If there's something you don't understand in an old house, there's probably a good reason for it being there, even though it no longer applies.
Many of these features were conveniences of their time that no one could imagine would become obsolete in the future, but it's a testament to the builders that the homes lasted into an another era. One feature that might be jarring to viewers is the phone jack. An awful lot of people still use land lines. He should have shown us the old four-prong phone jacks that preceded the connections shown. My previous house had these, and we had to get adapters to use a more modern landline phone. There were once so many delivery doors, for coal, ice, milk, etc. We don't get those kind of deliveries anymore, but a concealed cabinet at the front of the house would be a great way to hide your Amazon packages from porch pirates.
I once had a bathroom remodeled, and the torn-up wall was full of razor blades. The contractor brought out a magnet pickup tool to collect them, which impressed me so much that I bought my own magnet.
A laundry chute, dumbwaiter, or intercom was much more useful for houses that were three stories tall, especially if the laundry was done in the basement. Laundry chutes are illegal to install today in a lot of states because in the event of a fire, they act as a chimney, drawing the fire to upper floors. Probably not all that safe for children, either.
The Pittsburgh Potty had a dual purpose. Not only was it (or more precisely, the sink and/or shower beside it) a place to clean up after work, the toilet in the basement was also an emergency valve. If there was a sewer backup, the basement toilet would overflow first, keeping the upstairs toilet backup-free.
Commenters added some more old house features they'd seen, like a floor drain in a closet where the icebox was once kept, specifically for melting ice. Some houses have an ironing board that folds out from the wall. A couple of people mentioned homes that had a central vacuum system built into the walls. California coolers and larders were ventilated areas architecturally situated for food storage before refrigeration. And there were coffin doors that were only opened to transfer a coffin to the parlor for a wake. Summer kitchens, sleeping porches, draw fans, and lightning rods were mentioned, too. If you have any of these things in your home, you have a bit of history.
#architecture #vintage #history