Welcome to our journey through the captivating world of historic American homes! In this insightful video, “Out of Vogue: The Rise and Fall of Historic Home Features,” we delve into the unique charm and enduring elegance of the United States’ oldest houses. Perfect for history enthusiasts, architecture lovers, and home design aficionados!
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Stained Glass Windows: Explore the vibrant artistry and intricate designs of these vintage masterpieces. [#StainedGlassWindows]
Classic Hardwood Floors: Uncover the timeless appeal and natural beauty of traditional hardwood. [#HardwoodFloors]
And 13 more remarkable features of historic American homes, each with its own story and charm.
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Dive into the architectural and decorative elements that have stood the test of time.
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The modern houses of the past have survived in popular imagination as the ideal Suburban Paradise from stained glass windows to the warmth of hardwood floors the features of old homes in the US are quite worthy of attention if not only for evoking Nostalgia of a bygone Era hello and welcome back to the channel today we go over the top 15 old home Fe features in the US looking at both the Obsolete and the valuable by waiting through such an intimate aspect of our pasts we can see just how far house life has come and ironically just
How much we can learn from the practices of the old let’s begin number 15 transom Windows usually made of stained glass the transom used to be a window above a house’s front door now Associated often with Christmas movies and old westerns this window was not just in place for
Purely decorative purposes as a matter of fact it has two main purposes the first is to allow natural light to filter into the main hallways of the house something that was quite useful in an era where electricity was scanned secondly it is very useful for yearr round air circulation and regulating
Inhome temperatures in the past Apartments Office Buildings large homes and schools used transom Windows near expansive spaces like hallways in order to provide constant air flow a natural source of light and temperature regulation though they are not used for those purposes today the transom still hold aesthetic appeal owing to the
Beautiful stained glass they require number 14 sleeping porches in the early 20th century Suburban life was becoming commonplace in the US and people became increasingly experimental with how they wanted to style their person personalized homes this is the context in which sleeping porches became a massive Trend especially for healthc conscious
Homeowners doctors suggested using balconies or porches for outdoor sleeping to enhance exposure to Natural air and bolster immune systems these features have fallen out of fashion as front porches don’t remain as expansive as they used to be and it has become more efficient for people to maintain Compact and vertically expanding houses
Number 13 dumb waiters these novel devices were used commonly for transporting food from the basement or the kitchen upstairs to the dining halls and rooms though they are still used in some old-fashioned commercial buildings their use has largely died out due to developments like the elevator the dumb waiters were
A very inventive creation for its time however it consisted of boxes inside a vertical wall shaft that could be pulled P up and down with a pulley since they were quite small and could fit children these devices led to numerous injuries and accidental deaths fortunately with elevators and the relocation of kitchens
Out of the basement and into the first floor of the house the dumb waiter has largely gone out of commission in American houses number 12 fireplaces the idea of fireplaces is not outdated but the purpose they have served historically certainly is is these were not simply decorative but
Essential and were found in every major room of the house the most popular and luxurious fireplace asset was the Rumford fireplace it had a tall and shallow design which allowed the fir pit to reflect as much heat as possible around the room this feature was found in many rooms within the houses and
Became a staple of American housing that is until they were sadly replaced by the invention of C heating devices and furnaces however ironically with escalating fuel prices people have started to look back towards fireplaces as a valuable asset in general they have become increasingly restored to homes due to their aesthetic and decorative
Value as well number 11 laundry shoots this is another invention that has now become increasingly obsolete with the development of smaller and more compact houses since most laundry was in basement it was often a hassle for individual members of the house to go downstairs to carry all their laundry
Around with the development of these shoots all household members had to do is to throw their dirty clothes down the hole of the shoots and a laundry basket would be waiting for them in the basement a simple device but quite effective and widely used again thankfully technological advancement has
Allowed us greater ease in handling our laundry and has rendered this asset obsolete number 10 mail slot up until very recently and before the unfortunate decline of the USPS the mail slot was a staple for front doors in American Homes still present in pop culture that is centered around American daily life back
In the 50s and 60s this convenient device was almost ubiquitous in its use it enabled every friendly Male carrier in different neighborhoods the ease of sorting mail into these slots rather than knocking at every person’s home to deliver messages from their loved ones the mail slot has gone into decline
Following the decline of the USPS and the rise of digitalization and online banking once a very secure and cost-effective way of delivering and receiving mail the mail slot has had The Misfortune of Being swept by the tides of Time and Technology number nine milk doors and and
Shoots we might now think it ludicrous for perishable Necessities like milk to be delivered at our doorstep especially with the spread of supermarkets everywhere in the US however before the Great Depression America did not have the automobile infrastructure to support regular travel to supermarkets often perished items like
Milk were replenished by delivery men on a regular basis here milk doors and shoots became quite common Assets in Old American Homes this feature basically involved having a chute or a door in the kitchen from where delivery men could retrieve empty bottles and bring them back replenished though a very simple and
Necessary feature to enable constant access to household items these shoots were quite small and dangerous especially for children for this reason once they lost their purpose they were mostly bricked over or converted into other valuables like mailboxes or slots number eight home canaries once again in home canaries we find a creative and
Effective solution to an issue which plagued American households and their access to essential items in an age where automobiles were not so widespread home gardening and canaries were a major source of food production and preservation especially for Rural households and for cities that were not so well connected with supermarkets of
