Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 10 Old Home Features… That Have Faded Into History

It's too bad people got away from having a Butlers Pantry in their homes.
I've designed them into new builds and remodels I've done and they've all gone over well.
I make them large and include the microwave, dishwasher and additional sink and frig.
Lesser priced butcher block counter tops go well in a Butlers Pantry too.

With the open concept designs people seem to be attracted to today it really allows for some great, clean kitchen options with uncluttered counter tops.

Without the need for bulk storage in the kitchen upper cabinets can be totally eliminated.

Jeff, that looks very appealing. Most kitchens are very dark because of the upper cabinets.

I like that, great idea.

No closets in any of the bedrooms so folks could use wardrobe cabinets.

Yes, that's the way it was in my grandparents' house in Virginia. Wardrobe cabinets instead of closets in the bedrooms. I remember my grandfather's old fedora hats on the top shelf.

Pocket doors

Cool video. Thanks for posting. I remember the pass through milk boxes still being used in the 50's. Most of 'em are still there but you can't see them from the outside because over the years the houses all got re-sided with aluminum or vinyl siding and the old milk box just got covered up by the siding. My dad bought a new house in 1955 and it didn't have one of those milk boxes. He got one of those insulated, galvanized (?) steel or aluminum boxes with the hinged lid that the milkman put the milk into. Also, back in the 50's one of my great aunts still had one of the earliest gas stoves in her kitchen. One of those that looked like an old wood fired kitchen stove that had been converted to gas. My catholic grammar school was heated by coal up until about the mid 60's and when you were in 6th grade, your classroom was right next to the earthen ramp that the coal truck backed up to access the coal chute. They unloaded the coal 3 feet away from the windows and it was a major distraction on coal delivery day.

My Grandparents home had a laundry chute and a cistern that collected rain water in the basement

When working at a door plant, I built and installed pocket doors at the top of the stairs to the bedrooms. Gain in useable space in the bedrooms, where the doors swing. Stayed over at work, and assembled ten, 6 panel doors of various widths, during the summer we built our house. Since they were solid wood, they are still hanging in there. No pun intended!

BIL knew there was a fireplace in the house. When he tore out the false wall the fireplace still had the cooking swing arm used to make dinners.

Pocket doors? We built a house 12 years ago that has 4. Also has a laundry chute.

One thing not mentioned is servant/slave quarters. 30 years ago or so, I lived in a basement "apartment" for a year in an old home that was obviously used for the help (hired or not).

Intercoms and built in vacuums. 😀

Watchtower... when i was a kid in the 70's we lived in a large 3 story house built in the late 19th century that had a watchtower above the 3rd floor... old timers said that Indians used to pass thru the area in the spring & fall and would steal anything that wasn't nailed down... The tower was manned sun-up to sundown during the expected migration and the townsfolk were warned with a Bell... Weyauwega "Here We Rest" in Indian speak...

sealed milk door + lit M-80 = major damage... should'a had our asses beet!...

A fire marschal told me once that the reason there are no more lundry chutes, is that they are an unobstructed air intake source in a house fire.

Owned a house in Pittsburgh with a laundry chute, and a mail slot built into the wall of the house, not the door. It also had a pretty unique feature of a small dining area off the kitchen where the table and bench seats all folded up into the wall. Tile roof too, not something you associate with back east. Now that I think about it, there was a swinging door between the kitchen and dining room as well.

My parents bought a house back around 2000 that had both. It was a newly built house.

Last house had a coal room area in the basement. Chute and all. I turned it into a brewery. That house was built in 41. Had steel siding. Was an amazing house, neighborhood went to hell.

Current house built in 74 has a laundry chute - bout it for old school stuff.

I don't know that I'll ever build a new house - little desire but if I did, big porch and real fireplace are the only 2 "must haves". Rest - meh, DGAF.

I remember those. Gillette Blue Blades and Mennen Skin Bracer. Been shaving for 70 years, still use the Mennen. How's that for brand loyalty?

The house I grew up in had a pretty good sized "Coal Cellar" under the front porch. Dad turned it into a Pantry/Reloading Room.