosier cabinet, twist light switches, and 3 spirits of former residents roaming about.

@Bambisgf77

Жыл бұрын

*reading this right now in the Missouri Ozarks* ☺️

@garygreen7552

Жыл бұрын

Gamble House in Pasadena has sleeping porches in some of the bedrooms. The house was built as a winter vacation home for the Gamble family, the second name in Proctor and Gamble. That beautiful house is oriented so that windows could be opened to take advantage of the prevailing breezes to keep the house cool.

@here_we_go_again2571

Жыл бұрын

Those huge screened porches on older homes were fantastic! One could practically live on the porches of the house over the summer. In the North a wood stove was often placed on the back porch for cooking during the summer.

Laundry chutes! I grew up in a 3-story home and I loved throwing my laundry in the chute. It fell down to the basement and it was magically cleaned, folded, and put back into my drawers. 😀

@jondickinson1142

Жыл бұрын

I was the youngest of five kids...sometimes it was me that got pitched down the laundry chute...lol.

@barbarak2836

Жыл бұрын

We had one of those in the house we lived until I was 12; I LOVED that thing! Yes, it was magical, how things disappeared and then reappeared, although probably not to my mother.

@christophersmith3005

Жыл бұрын

My sister and I often played in the basement. My mom used to use the laundry chute to call my sister and I upstairs for dinner.

@tammymavery

Жыл бұрын

We renovated an upstairs bathroom after ice dams and found a laundry chute

@cecik5578

Жыл бұрын

@@jondickinson1142 my Dad had 6 siblings, and you can bet that the smallest of them was frequently lowered down by rope to sneak cookies at night. Until one night, the rope system didn’t work out, and uncle Rick free-fell a remaining 15’ to the basement. Ouch!

I built my home in 2017, complete with a sleeping porch off of the master bedroom, transom over the doors, butler pantry, etc. Love the classic features

@christmaself60

Жыл бұрын

Sounds lovely! So jealous!

@sewing-Susan

Жыл бұрын

If I ever built a house, it be would have transoms.

@brendaamata9233

4 ай бұрын

That is so cool😊

I never saw a “milk door” but everyone I knew had a “milk box”. It was an insulated cube-ish box that usually sat outside the kitchen door. The “milk man” would deliver the milk, cream, butter, etc. into the box and remove the empty glass quart bottles. The bottles of fresh milk would be brought into the house and placed in the ice box or refrigerator.

@joterry7928

Жыл бұрын

We had one of those, too!!!

@kimberlyepps3730

Жыл бұрын

Yes my parents had one of those back in the early 1970s.

@rachelm2041

Жыл бұрын

My parents had a milk box on their porch around early 1970's. It was from the Babcock Dairy of Toledo Ohio.

@rebeccablueheart

Жыл бұрын

I grew up with a milk box. After we stopped being able to get milk delivered (first in glass bottles that we had to wash and return, then later in plastic bags) my mom used it to exchange things with people like fresh produce ir books. When the grandkids came around, there was a magical creature called Squimpy Elf that left treats and presents in the box for well behaved children. Sad day for all when the box fell apart.

@cherylpesutimassie5010

Жыл бұрын

We had an insulated milk box too. I remember it clearly right outside our front door. I lived in an old duplex with our Aunt on the other side. No A/C and no central heat. Just a fan in the summer and a large room heater for the entire apartment. There were "registers" in the ceiling so the heat could pass through and warm the second floor. Everything was very different in those days. Hmmmm, good memories though. Summer entertainment was sitting on the porch watching the satellite cross the night sky. Good memories.

I grew up in a house that was built in the early 1900's. Oil heat, big tank, never leaked a drop. No central AC. A box lined with styrofoam on the back porch where the milkman placed the milk every morning. A corner grocery store. A main street with a 5 and dime, clothing store, hardware store, tv sales and repair shop, a bar and a movie theater.

@gigiw.7650

Жыл бұрын

@ Larry N You forgot the dry goods store.... Bins of dog food is what I remember. I think I was four and wondered if the dogs could eat all that food, lol.

@thedutchman8793

Жыл бұрын

Yeah I had a 1,000 gallon tank the one place I used to live, 25 years later the current resident are still using the original tank( outside in the open) no leaks, no issues.

@FunSizeSpamberguesa

Жыл бұрын

We still had a milkman even when I was a teenager in the 90s, with the styrofoam-lined box by the front door. Best milk I've ever tasted.

@lindaterrell5535

Жыл бұрын

My house in Boston was built in 1850. Furnace was converted to oil. But everything else is as you lived it.

@judilynn9569

Жыл бұрын

That was my neighborhood. Built in the early 20th century. I miss my childhood.

When homes had beautiful architecture and character!

@suemar63

Жыл бұрын

Yes! Even the lowly boot scraper was a work of art. The homes they produce today---no detail, just cheap ugliness.

@l.5832

Жыл бұрын

@@suemar63 Yes...and designers and 'influencers' like to promote the empty box as something desirable! Even the open floorplan was first promoted because it was way faster and cheaper to build.

@karenryder6317

Жыл бұрын

When "modern" architecture took a turn against ornament, the pendulum swung too far--square boxes with no trim whatsoever and in some cases not even windows!

@shinnam

Жыл бұрын

Yes.Thing about it is those older than 100year old buildings were mostly done by hand It required a lot more resources and labour to make those featured too.

@shinnam

Жыл бұрын

@@l.5832 Hate open plans.Open shelves in the kitchen are even worse. Fruit flies love them.

Growing up in a victorian house, my two favorite features were the pantry. It was a separate room with bottom cabinets that pulled out and down. The back part of these drawers had a screen and were used to store potatoes, apples etc. The exposure to the cool air kept them fresh longer. I also loved the door knob in the middle of the front door. We also had a brass bell in the middle above the knob. You would turn the key and it sounded like a bike bell.

@katiefrankie6

Жыл бұрын

My grandpa built his home in 1958 and my mom owns that home today. I grew up there from age 9-18. Their front door had a brass handle right in the middle, the one thing my grandma wanted - and it’s still proudly there today!

@Darrylizer1

Жыл бұрын

My apartment in San Francisco had a pantry, I used to store all matter of things in it both edible and not. My building was constructed in the '20s. Super cool place, lathe and plaster walls, radiators, phone nook, very modern for that period I suppose.

@denisepellettier5524

Жыл бұрын

My old house as kid had that bell

@johnvrabec9747

Жыл бұрын

I wish my house had a pantry. Very useful. We kind of created one in our kitchen, I want to upgrade it with sliding vertical "drawers" to store cans and such on either side for full access.

@cherylpesutimassie5010

Жыл бұрын

Yes, I remember those bells too.

I love to imagine a home with all these tiny doors all over it, and how charming and magical I would have considered it as a child! I would have dreamed up lots of tiny people who used such doors as the entrances to their worlds. Milk door, coal door, dutch door, ice door... even ash doors (outside fireplaces to remove ashes without tracking them through the house) all would have inspired different varieties and sizes of gnomes or fairies to make use of them.

@DavidWilliams-so2dy

Жыл бұрын

Sounds like the beginnings of a delightful childrens book. Just run with it and write it down and who knows?

@terryeallen-stoda2152

Жыл бұрын

Agree with David Williams! That would be a fun story or stories to read!

@terryeallen-stoda2152

Жыл бұрын

I probably would have tried to crawl through those doors as a child to try and find those gnomes and fairies!

@Leona147741

Жыл бұрын

At some point a fireman has had to rescue a little boy out of every clothes shute.

@tsoliot5913

Жыл бұрын

I grew up in a house with these tiny doors and even kid sized rooms. I can confirm that they were magical.

My great-grandmother in west Tennessee had a screened-in sleeping porch with a full set-up: wooden bedframe piled with a feather mattress and layers of her homemade quilts. By morning, there would be a pile of us cousins all scrunched in the middle with the puffy mattress popped up on both sides like a taco shell. I was born in 1963, and slept that way when we visited, probably as late as 1973 or so!

