MORE STRANGE & OBSOLETE Home Features from the past - Life in America 

Ideas of the past were so cool. I live in a 1901 house, and we have hitching rings embedded in the sidewalks. The city I live in has made them historical so even if the sidewalk gets rebuilt over time, they are reinstalled. I always thought that a nice way to remember history.

I recall back in the 1950's many people had incinerators in which we burned up our trash; also in the backyard we had a circular clothes line.

Still have the wooden laundry chute door in my house bathroom that was built in the early 1920s. When we used to use it, we'd keep a basket in the basement to catch the laundry we'd throw down the chute. Seems like a good thing to keep around when raising a family.

My elementary school had windows above all the doors that went into the classroom. They also had those old radiator heat that made a tink tink sound and would be really hot if you touched them.

We had a whole house fan in my childhood home. We also had air conditioning. The nice thing about the big fan you could turn it on at night and open your windows. The house cooled down so quick. My uncle still has these fans in his house and garage.

"Dumbwaiter" refers to the older definition of "dumb" meaning "silent", not "stupid", as they silently delivered items to other areas of the home. Speaking tubes were still being used in new multi-story buildings into the 1940s.

I worked in the elevator trade for a number of years and once in a while ran across these dumbwaiters in older large homes...which was very cool. They usually were powered by pulling on a rope to go up or down. I did get the chance to see a larger rope hand operated elevator at an old morgue. Cool stuff!

I'm electrician and I do a lot of work in Westfield, New Jersey. I thoroughly enjoy working in old homes and its really become the niche of my business. I replace knob & tube wiring, old devices like switches & receptacles, and install new lighting. It's fascinating to me how the old timers used to wire homes. I have definitely seen my share of "root cellars" but I never knew what that was until seeing this video. This was a fascinating video doc.

We built our retirement home five years ago in the country. We include double hung windows which have a similar function to the transom windows, a root cellar, a 1950’s window fan that pulls the night air through the house and a wood burning stove for winter heat that is disbursed through out the house by a 1940’s oscillating fan. A small amount of work with a big financial savings.

My parents bought their house in the 1977, it was remodeled by the previous owners but they kept the ironing board cabinet and another cabinet in the kitchen next to the stove that has shelves in it which I'm assuming was for storing spices although my mother didn't use it for that, she used it as a medicine cabinet. Also, their neighbor right next door had already been living there years before my parents moved in next door and she NEVER did any kind of remodeling or upgrading to her house, her house was exactly the same since the day she and her late husband bought it when they married right after High School up until she passed away two years ago at almost 100 yrs old, and her house also had the ironing board cabinet, the cabinet with shelves in the kitchen next to the stove, all original old doors with old doorknobs that still lock and unlock with a skeleton key, old light fixtures, and original old windows, the same furniture that she bought when her and her late husband moved in, it was like going back in time, it was the only house in the area that was still exactly the same since they built it, it was like time stood still, but what I liked the most about her house is that the kitchen still has a little door that opens from the outside and it's where MANY years ago the milkman would drop off the glass milk jugs.

I lived in St. Louis after my first job after college in 1980. Bought a 1952 brick rancher in StL with a ceiling vent fan in hallway into the attic. Wow did that thing suck the cooler air in at night during the Summer. Still worked perfectly when I sold the house in 2004. Passed city inspection too. :)

My modern built house has a central vacuum system. Its brilliant, convenient and so powerful it could suck your slippers off your feet! I don;t understand why more homes don't have one and how I ever lived without it.

Back in the 70s, my uncle owned an 1890s Victorian. He was the second owner and there was still a carriage house around back. There were speaking tubes in the walls, but these were probably retrofitted gas lines from the old lighting fixtures -they had a porcelain mouthpiece with a metal flap one lifted to use. Victorian coffin niches were generally used on staircases that were narrow and/or had tight turns. It was expected a person would pass away upstairs, so families sometimes kept a reusable casket in the attic and funerals were held at the home in the parlor.

In regards tp the "horse blocks". We still have wrought iron rings attached to the curb for tying horses in front of our church here in Portland, OR.

The house that my wife and I purchased 40 years ago was built in 1873 and has many of these features. In addition, it also has pocket doors. We still open all of the transom windows and run the attic fan (which was a later addition) on many spring and fall days when air conditioning would be overkill. The farmer that originally built the house must've been pretty well off.

The central vac is actually much better than any portable vac. My parents installed one in 2000. More powerful and rarely needs to be emptied.

The house in which I live has the window above the door and I have used laundry shoots and I loved them. Thank you for another wonderful look back 🙂

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. 😀

I grew up in a house with the Butler’s pantry, a laundry chute, and the central vacuum system. Didn’t have any transom windows, but we did have sleeping porches.

Thank you !

Laundry chutes and dumb waiters were so nice in an old farm house we lived in. So practical. Now our condo has 28 total stairs to the laundry in the basement. I miss root callers and built in ironing boards. Ah, so many practical and beautiful accessories. Thanks

Our home was built in 2000 and it has a central vacuum. Wife loves it.

0:42 We used to live in a home in California that had a laundry chute. If I'm not mistaken, the house was built back in 1932, and it was found in my bedroom. I wish they were in more homes today.

My house was built in 1936 and it has two laundry chutes. One upstairs and one in the kitchen. I LOVE and use them all the time. This house has a door knocker too. I thought it was black and tried to clean it before painting it,but as I cleaned it, it turned out to be solid brass. I bought brasso and polished it up. Beautiful now. Crystal doorknobs on every door with brass ornate plate surrounding them.