Utmost concern was the need to preserve food for Winters a time where transport was especially difficult canaries were usually built in basements with richer households making secondary basements and constructions to house essential items like vegetables jam and fresh fruit sealed in mason jars in the less populated Midwest items extended to
Include dry herbs and seeds with the advance of logistical capacity these canaries are no longer required and are often repurposed to to serve other purposes number seven phone Nooks technological advancement has brought with it an ease of comfort that was impossible to imagine even 30 or 40
Years ago however it is still quite intriguing to see just how households of that time adjusted to difficulties we can’t even comprehend in the present perhaps the most unique yet effective among them all are phone Nooks a commonplace presence in mov movies and TV shows that feature American Homes but
In reality a feature resigned to a long gone past at a time when phone Nooks were quite large bulky and difficult to wield homes often had to install special Nooks on walls to accommodate and fix these bulky assets long before the era where smartphones had features that made
Even regular phone calls a secondary requirement telephones had to remain fixed to a wall and were connected with switchboard operators whom you contacted first to be able to talk to your actual number the oldest of these home phones required wooden boxes that resembled payones and a winding Magneto generator
That facilitated the bells these massive machines soon gave way to smaller and more cost-effective telephones like the Candlestick phone and such developments eventually paved the way for the obsoletion of phone nooks in the present it would be hard to think of a to install an entirely separate infrastructure for phone calls in your
Home number six cooling shelves marble cooling shelves were a commonplace feature in American Homes when access to bakeries and eateries was limited since in those times baking was widespread in houses with freshly baked pies pastries and breads a common occurrence there was a need for viable cooling places it was difficult to cool
One’s food by the window cons considering one doesn’t want their previously baked items to be sullied by birds and scavengers for this reason marble cooling shelves were installed and they prove to be very useful in the process of baking and preserving now as marble Roofing and flooring has become
Relatively cheaper and there are better devices for cooling and preservation such as fridges the need for marble cooling shelves has died off number five coal shoots you can now see the small window-like shoots sealed off in older homes and used for decorative purposes coal shoots are the symbol of a bygone
Era where coal was used to powerhouses furnaces and essentially the entire economy with no effective mechanism for electricity distribution coal was effectively the only source of fuel for home furnaces deliverymen used to come and distribute this coal door too putting it into a chute which would lead directly
To the basement where home owners could shove it into furnaces while this sounds like quite a dated and astonishing idea what considering the environmental and health hazards of such methods coal shoots were a basic necessity for homeowners up till the middle of the 20th century where they gradually began to be replaced even
Now however one can observe old homes that have these shoots now sealed off and serving no real purpose number four radiators made out of rot or cast iron radiators emerged as one of the first sources of centralized Heating in American houses and apartments as a matter of fact though they are proven to
Be less effective than modern HVAC systems radiators are still used by many households due to their historical prominence these devices usually involve water droplets that are condensed being moved around by incredible steam pressure though used primarily for heating purposes radiators had many other advantages they were used for drying clothes in particularly rainy
Weather especially by using supplementary rack attachment additionally homeowners often use the forged iron of the radiators to make other more ornate designs lastly in the early 20th century onwards radiators also had attached water tanks which helped in combating dry air by acting as functional humidifiers if you really think about it
This feature in Old homes was incredibly effective for its time especially considering the many diverse uses it had number three boot scraper this old home feature is incredibly sensitive to the context of its time and for that reason will appear quite absurd to us in the present day imagine a world without
Paved roads and with such incredibly massive amounts of dirt piled everywhere in the cities that you simply could not enter your house with the same boots that you left it in enter boot scrapers these devices were located near the front door and were made of cast iron
Bars it was a reflection of the growing middle class sensibility with regards to cleanliness and civilized behavior these scrapers were used by both homeowners and guests alike to clean one’s boots off of its dirty muck before entering one’s foyer the iron bars were eventually replaced with plastic bars
And then with the development of paved roads and increasing public concern over cleanliness and Community maintenance the need for boot scrapers was discarded and forgotten into the sands of time they were in simpler words the remnant of an era where houses were still in the throws of unprecedented industrial
Change and the overcrowding of cities number two servant Bells this particular feature was very widespread in middle and upper class American Homes before the Advent of electric Bells Bell poles were often located in every room especially in the case of a large house behind panels or curtains when
Pulled the Rope used to extend into the servant quarters and ring the bell there as well this allowed maids and butlers to look both into the servant being called and the room to which they were being asked to visit in more Victorian era houses there was also the presence
Of speaking tubes that allowed homeowners to effectively interact with their servants who were usually in the base ments without going through much of a hassle now with the development of electric intercoms and Bell buttons there is no such need for elaborate technology what’s more important to note
Is that in the US the culture of domestic servant has diminished to a negligible degree adding to that the fact that most kitchens are also now located on the first floor there really is little need for elaborate servant Bells by all accounts number one one Speaking tubes long before the spread of Home
Electricity home intercoms were wellestablished features of American housing the older of these intercoms consisted of speaking tubes that ran through the walls of the house on each end of the tube there was a nickel made mouthpiece and a cap upon removing the cover a person could speak into the
Mouthpiece and the voice would come out on the other ends sounds quite cool right well these were not r household features especially before the Advent of large payones they were used for a variety of purposes that extended from effective contact with domestic servant quarters to just having ready contact
With different members of the House of course one wouldn’t imagine having such a device in the present day unless one wishes to live the life of a full technological abstinence however to be fair that applies to most items in this list thanks for watching don’t forget to
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