@caeligood6607

Жыл бұрын

My mum grew up in Regina Saskatchewan and she was the youngest (Possibly an "accident' ) as she was born several years later than her older siblings) ANYWAY her bedroom was on an uninsulated sleeping porch in CANADA!!!!!. She told me stories how she would go to bed with all these hot water bottles for warmth and in the morning they would be frozen!. She later was plagued with Pneumonia and pleurisy.... probably from the extreme conditions. This was in the 30s nad 40s

@northgeorgiamom8956

Жыл бұрын

I have 2 beds in my screened in porch piled high with vintage sheets, quilts and pillows! My best naps are on my porch, and we’ve all slept out there at one time or another! I love sleeping there on cool winter nights!

@christinastanley2162

Жыл бұрын

Im wondering if that’s where Florida rooms came from

@cherylpesutimassie5010

Жыл бұрын

I love that story. It reminds me of when I was a little.

@JamesThompson-ol3eu

Жыл бұрын

@@caeligood6607 ouch!

Being seventy-two years of age, I remember most of the items in the video. However the one that has come to my mind numerous times recently is the telephone niche in the wall. My Aunt had a beautiful home in the country which her husband who had passed away in 1939 had provided for her. The niche was in the hallway of the home and I can still remember her standing there talking long distance to our relatives in Illinois or anyone else for that matter. Even with the advent of all the new convenience telephones of the 1960's and 1970's the phone was always the same one. The men and women of that time were more settled and contented in their ways and not so apt to jump on every new thing that comes down the pike like we do today. After they had come through two world wars and a great depression it's easy to understand why! Thanks Again for another nice trip down memory lane!

@sheilagravely5621

Жыл бұрын

I remember we had a party line on our phone, our phone number started with the letters L.R., and a real live operator talked to you for information!!!! Southern Bell telephone....I miss y'all.

@helenbodel3974

Жыл бұрын

The Bay Area where I grew up had words preceding numbers for easier memorizing--we were Davenport 21543, ie, DA 21543. I'm sure this was true pretty much everywhere, yes?

@retroseventy

Жыл бұрын

@@helenbodel3974 That is true. Our home was Yukon 56085 or YU-56085

@Joskemom

Жыл бұрын

In the 60s I remember my grand mother giving out the house phone numbers but the 'phone number' would start with a place and then 5 numbers. The first 2 letters of the 'place' would be what you would dial. Axminester 56237 so the person would dial 'A', 'X' and then the next 5 numbers. Yes, that was in Los Angeles. Edit: I wrote my comment before I read the replys. So, yes, words preceding numbers was the thing.

@maverick6457

Жыл бұрын

The first phone number I learned was LA6-5276...LA for Lambert. This was in Fullerton, CA. We were a few miles from Disneyland. In the summer we'd get to watch the Disneyland fireworks show. My mom would sit my siblings and I on the brick wall in the backyard so we could see it. That was in the early 60's.

I could see package receivers making a comeback as an answer to porch pirates. They'd be fitted with the same locks as mailboxes so your carrier could open it.

@leavingitblank9363

Жыл бұрын

People are getting package delivery boxes that sit near their front doors. Not sure how the system works, since all the delivery companies can use them, I think.

@justayoutuber1906

Жыл бұрын

Or just build a delivery box/cage on your porch.

@alexh4935

Жыл бұрын

You can use a chute design like a library’s return box. You can slide things in but not pull them out.

@Leenapanther

Жыл бұрын

In Switzerland our mail boxes are big enough to put packages inside (height 15 cm, width 35,5 cm, lenght 25 cm). Older people still call them milk boxes because the milk delivery was also put in there. Depending on the logistician,0 they leave bigger packges right there or you have to pick it up at the closest post office/grocery store.

One feature I haven't seen mentioned was a small opening in the floor of the wood-burning fireplace to brush the ashes into. The house I grew up in had this, along with a laundry chute, push-button light switch, and a milk box.

@ginacirelli1581

Жыл бұрын

Oh yes, my 1939 fireplace has an iron door in the basement below/behind it. I was told that it was for cleaning out the ashes after they'd been brushed down from above. There's another on the front/side where the oilburning furnace attaches to its chimney flue. (One chimney, two flues.) Apparently some geniuses in the past put water down there because they've got rust streaks all down the cement (foundation) housing. I put a woodburning stove insert into the fireplace, so it doesn't matter anyway. It's still ugly down there, though, and that's my laundry room! Eventually I think I want to limewash those cement walls and scrub down and rustproof those iron doors.

@northgeorgiamom8956

Жыл бұрын

We have a door in our fireplace to clean out the ashes! Our house is around 100 years old.

@riverraisin1

Жыл бұрын

I also have one of those chutes in my fireplace. I never understood the convenience, as I find it easier to just scoop the ashes into the ash can and tote them outside.

@UnlikelyToRemember

Жыл бұрын

Our house, built in '31 has this too (as well as a coal door, milk door, laundry chute, picture rails, a niche, and knob&tube). Also a built-in ironing board in the kitchen wall.

Don't forget about those ironing boards that pulled down out of the wall like a Murphy bed! Haha. My Granny's house also had those spring loaded pull shades on the windows that - until my parents caught us - we would play with pulling them down and then send them whipping back up again!

@themadmallard

Жыл бұрын

those survive in a sense, you can get ones that hang off doors.

@casimiroarriolajr8362

Жыл бұрын

My house still has one of those ironing boards, I still use it lol

@bubcatblues4751

Жыл бұрын

@@casimiroarriolajr8362 The house I’m renting right now is built in 1940 it has the ironing board and the milk delivery door. It’s a pretty cool little house

@kirahastings9900

Жыл бұрын

I live in a 1920's apartment building. Have the pulldown ironing board and the radiator, both of which I like.

@laninthomasma8814

Жыл бұрын

And you'd get in trouble because, fun as that was, it would unwind the spring and make the shade inoperable.

We lived in an 1823 farm house. We had a small door like the one described as for ice. Ours wasn't a door for ice. Instead it was for passing firewood from the woodshed into the kitchen for the woodstove. Instead of opening a huge door and letting in a big blast of cold air, you just opened that tiny door and grabbed some wood that was stacked on the otherside.

@samanthab1923

Жыл бұрын

We had a little door next to the fireplace to pass wood in from the back of the house.

@jessiec1194

Жыл бұрын

Our friends cabin had a huge fireplace with grates on the sides to give off more heat. There was a narrow box with a lift up lid to bring in the wood. Outside was a deeper box to load it.

@morganfalkdesigns

Жыл бұрын

The iceman brought the ice inside and put it in the icebox.

@user-livetoknow

Жыл бұрын

Similar doors for milk delivery.

@nmarkert01

Жыл бұрын

I’ve seen a newer homes do this but you can load groceries basically into the back side of cabinets in the kitchen from the garage straight from the car haha.

I own a home with a viewing room. It’s a small room(roughly 6 foot by 12 foot) with double French doors that fold completely flat on the inside of the room. This room was just big enough to hold a coffin and bunches of flowers and was used before funeral homes became common. The main front door of the house is also extra wide to accommodate a coffin to pass through it.

@dianabrown133

Жыл бұрын

I remember my grandparents being laid out in my aunt's front room and that was in 1950's in Bristol TN

@cherylpesutimassie5010

Жыл бұрын

My family members were layed out in my grandmother's livingroom long before I was born. The casket was taken out the livingroom window. It was a different time in the 40s and 50s.

@JamesThompson-ol3eu

Жыл бұрын

@@dianabrown133 I don't remember (too young) but mom told me most folks into the 1950s still did this. My g-grandmother was "viewed" at home.

@Lili-xq9sn

Жыл бұрын

That's why the living room (a modern word) displaced the word Parlour. When funeral parlours come in fashion, they only used the word parlor. And living rooms became a place for the living.

@bluegirl777

Жыл бұрын

@@Lili-xq9sn Mind blown!! Such a simple explanation that I never thought about!

My grandparents' house had the coal chute along the foundation, which they occasionally would make use of to clear things out of the basement, rather than haul them up the stairs. I always figured that was its original purpose, as coal furnaces were way before my time. Their hallway also featured the niche for the telephone, which Grandma used for the afternoon ritual of chatting on the phone.

The house I grew up in had a "breezeway", a screen-enclosed outdoor room between the house and the garage. I loved that space as a kid.

@ilovenoodles7483

Жыл бұрын

Would that be comparable to something like a mud room or an Arizona room or a small screened in porch? Sure sounds like that.

@jamespgray6928

Жыл бұрын

@@ilovenoodles7483 It wasn't a mud room, as there was no direct access to the main house. You had to walk about 50 feet outside to get access to the house.

@cecik5578

Жыл бұрын

@@ilovenoodles7483 I think the point was that you could get to & from the garage without getting rained or snowed on.

@henrythebasset8749

Жыл бұрын

Typically, breezeways were found in the "ranch" houses built in the 50's and 60's. It was an open space between the house and garage, all under the same roof. They were usually 10 of 12 feet wide. The floor was concrete to withstand the weather, but conveniently at the same level as the floor of the house. It was a cool spot in the summer because it funneled the wind through, hence the name. Almost all of them have been walled in and blended with the interior of the house. It was relatively cheap to do, as only two walls needed to be built. That summer breeze turned into frigid wind tunnel in the winter, so it made sense to just make it part of the house. It was a really affordable extra 200 to 300 square feet of living space.

@jamespgray6928

Жыл бұрын

@@henrythebasset8749 Thanks for the info! Must be one of the reasons they bought it in 1967. It was on the east coast, and we did eventually transform it to a den with a wood burning stove.

I was born in 1945 so I remember getting Milk delivered in glass bottles. We even had a delivery door that the milk could be left in. Push button light switches ? Sure, we had those in some of the houses when I was growing up. My folks bought their first NEW home in 1961in Santa Clara, CA. It was an ALL ELECTRIC home which was the rage back then. Now that's becoming a law where new homes are being built. What great memories ! Thanks .

@samanthab1923

Жыл бұрын

My parents built our home in 1970. We had push button light switches not brass though. Because of all the gas shortages the last house built in our neighborhood was all electric.

@lynnestamey7272

Жыл бұрын

We used to get Gordon's milk delivered in glass bottles. Mom always ordered chocolate milk for the weekend and the milk man would bring it right into the kitchen and put it in the fridge. This house was an all electric home built in 1966 in Duncanville, TX.

@ryanpeck3377

Жыл бұрын

We had milk delivery (in the glass bottles) by Byrne Dairy up until the 1990s in Oneida NY. We only stopped because as us kids got older and my parents divorced we just werent drinking that much milk and it was cheaper and easier to get what we needed with regular groceries. I believe they may still offer the service (or at least did till very recently but since ive moved away im not 100% sure

@DonnaChamberson

Жыл бұрын

I remember gettin my tits yanked by the milk man every morning.

@ahjzablu2998

Жыл бұрын

My dad was a milkman! He had so many stories to tell us about families along his route. They treated him like family.

A hundred years before the telephone niche, there was another type in large houses: the coffin niche. Halfway up a big front stairway, used to make it possible to carry a coffin down from a bedroom. Now also used as a flower niche.

@susanpage8315

Жыл бұрын

True! In 1918 my ex’s gg-grandmother made a joke about the family carrying her out on the “coffin door.” A few weeks later she died of the Spanish Flu.

The radiator ping noise is not from the water droplets tossed by steam. What you described is the banging noise commonly referred to as a water hammer. The ping is caused by when the metal is heated, it expands and because most the radiators were built in modules tightly attached to each other, they would expand at different rates so when one would be try to expand but bound by the other, the grip would be released and a ping would be heard.

One of my earliest memories, and one of the biggest thrills of my life at the time (I think I was 4 years-old) was when I looked out the front window and saw a great big old dump truck drive right up onto our lawn and put coal down the coal chute. We also had a milk chute and a clothes chute. And, oh yes, we had a phone nook.

@marynadononeill

Жыл бұрын

He forget the clothes chute!

@elizabethlinsay9193

Жыл бұрын

Let us not forget phone books and actual desk model telephones!

@billjames3148

Жыл бұрын

@@marynadononeill We played in those chutes , Paratrooper

@pneumatic00

Жыл бұрын

The coal chute is nothing to get nostalgic about. The house I lived in was built in 1930 in New jersey, and had a coal furnace. The coal chute dumped into a little room. By the time I was four or five years old, my dad had replaced the coal furnace with a natural gas furnace. To his dying day he cursed that coal furnace, and I can tell you the area that the coal dumped into acquired a greasy black soot covering we could not get rid of even 30 years after changing to gas. Not to mention shoveling the coal into the furnace and cleaning the ash out of the furnace.

@LizzyMarieTina

Жыл бұрын

My parents' house was built no earlier than the 70's and has a phone nook. There's not a phone connection in the wall next to it though so idk why it was actually put in unless a previous owner sealed in the connector but there are still some in other places.

Depending on which part of the country you lived in, home milk delivery persisted past the 1960's right on into the 70's! Our "Milk Man" could even bring you bread, eggs, cheese, etc.! He was a real "Friend to the neighborhood! When poor families couldn't pay, we all took up a collection (including the driver!) To see our less fortunate neighbors didn't go hungry!(

@bigscarysteve

Жыл бұрын

Yep. Our local dairy made daily deliveries up until about 1971 or 1972. My grandmother was heartbroken when the milk man brought a note saying home delivery was going to end in a few months. Besides the milkman, there were other delivery trucks that came by, albeit not so often. There was a bread truck that came by once a week. I was always delighted if he came by when I wasn't in school because, besides bread, he also had cupcakes and other treats on board. There was even a truck that sold soap, toothpaste, and other toiletries that came around every couple months. It was run by a company called Jewel.

@christmaself60

Жыл бұрын

We still have it my area

@robinj.9329

Жыл бұрын

@@bigscarysteve I sure do recall the "Jewel" name. And I also recall a "Bread Man" too!

@cherylpesutimassie5010

Жыл бұрын

@@bigscarysteve I remember the Jewel T man coming around selling his wares. I miss those days.

@patriciaowens3479

Жыл бұрын

When I was a kid in the fifties we used to go to sag harbor Long Island and the man had a dairy farm and we used to get the milk right from the cow, and had cream on the top and it was in glass bottles.

Living in Bozeman MT a few years ago I still came across boot scrapers outside many businesses downtown, most modernized by the addition of coarse bristles. Not so much for mud now, but still very useful for scraping snow off of your shoes.

I remember putting mittens on the old radiators. My parents had a insulated metal box by our front door from the dairy that delivered. I remember having a fill spout outside for the oil tank!

Our old house had at least one push button switch still working when I was little. Our house was built in 1875 in Galveston, Texas. It was a 1900 Storm survivor.

@scottslotterbeck3796

Жыл бұрын

You can buy reproduction push button switches. My older home has lights built into the wall with key switches built into them.

@reesaserik3759

Жыл бұрын

Southeast Texas here, at the Texas/Louisiana border. Absolutely LOVE Galveston! My whole life, going to Galveston was the most special treat. For my own kids, the attraction was Moody Gardens and the airplane museum. Been through all the tours of Victorian homes at least three times. And we have walked every inch of the residential areas with all the smaller Vicki's lining the streets. As a teenager The Strand was the attraction. Beautiful Island. Lucky you for growing up there.

-My parents house had push button lights for over 50 years and never had a bit of trouble with them. -Radiators held the heat long after the heat was turned down. You saved money on heat, -Never had trouble with oil tanks. Every time we considered switching to gas inevitably there would be a news story of an entire city block exploding from gas, + Boot Scrapers were just as much to scrape off horse dung as mud

@kennixox262

Жыл бұрын

Now, they make reproduction push-button light switches and can even come with a dimmer.

@inkey2

Жыл бұрын

@@kennixox262 ohhhh dimmers........I love dimmers, Not just because they are cool but can save you money since there are times you just want a dim light.

@kennixox262

Жыл бұрын

@@inkey2 My view, almost every light in a house should have dimming capability. Mine does, but it is a Lutron system and most people won't do that. Ordinary dimmer work just as well. With modern LED lighting, dimming won't save energy as these devices are already massively efficient. Old incandescent on the other hand, yes.

@sailingspark9748

Жыл бұрын

Radiators are really the best heat. I never liked them until I rented a house with them. My place with forced air gets cold feeling between bouts of feeling too warm when the heater is running.

@kennixox262

Жыл бұрын

@@sailingspark9748 Nothing beats for smooth even heat as hydronic heating or even electric radiators, the latter being wildly inefficient. Have electric radiant heat in my bathroom and it is luxurious during our almost non existent winters, the house however uses a Mitsubishi 8 zone heat pump which works wonderfully but still moves air. Great for summers and monsoon season here in the desert. Hydronic is best for cold climates that don't really need air conditioning or to have a separate air conditioning system. That absolute ultimate is under floor hydronic heating.

Also, incinerators. This was a small structure in the garden that was about 4 or 5 ft tall, made from fire brick and iron and included a chimney. It was used to burn garbage, and the leftover ash was spread in the garden. We had one in the house I lived in when I was young, but they became illegal and dropped out of use due to air pollution concerns.

Oil is still the preferred method here on Long Island to heat homes. Our oil tanks used to be buried in the yard. In the 80s, homeowners were forced fill in old tanks & get new tanks. We also had an insulated box for the milkman not a door.

I was born in 1950. So, turns out I remember a majority of these! Thank you!

@douglas_drew

Жыл бұрын

Alan, same here, the things our farm house didn't have either our paternal or maternal Grandparents houses had. Although I love my present home, these homes of my past are so fondly remembered.

@markgrove2030

Жыл бұрын

Wonderful stuff! Born in 1952;grew up in a big 1910ish house. MANY things you cite recall fond memories in Iowa. I've enjoyed so many of your videos folks. Keep em up!!!

My mother's house was built in 1840 in NE OH. There were two oil tanks in the basement. Times got a little hard and the oil deliverman told mom the other tank was full and he opened it up to heat the house! That was way back when people looked out for each other.

@mrath

Жыл бұрын

We have oil heat in rural Western Pennsylvania. the tank is underground next to the house. Think the underground tanks gas stations have but on a much smaller scale. The heating oil is essentially diesel, maybe a little more purified, and definitely not taxed like the fuel used for road vehicle use

The unique design of the moulding around the ceilings was always beautiful. Been an electrician my whole life and historical homes are kind of a specialty for me, having been raised in a historical city with historical home districts. Used to collect the antique door knobs. Usually egg shaped, or crystal/diamond like shape. Doors also had the trim around them, and the corner square pieces were always decorative. Tons of little things like those are worth a lot of money, people that renovate historical homes pay a lot for them. The video showed the old radiator with the 😍 engraving/design, that would be worth a shit ton. Wish he mentioned the old gas fixtures in walls for lighting. Random tidbit... When opening up those old walls I'm always hoping 🤞 to find some treasure type stuff 😆 wall full of money, but noooo, but anyway, a lot of times I find the walls plaster has horse hair in it, and the walls have neat old timey news papers crumbles up in them as insulation I'm guessing and or just trash from the builders. You'll find old soda cans or bottles in the ceiling or crawl spaces too. Man I just rambled to noone 🤣 that's not being able to sleep at 330am and boredom. SIGNING OFF!!!🤦🏻

@cherylpesutimassie5010

Жыл бұрын

It's 1:20 am and I'm doing the same thing. Walking down memory lane.

@aaronroach1333

Жыл бұрын

@@cherylpesutimassie5010 😆 well hope you enjoyed it as well

@JamesThompson-ol3eu

Жыл бұрын

My late g-father (died at 90 in 1994) closed in a porch and insulated wall with newspapers. The extend family snickered about it behind his back - I thought it was cheap and brilliant. Street people often sleep under newspapers in the winter. Also some attic insulation that is blown in is shredded paper of some sort. It seems very often the scoffers are just ignorant.

@hamilton7750

Жыл бұрын

Maybe you can answer something for me. I had an old house that had knob&tube wiring. In the basement were two wires going to a round ceramic outlet in the living room floor. After taking up the carpet, I found the top of that outlet, a round brass thing with two round holes in it. What the hell was that for?

@aaronroach1333

Жыл бұрын

@@hamilton7750 sounds like a typical floor outlet.. unless I'm missing something

Canadians have done more with that old boot scraper. Some have attached brushes so that snow, slush, and mud gets brushed off not only the bottom of the shoes and boots, but off the sides, too. At some military barracks, there are electric boot brushers that rotate automatically when the boot gets put in, wiping it clean, (and could probably do a polish job, too, if a clean boot wiped with polish was inserted), in a few seconds. Some old closets near the front door had vents from the furnace to warm and dry winter clothes. It's silly not to have this in a wintry country.

This really takes me back. I grew up in the 50s-60s with the old coal door, furnace, and even a part of the basement partitioned for coal. We were lucky enough to have radiators and a "modern" gas furnace, but the old coal behemoth still sat in the basement. The milkman's truck had no refrigerator, and the milk was kept cold by big ice blocks. A highlight of the day was to run out when he came by. It seemed like every kid in the neighborhood always wanted a chunk of ice. He'd knock them off with a hammer and chisel, and we'd all compare our chunks to see who got the biggest.

@Frankie5Angels150

Жыл бұрын

Your milkman used to knock kids off his truck with a hammer and chisel?!?

@rememberthefallen1970

Жыл бұрын

Yes beautiful memories indeed. I often get sad to see how our country is now.

@jdmccoy1999

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for sharing that memory. I can picture what that must have been like. I am 51 and I have some memories of times gone by and I understand how special a memory like that is. Sometimes I find myself thinking about some random moment from my childhood that wasn’t particularly notable but for some reason stuck with me, like looking for tad poles in the ditch by our house with my friends or begging my mom for .50 for a snow cone and chasing the ice cream truck down the street.

@glennso47

Жыл бұрын

The house I grew up in had the coal door and had a coal furnace until the late 1950s when my folks had a gas furnace installed in the house

@cinthia9602

Жыл бұрын

Neat memories. I have seen a milk door before. I find those things fascinating.

7:10 We had Milk delivered 3 times a week. The milk that came in glass bottles tasted so much better that what you get in paper or plastic containers today. Especially when it was icy cold with a just out of the oven baked treat like chocolate chip cookies.

@charlesbaldo

Жыл бұрын

@@edwardpeders9582 Amen to that, my mother would take it and mix it with sweetened condensed milk to make a great ice ice cream.

@cathyt502

Жыл бұрын

In Chicago, it was Twin Oaks Milk..... I was a toddler but I remember.

@gregggoss2210

Жыл бұрын

@@edwardpeders9582, my brother and I would fight over who would get to eat the cream from the top of the bottle.

@eileencarroll6418

Жыл бұрын

I used to pester the milk man for chunks of ice on hot summer days. I remember the ice blocks packed in hay to keep the milk cool.

@shartman2150

Жыл бұрын

@@cathyt502 Have you tried Oberweis milk? It's available in Northern Illinois and I think they still deliver!

I was an apartment manager of an older building (1920s). The units had a small horizontal door in the living room, for a pull out bed. Door was about 1’ high and 6’ long.

@joylox

Жыл бұрын

I was in a hotel that had one. It made it convenient for when you had an extra person staying with you. Usually I'd just get a cot, but that was easier.

Oil heat is still fairly common in rural northern New England, although heat pumps are slowly taking over. In 1981 when I was 6 my family moved into what had been my grandmother's house which had push-button light switches and steam radiators. The radiators stayed until we left, the light switches were replaced by toggles one by one as they, indeed, got stuck. It was also the last time we had a phone leased from Ma Bell, when we moved in there it was sitting on the floor and left behind when the furniture was taken out; when we left in 1990 we took our, owned, "cordless" (landline) phone with us.

The window above doors is known as a 'transom' window. I have been able to teach people about their homes. We still have the milk do that connects inside the outside of the with a door to the kitchen. When we had that major ice & snow storm in Toronto a few years ago, we had no electricity and my husband and other people who did not grow up here, were lost as how to keep their fridges cold. So I said to them we got back in history and the fridge was once upon a time called the "Icebox" for a good reason. On bales of hay earlier days, with horse drawn cart (later with the trucks) they would deliver big huge blocks of ice to keep your Icebox cold. So told the husband to get a Husky garbage back, go out and fill it with snow and ice ~ kept the fridge cold for a good length of time. without defrosting in the fridge. Sometimes learning to repeat history can help. :~)

@SundaysChild1966

Жыл бұрын

We live up Highway 11 / Yonge Street .. near Powassan, south of North Bay. The Amish around here still cut ice on the pond in winter to load up their meat cooler / freezer (imagine big enough for a few families). We have generators, as the power goes out a lot in winter and other ways of coping. There is a spring with constantly running water one line over if the electricity is out (pump for the well won't work), so we can flush .. the Amish are more prepared for the apocolypse than we are. lol

@sallybruska1499

Жыл бұрын

Another thing about the transom window was people could break in that way. It happened to me in the early 1980's when I lived in Chicago. Of course it would have to be a very small adult or a child. They did steal some items but they only had sentimental value. I'm sure they were pissed when there was no value on the items. Oh well.

@electrictroy2010

Жыл бұрын

The fridge will stay cold if you don’t open it

@joannabanana8431

Жыл бұрын

@@electrictroy2010 Only problem is we were out of power for 3 days. Thanks all the same for the great advice for others to read. ;~)

@Tubes12AX7k

Жыл бұрын

There was a level of practicality to the older home designs and older town layouts in the pre-electric world that we should probably revisit. More passive heating and cooling features, proximity to streams, fireplaces, small corner stores within a short distance. Our modern electric world is excellent but there are times where you might be left without it. Our in-laws have a house on a lake and its interior hasn't been touched in at least 40 years. It has a woodburning stove, among other things.

In college we rented an old home with a sleeping porch. We never knew what it was for so we actually had a futon for people to take naps and study. It was maybe 5 years after I graduated that I found out the purpose of that room. 😂 That room idea was pretty good.

@littlesongbird1

Жыл бұрын

I have to admit, I think that would be nice to sleep in one of those in the summer.

I've been studying the values that built our country and especially the "Great Generation" after WWII. Watching this video helps remember home life that I had. We had the coal chute and our coal man was also married to my babysitter when Mother taught school. Their names were Delbert and Cleo Moses. Thanks for jarring the memories.

@justayoutuber1906

Жыл бұрын

Good ol' racism, misogyny, and anti-semitism were big values in our past. Remember Jim Crow laws? Don't let nostalgia blind you.

The house my son is selling now is 120 years old. While it was updated with Central Heat & Air there are still some radiators in the house, more for aesthetics. It does have a door in the kitchen that has stairs that were for the "help" to move between the floors without intruding in the common living areas on the main floor.

@scottslotterbeck3796

Жыл бұрын

In 1900, one of the indications you were middle class was if you had a servant. That was part of the census form.

Maybe it’s because I’ve lived my whole life in the northeast, but none of these things are unusual to me. Heck, my home was built in 1977, and has the oil tank. And so does almost everyone I know. We generally have to fill it a couple times a year.

@MsMesem

Жыл бұрын

Oil heating everywhere in UK and Europe.

@missmoxie9188

Жыл бұрын

Same here

@pollywog92

Жыл бұрын

I live in Atlantic Canada. My house is 20 years old and I have an oil tank in my basement. Very common here.

@princesspiplaysbass

Жыл бұрын

I lived in Connecticut and we had and the house still has, an oil tank.

@joylox

Жыл бұрын

I grew up with oil heating in a place built in the 90s, although it was outside tanks, it did have to get replaced once when I was a kid due to a leak, but now my dad switched to propane since it's cheaper. But it seems that only in the last 5 years, at least in Eastern Canada, that things have been switching to propane from oil. Then again, it's Canada, so just a heat pump alone won't handle the winters like they do in places that aren't as cold. I've heard -20 C is when a heat pump won't work, or at least not very well. My mom uses wood, but I find propane is so much less of a hassle because wood gets bark and splinters all over the floor. Nothing worse than walking downstairs and getting socks full of wood chips.

I remember my grandma had a built-in ironing board and a strange vented cabinet in her kitchen for keeping potatoes and other vegetables. Those old homes were a lot of fun to explore!

@samanthab1923

Жыл бұрын

My great uncle lived in a place like that. Big old Victorian. Loved the back staircase.

@scooterdover2771

Жыл бұрын

I have a flour bin in my kitchen. It has a handle on the top you pull and it tips out. I use it for recycling.

@samanthab1923

Жыл бұрын

I have a built in bread drawer in my kitchen cabinet.

@scooterdover2771

Жыл бұрын

@@samanthab1923 I have one of those in cupboard I have, but it's missing the tin lid.

@samanthab1923

Жыл бұрын

@@scooterdover2771 That’s right. It happens.

I had a sleeping porch as a kid in NYC. It was called a "fire escape " 😆

@patsystone8114

Жыл бұрын

😅🤣😂👍😅😂😅👍

The sleeping porch, known in Australia as a Coolgardie room. A room enclosed by fly screens. Basically a big version of the Coolgardie meat safe.

I love all these old oddities. I especially love the sleeping porches and wish my home had one.

@Elizabeth-rq1vi

Жыл бұрын

They would be nice…especially this summer in some areas! I love verandas, ones that are deep enough to have a set of chairs or a swing & still have ample space to walk by.

Another feature that was big in the 50’s and 60’s was the NuTone built in intercom system. There would be a main unit (usually in the kitchen) and little speakers in every room and at the front door. The main unit had master switches so you could communicate back and forth to all of the little units, it also had a radio and sometimes a record player / tape deck unit so you could play music all over the house. There were other brands but NuTone was a common one I seem to remember seeing the most.

@SundaysChild1966

Жыл бұрын

Oh wow .. yes!! I could handle having one of these in the home now ..

@leeroth5604

Жыл бұрын

My parents new-built house in 1966 had the NuTone intercom system - 10 stations. Within a few weeks, I (age 11) was helping my dad get the "phono input" of the intercom system connected to the audio output of his aircraft receiver so he could listen to control tower chatter from a nearby airport... in ANY room of the house. He preferred listening to that instead of any music. At age 16, my flight instructor was amazed at how well this student pilot already knew all of the air traffic radio jargon... thanks Dad!

@twobluestripes

Жыл бұрын

My parents’ 1979 house has/had one. My mom claims it’s bit the dust, they have plans to remove it all (they just remove the individual units any time they do a room). I was a kid in that house, and I liked to play with it, or would put the radio on it to play in my room, but my parents never used it as an intercom. They would play their favorite news radio on the main unit in the kitchen sometimes, but didn’t really use the connected units. I think it’s a cool relic original to the house that should be restored (wonder if the original house owners who built it used it much?) but if they really don’t want it there, it’s just occurred to me there might be someone out there with the same system who would want it, to expand their or use it for parts!

@tomkrisel4493

Жыл бұрын

For the hoi polloi.

@susanscott8653

Жыл бұрын

I have never heard of something like that. Sounds like something out of Star Trek. 😄

I loved the sleeping porch we had at my home (as a child). My mother had it built when I was about 10 because our house got so hot in the summer. This was in the 70s. Maybe she remembered them from one of her grandparent's place. My husband and I bought an old house. We had seen the slit and mostly just giggled about it, until it came time to replace the medicine cabinet. That was a very touchy bit of clean-up. I have no idea how old some of those blades were.

I worked in a church nursery many years ago. They had a Dutch door to the nursery. It was great as parents could pick up, drop off or check on their babies and small children while preventing toddlers from running out of the door. Great invention!

@notadem406

Жыл бұрын

The nursery at my church has a Dutch door.

So many memories of growing up in Chicago. Thank you for the work put into making this wonderful video.

Heating oil is still pretty common in the North East in smaller towns, villages and generally rural areas that may not be connected to natural gas pipelines. though the tanks are often newer models and outside.

@davidm7824

Жыл бұрын

I agree, most of the service calls, 75% are for oil furnaces.

@leeroth5604

Жыл бұрын

Years ago, fuel oil tanks may have been in the basement due to the fuel not wanting to flow well in super cold weather. Modern fuel blends may have a bit of kerosene added to keep it flowing in the cold with the possibility of an outdoor tank. If the tank shown was a standard size, it would be 275 gallons. My dad bought one of these tanks to use as his own "rural gasoline tank" when the 70's phony "oil crisis" started. His brother worked on the Ohio River and said barges of gasoline were unable to be unloaded because the tanks at the terminals were COMPLETELY FULL and could accept no deliveries.

@jamesarmstrong857

Жыл бұрын

Also, those large steam radiators are common in Northern New Jersey as we have a lot of older homes here.

@stepheneickhoff4953

Жыл бұрын

Indeed, in 2021 there were 6 million households.

@bcfriardoyle7697

Жыл бұрын

In New England, oil tanks still inside basements not leaking. 40 years ago tanks were going into new builds, don’t know what they do now, depends on if your area has access to gas or not!

Those boot scrapers are still used today, especially at convenient stores in smaller cities and towns where farming is going on not too far away.

Thanks. I grew up in old houses and have owned some. We have a sleeping porch and picture rails which we still use. Our boys used the sleeping porch every summer until they grew up and move out. Now it is used for storage. I jokingly call it the 'family archives' because it contains 33yrs of toys, school papers and records for our kids and 12 grandchildren. Thanks for the memories Recollection Road.❤

I remember steam radiators in school and the medicine cabinet razor slit. We had milk delivery but the milkman sat the bottles on the porch, regular and chocolate milk. 🍶 ( 1960s/70s )

@LeeStJohn-ym4df

Жыл бұрын

Yes our milk was delivered at the front door in a wire basket that was made to carry the milk from the truck easier and kept the bottles from bumping into each other. And when he delivered the milk they made a lovely clinking noise as they bumped up against the wire basket. A sound I could identify instantly. And my Grandparents home had the push button light switches. Endless fun!😄

@joannesmith2484

Жыл бұрын

Eggs and OJ too for us. We had the insulated metal box on the porch. My dad was a milkman.

@IrishAnnie

Жыл бұрын

We had a razor blade slit in our house. I often wonder how many razors were in the wall.

@scottslotterbeck3796

Жыл бұрын

Yeah we got milk delived up to the 70s. There was a paper indicator with a rivet in the milldle. The milkman could tell at a glace what you jeeded. Milk, cottage cheese, etc. Watch "Melvin and Howard" to see a bit about that.

@duke927

Жыл бұрын

We used the radiators to dry our gloves etc. After playing in the snow

When I was in 7th grade back in 1985, I lived in a house that was 150 years old at the time. The oil tank, coal chute, push button light switches, radiators, etc were all there. It was interesting yet very very creepy.

@user-lz6dm5lk9y

Жыл бұрын

Why did you think it was "creepy?"

@shawnwright4129

Жыл бұрын

@@user-lz6dm5lk9y It was dark, smelled funny, I was a kid. At the time I grew up in a mid-century ranch before moving into the old house. Old things gave me the creeps. Now, I wish I could have taken pictures of the place. It's an empty lot now. I will admit, the front foyer and stairs going to the upstairs apartment was cool. All dark wood.

@user-lz6dm5lk9y

Жыл бұрын

@@shawnwright4129 Well, I guess that is understandable. I have noticed that oftentimes some old homes have not been maintained well, and they can take on sometime of an ominous ambiance. In general, though, I love old homes that have been well preserved. I feel sorry for the ones that were not loved and taken good care.

@shawnwright4129

Жыл бұрын

@@user-lz6dm5lk9y It belonged to the Lutheran Church we became members of. The couple who lived in the apartment before us were the retired principal and a teacher of the school. As you said, it wasn't well maintained. The basement was dark and dingy. The radiators were questionable at the best of times. No AC. The push button light switches by the front door were cool. The sunroom was seriously cool with glass doors. There was a screen enclosed balcony type thing, I guess, by the back door I liked hanging out in. The original keys we used were skeleton keys. We only lived there like 2 years before my parents bought a house.

@user-lz6dm5lk9y

Жыл бұрын

@@shawnwright4129 Sounds intriguing. Sounds like the kind of property I would have loved to restore (not renovate) if I had the money to do it.

When at a small college in southern California around 1970, I lived in a 1920’s dorm that had sleeping porches in all the 2nd and 3rd story suites. Before A/C, these were a Godsend in the often-torrid summer months (and in SoCal, summer can run from April to November).

Yeah I remember most of those things - either in the house I grew up in or in friends or relative's houses. I remember being fascinated by the bread man's walk because as he carried the basket in one hand, he leaned way over toward the other. I thought that was the oddest thing. Never occurred to me as a child that it was because the bread basket was so heavy. I also remember ice cream vendors on bicycles with a large cooler attached to the front.

Another "obsolete" thing found in older houses in the Pittsburgh area, as well as other areas of the midwest/rust belt is the "Pittsburgh Potty", a toilet (and maybe a shower and or sink) that was in an unfinished basement. One theory of such is that people who worked in the steel mills or other "dirty" occupations would be able to enter the house through a basement/back door and clean up before going to the living area upstairs. Another theory is that the plumbing facilities in the basement were there if the sewage system were to back up, and it would back up into the basement versus the main part of the house (basements were typically not used as a "living area" in the past)

@cynthiajohnston424

Жыл бұрын

We had relatives who lived on farms in Illinois - very nice updated farm houses w/ showers , etc. in the basement by the laundry area ; the guys used it when coming in from the fields or doing chores . Back door to shower to laundry - still a good idea today & still built into many modern rural homes .

@jenniferburchill3658

Жыл бұрын

My aunt, who lived just north of Pittsburgh, had a toilet like that in her basement. During my lifetime, however, it had been disconnected from the incoming water and outgoing sewer pipes. The accompanying sink and shower, however, were operational.

@samanthab1923

Жыл бұрын

My parents bought a home in Plainfield NJ that had a shower & sink in the basement near the laundry room. We thought it was for using the pool out back.

@tiffbeevachou108

Жыл бұрын

I had those in the old house I lived in, in Ohio

@bernadettegreen7134

Жыл бұрын

Pgh. Pa. back in the day...your comments were spot-on correct. Semi-hip Baby Boomer. 30 miles south of Pgh.

Still live in the house my parents bought in the early ‘50’s. It was build in 1908. Has a clothes shute that goes from the first floor to the basement laundry room as does the second floor separately. Was originally a coal burning furnace until my parents converted it to gas. I remembered my dad always going down to the basement before bedtime and filling the furnace for the night in winter. Then he’d do the same in the morning before going to work. Plenty of old things in this house. The walls are plastered over wood studs and the plaster has strands of horse hair in them. We found that out repairing a hole in the wall…

@kesmarn

Жыл бұрын

During the Depression, you could tell a true stand-up guy by the way he would take care of furnace coal-shoveling duties morning and evening by himself. He wouldn't "delegate" that chore. When times were tough back then, my Mom who was 13 at the time, took a job as a live-in housework "helper" with a family who lived in the slightly more upscale part of her community. We'll say that that husband's name was "Jackson." He made my 13 old Mom shovel coal in the basement so that the furnace would be running morning and evening without any input from him. That was how he acquired the (nowadays politically incorrect) nickname of Panty Waist Jackson forever more afterward. She and my Dad did very well financially later on, but she never forgot that period of her life.

@SundaysChild1966

Жыл бұрын

@@kesmarn Can you IMAGINE asking .. or ordering .. a 13 yo girl these days to SHOVEL anything!??! lol

@hiseyes

Жыл бұрын

Your description of your dad going to the basement made me think of the movie Christmas Story, which i love, and the foul words wafting up through the vents as that old furnace kept giving him trouble.

Our home was built in the late 1880s. We have a small Hoosier cabinet in the kitchen above the stove, a push button light switch and one thing that I'm surprised wasn't on this list...a cistern

The home we just sold was a kit home built in 1916, we had a few of these in it. I've also seen a few of the rail picture hangers for sale in recent years on sites like Pottery Barn. I guess what's old is new again.

He left out one, a Large TV antenna on the roof. Usually attached to the brick chimney. Inside we had ‘rabbit ears’ sitting on top the TV and strung together with aluminum foil. Move it one way or the other to get a good reception.

@christmaself60

Жыл бұрын

Yep! My grandma used to make my aunt’s dates climb thru the skylight to adjust it for her before they went out, lol

@robertromero8692

Жыл бұрын

Plenty of houses have roof antennas. My house has one.

We had a “Dutch” door between the mud room & main house. The mud room door had a doggie door so the dogs (3 Dobermans) would come into the mud room and then stand up with their feet on the bottom section of the Dutch door and look in on us 😂

@joylox

Жыл бұрын

I've seen so many mud rooms in cottages and old small houses, but forgot what they were called. I know someone who uses theirs more as a place to wipe off the dog so he doesn't get the house wet after a walk in the rain.

Where I lived as a small child, we had a radiator. Once I left my box of crayons on the radiator and they melted slightly. My parents laughed and said I learned a lesson about heat and wax. As a result, I got a new box of crayons and promised to be careful and not do that again - ever. They didn't discourage me from doing artwork which I still do today and also studied when in college.

This was wildly interesting! House I grew up in had a coal cellar and the small door to shovel in the coal. It had a carved out space for the phone right inside the front door. Great video!!

Also, a kitchen floor-drain under the ice box so you would not have to empty the ice melt pan into the sink manually. Wood-frame storm-windows that would have to be switched with wood-frame screens when the seasons changed.

@douglas_drew

Жыл бұрын

Eileen, putting up/taking down the storm windows was always tricky on our second floor windows!

@twobluestripes

Жыл бұрын

My parents have a 1919 California Bungalow as a second home, and I help manage it for them. It has nearly all original windows. The previous owner (I think) build some wood frame window screens, but they are a screwed into the window frames. I am looking forward to doing some a bit fancier: making them with divided light to match the windows, and maybe copper screening, but definitely using the old hooks you’d have to hang them and switch them with storms. I’d consider doing the storm windows too, but we’d really only need them about a month out of the year here in Southern California!

One of those "old oil tanks" is still in the basement in my late grandmother's house right here. It's still used, just as it always was. Still cheaper than if this place was heated by electric or propane. It's not an outdated idea. This place still has all the steam radiator heater grates in all the rooms and they are all still used and never need maintenance. They've always been reliable. They have never leaked in the nearly 80 years since this place was built by my grandfather. Also, this house built from a "Sears" catalog home design. There are Dutch Doors, still, on the front old entrance that isn't used as the main entrance now. Hasn't been the main entrance for most of my life. I'm nearly 60. There's a niche in the main floor hallway for the phone. The fireplace can still be used if needed.

@cherylpesutimassie5010

Жыл бұрын

That sounds wonderful.

@ItsAsparageese

Жыл бұрын

"and never need maintenance" is extremely dangerous language to use about anything, especially anything related to heat. Even things built phenomenally well will have failure points eventually. I hope you don't apply that same "no symptoms = no problems" reasoning to the oil heater, because while steam radiators tend to cause fires from misuse rather than malfunction, an oil tank for an oil heater is a whoooooole other kind of risk, & using an old system sounds like a recipe for disaster if it's not regularly inspected.

@hoozerob

Жыл бұрын

@@ItsAsparageese The Oil burner gets maintenance, but nothing ever has to be done with the pipes that go to the radiator style grates, or the grates themselves. They have given even a hint of any leaks or issues since my grandfather installed them when he built the house in te early 1950's. But the burner does get maintenance and has been replaced once, maybe twice to update the system or more efficiency over the years. People with newer electric system grates along the walls are cheap, don't last long, work as efficiently or any safer.

Before my parents had central AC we had a whole house fan in the attic. Some attic doors had a sliding ladder some had a folding staircase. We had no milk door so we got a cooler from the dairy that sat on the front porch.

@christmaself60

Жыл бұрын

We still have a whole house fan. Just replaced the sliding ladder 2 years ago. Love that fan!!

@christmaself60

Жыл бұрын

And we have central AC. Still love the fan when humidity’s low

@duke927

Жыл бұрын

New house attics like mine are just made for insulation:)

Very telling description of "old and obsolete". Not only is oil heating common in the north east, but brand new million dollar plus homes all come with multiple working fireplaces and some of the features mentioned here. Apparently, "old and obsolete" adds value.

@PBryanMcMillin

Жыл бұрын

Obsolete doesn't necessarily mean not used. It can mean not current and old-fashioned, in lesser use because of newer alternatives. Oil heating has declined every year since the 1970s and only about 3.5% of US homes use oil heat. As you said, most in the northeast. There are still homes that use coal heat, in the US. Fireplaces, oil, and coal have been around for a long time, but there are newer ways to heat homes. Oil and coal heating will continue to decline, but fireplaces will always be around. Not because they are good ways to heat a home, but because people just enjoy fireplaces.

My parent's old house didn't have a Hoosier Cabinet but did have a large, walk-in space with cabinets on each wall and a small sink, it was next to the main kitchen. The cabinets were mainly used for storing dishes, pots and pans, and canned foods. Eventually they just expanded their kitchen to include that space.

@LeeStJohn-ym4df

Жыл бұрын

The pantry. We added shelving in the front hall closet for our pantry.

I'm up in age now so this is really refreshing because I have memories of things not of course everything but quite a bit when I was a kid in the 40s and 50s. Wow.

My apartment in San Francisco had many of the these features including picture rails. They were necessary because most fasteners didn't work with lath and plaster walls which my building had being constructed in the 1920s. Modern drywall negated the need for picture rails as you were now able to use fasteners directly connected to the wall itself. I also had radiators, a built in ironing board, a built in refrigerator, built in table and chairs which folded into the kitchen wall and a phone nook. It was a great place and super modern for 1920.

@cherylpesutimassie5010

Жыл бұрын

That sounds awesome.

Up in Maine we still use those oil tanks, I even had a new one put in my basement. Yeah my house was from the 1780’s, but the tank was brand new. The old one is still here too.

@LeeStJohn-ym4df

Жыл бұрын

Now That is an old house! I bet that no one else here lives in one that old. Long time family home? I'd Love to live in an old house! The history!! The uniqueness of it all. Lucky you!!

@lisathomas1622

Жыл бұрын

@@LeeStJohn-ym4df thanks for your comment. I appreciate your inquiry. no, sadly, it was not my family home. Oh but it was a fun house, I will always remember it. We had a wood cook stove, and it had real horse hair plaster on the walls still over thin lap wood. Timber frame, brick work where the in wall wood stove was , and even a tunnel,that lead to the house across the street which was the town pub and in the basement the town mental asylum. .? Yeah that part was weird, but it’s in the town records. The house was built by a timber company for their daughter and son in law, it was tiny initially, just a cape, because they didn’t like him 😂. Eventually it had more rooms added, but overall it was not a huge fancy house, more a gentleman farmer type abode. I’m divorced now and I own an old store with apartments above, the building is also from the civil war era, and hoo boy it needs a lot of work. Mostly insulation atm, and a good cleaning out. Sadly my last two tenants were not very responsible 🙁

AND AS ALWAYS, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR POSTING!

My grandfather had those push button electrical switches in his house, which I always thought of as odd. He also had small heaters in every room which burned gas to create blue flames to heat the house.

The oil drums pictured my husband and I had two in our backyard, one for the house and one for the backyard carpenter garage. I actually wanted to clean them up and turn them into meat smokers, but an ex friend dug it up and sold it while we were out of town (he dug up the anchors because it’s above ground on feet). The other smaller tank we took to a remote property to be used for propane and is still there being used for oil having sold the property to a neighbor. He uses it to heat his donkey/ labor animals barn in the winter.

Our home built in 1960 had an electric can opener on the wall and an intercom system which was all the rage in post-war America.

Thank you ❤️ I'm 67 and saw all of these things but forget what exactly is missing and or changed over the years

Never heard the term sleeping porch, but the concept is sublime. If the climate is right it’s a glorious place to sleep. There’s enough of the outdoors to be half way to camping, so your brain will find an almost primordial satisfaction.

Gosh this brings back fabulous memories of my grandmother’s house and other older family members’ homes!!

I grew up in a house that was built in 1911. My folks told me when they moved in the house already was heated by a gas feed furnace...but they had to remove one of those old oil tanks from the basement. Also for many years they still had one of those punch light switches in the front room. Although it wasn't a traditional sleeping porch...my brothers and I spent many a summer nights sleeping out on the screened in front porch...Mom and Dad didn't install AC until the mid 1980s!

@samanthab1923

Жыл бұрын

I live in an old house now but grew up in only new homes. First house they bought in 63 had central air. I’m spoiled 😂

My Late Grandparents heated their home with oil up into the 1990s and it was more expensive than the natural gas. And my Mom remembers when bread and milk were delivered to her Childhood home, but since my Late Grandfather built the last home she lived in starting in 1954, I know there were no doors for milk deliveries. The Milkman along with the bread deliveries were just put out on the porch for my now Late Grandma to pick up in the morning when she woke up. I really enjoyed this video, especially the "sleeping porches" of those old homes, the hoosiers cabinets with counter space, and I really LOVE the idea of picture rails, which I wish they would bring back in style.

Ah...push button light switches.❤ I lived in a craftsman bungalow for 5 years. It was built in the early 1900's and it had push button switches, picture rails, pocket doors and a ventilated cabinet that I think was intended for storing root vegetables. I topped the screen shelves with plywood and used it as a pantry. That was a cool little house.😎

@joylox

Жыл бұрын

I have a vegetable storage room! It's on the lower floor, but the vents are right beside the front entrance to the upper floor. Unfortunately they seem to let spiders in fairly often, but I've been putting homemade pickles in there for storage, and later I'll have my carrots and onions in there. It's just insulated with styrofoam, but it seems to work okay.

We lived in a 3 room duplex where my Mother used a wringer washing machine to do clothes on the porch. My brother tried to put his fingers through it and a week later stuck his finger in a fan. Mama would bathe me in a wash tub on that porch. Recently, I went to Nashville and found painters outside so they let me walk in….it seemed so tiny. Our rent was $35 a month and now rents for $1,300 a month (made of cinder blocks).

Wow! This strikes up memories. Some homes weren't built with bathrooms until the 1930's- we used Outhouses. Toilets with water tanks situated on the wall above with a chain mechanism for flushing in modern homes, no showers in bathrooms-only bathtubs & sinks. No cold/hot water mixing mechanisms on faucet fixtures. Utility sinks in back porches are considered a luxury today, but standard in the modern home in early 20th century. There was no plumbing nor electricity in most rural areas until the '40's. Clotheslines were in every back yard. Car Garages were detached from houses until the '50's.

@samanthab1923

Жыл бұрын

I grew up with close lines. Miss them

@LeeStJohn-ym4df

Жыл бұрын

Clotheslines!! Not only was it fun to help my Mom hang out the wash but then those great dashes to the backyard to get it all in before it rained! Also running around the house to close all the windows before the rain poured in😄 Nothing. Nothing smells as good as the laundry that was dryed outside on the line. Of course it also meant ironing it all as well!

@scottslotterbeck3796

Жыл бұрын

Garages are still built detached if you want. My old home had a cast iron tub with no shower. I tore it out and put a shower in. The medicine cabinet did have the blade slot.

In Idaho, my Grandparents had a house with a sleeping porch. I have Wonderful memories of the family sitting and visiting on that porch during Idaho summer evenings. 🏡

@jchow5966

Жыл бұрын

Wpw! Wish i could live in a house that had those interesting things in it. What are seighted windows? Why did they need to be weighted?

@LeeStJohn-ym4df

Жыл бұрын

They're called sash windows. (If you know the children's Christmas story, 'The Night Before Christmas', the Father, " ran to the window, tore open the shutters and threw up the sash!") There are weights on thick ropes that are built into the wall along the side of the window, that kept the window open and helped to lower it. Windows were heavy. And helped to prevent the window from slamming shut. Of course as they got older you'd need a prop to keep them open and w a good wind the prop could fall and the window would slam shut scaring the living daylights out of you!😄

Thank you so much Recollection Road for uploading this great video, I appreciate it!

I used to live in Connecticut, and my home was built in 1821, so it had a lot of these features. My home was actually older than some of my friends' homes. My sister in law lived in a house that had canvas ceilings!

Those little delivery doors sure would've come in handy during the lockdowns!

My Dad built our home in the 50’s. It has three oil tanks, two in the basement and one outside that the oil delivery people could put oil in that went to the tanks in the basement. When my husband and I bought our mobile home that heated with electric, my Dad thought we were crazy because at the time, oil was a cheaper way to heat. That home is now 70 years old, and as far as I know, it is still heated with oil. I miss oil heat, because it’s a much warmer heat than electric.

@forgottenfilmchannel1194

Жыл бұрын

Oil forced air is the best. to bad that this year it will be so expensive that I'll be keeping the thermostat set at 63 and relying on the sucky electric heat

@darrellmortensen9805

Жыл бұрын

It smells terrible to me

@bigscarysteve

Жыл бұрын

I've seen those oil tanks, but I've never seen them inside a home--only outside. May be a regional difference.

@lauriebertramroberts8990

Жыл бұрын

@@bigscarysteve ours was in the basement

@docgiggles130

Жыл бұрын

You can still have a hot water system installed in a house. The boiler is gas or electric and is a better option for people with bad allergies to dust/mold. Hot water radiant heat is making a comeback in some areas because modern systems can be far more efficient than forced air depending on where you live.

My grandparent's home had some push button lights and radiators. Loved the sounds those radiators would make. I miss that. They had a telephone table and chair which was nice. The milk door was a great idea too as our milk sometimes would freeze and the bottles break in the winter being outside in the containers even though they were insulated. I've seen boot scrapers, another good idea even today, coming in from gardening or being in horse stalls, etc.

I'm in my mid-late 50's, my grandfather was a milk man and when I was a little girl I would occasionally go on his route with him. Everyone had a box on their porch and I would get the envolpe inside with money in it, he would have a metal basket and gather the items and I would help him put them in the box. Some had the outside- inside pantry door on their house. My favorite was the "dollhouse" a dwarf couple with everything built to their height. Wonderful people, and she made the best cookies! I really miss those days and consider myself luck to have those wonderful memories. Thanks grampa❤

I've lived in my house 20 years and now I finally learned what that weird slit in the back of my medicine cabinet is for.