Colonial to Victorian ice houses were behind most mansions... maybe 15 x 20 feet, one story, the walls two feet thick filled with sawdust... in midwinter, locals would saw blocks of ice from lakes to put in these houses... lakes were rented out for this purpose to ice companies... wooden sailing ships actually carried ice from New England to India in the 19th century!!! My genetic local knowledge from Cape Cod Massachusetts !!! A wonderful place to grow un in the 1950's :)>

I have a door knocker on my door and NO ONE EVER USES IT! Drives me CRAZY! It's right there, USE IT. It sounds louder than the typical mousy baby taps that people do for knocks, which I can never hear.

I work in a library that used to be a manor home for the town mayor. The building dates back to the 1800s, and there is a transom window above the front door. I never knew what its proper name was, nor what its true function was. You taught me something tonight!

Regarding the carriage blocks, every time I watch the 1947 film _Life With Father_ with William Powell and Itene Dunne, there is a scene that shows a carriage block, only I never knew what that rectangular piece of stone was. All it had was the owner's name carved into it -- "Clarence Day". I wondered why it was there as, it looked like a good way for people to trip over it, right there at the curb. Finally, the question has been answered. A carriage stepping stone and a means to mount a horse! Makes sense now. Thank you!

This was a great upload! Thoroughly enjoyed it!! Thank you!! 😊

And with all the power outages we may need to go back to these type of systems. They work.

Great memories, thanks.

My dad’s parents had a huge clothes shut that was big enough for my sibs, cousins and me to take turns getting into and sliding down to the laundry room and into a big pile of dirty clothes or sheets and towels. On a cold winter’s day or when it was raining outside we little kids would check to make sure that there was a big pile of clothes on the floor in the laundry room and then run upstairs to the bathroom, open up the chute and slide down to the laundry room. We could do that for hours and never get bored. When we got too big for the chute we would go sledding down the steep basement stairs on big pieces of cardboard that my grandpa would get from home furnishings stores. My sibs and I did this at home too. My home is nearly 80 years old and has an ironing board cupboard in the kitchen. The previous owners turned it into a small cupboard with several shelves which are perfect for putting all of our mugs in. It’s interesting to visit our neighbors’ homes to see what they’ve done with their ironing board cupboards.

The old house I grew up with had those windows

During the redevelopment craze of the 1950s in San Francisco, they removed and sold the hitching posts found in front of large Victorians. You can still see them on sidewalks around the city.

Door knockers were once removable. Not having the knocker on the door was a way to tell guests they were not home or were not accepting visitors.

My parents had the built-in vacuum system in two houses that we successively lived in. Both systems made by Sears.

I grew up in a house that had a clothes chute and coal cellar. I now live in an old apt building that has the windows over the doors. Great video.

My brother and his wife built a new home in early 2000's with a central vacuum system. The house I grew up in was built in 1965. In the bathrooms it had a laundry cabinet at floor level big enough for a laundry basket to sit inside and a fold out laundry shoot just above it. Fold open the shoot and throw the dirty clothes into the basket below. A really nice feature.

Where I grew up in Philadelphia the old homes had roofs over the driveway to keep those getting out of carridges dry. The carridge shed was around back.

My Aunt had a central vacuum system in her home in Cape Cod. I remember as a little kid in the 60’s, playing with the outlets with my siblings, when we visited.

I very much enjoyed the video. My grandparents had a root cellar. I loved to go in it during the summer time because it was always so much cooler. I can still remember the distinct smell of dirt.

I love historic homes. I'd love a house with most or all of these features.

I grew up in a house with a central vacuum. It was awesome, just plug in a go. Biggest drawback was dumping the canister and when it died and no one knew how to fix it.

There are a lot of items you mentioned that I was unaware of. So, very cool to see them!

We lived in a small, no-frills, old farmhouse in CT back in the 50s. No air conditioning, and the place certainly didn't have any of those ceiling fans. We spent a couple unspeakable summers trying to get to sleep on hot nights until Dad brought home a large box fan, mounted it in the window facing outward, and sucked the hot air out of the house that way. The cooler air that came later in the night also made it comfortable after the hot air was gone.

I’m sure glad I didn’t live in days of no air conditioning!! Louisiana is hell on earth

Great video. Thank you !

In the late 1940s I attended a school in Colorado that had transom windows over the main doors of each classroom to allow air flow. Our farmhouse had a coal room in the basement, and Daddy would call each month for a delivery of coal in a truck that backed up to a certain window that opened for a chute to empty coal into the room that had a locked door so we kids could not get in. My grandmother had a house with a dirt floor basement. Spooky! A relative on a farm in Missouri had a root cellar dug into the side of a small hill that doubled as a safe hideout during tornado season.

Very nice! The ironing-board cabinet is something I miss from my old house.

The modern log home my husband and I have lived in for the past 15 years has a central vacuum system and I absolutely love it! I also have a cordless Dyson vacuum attached to a wall on the main level of the home for quick vacuuming jobs. We recently sold our home and are in the process of moving to a smaller, single level home. We purchased a regular vacuum for our new home and I must say I miss my central vacuum! The electrical cord on the new vacuum is constantly underfoot. I think every home should have a central vacuum system built into it; they’re fantastic!

We had a laundry chute in the house I grew up in. Interesting tidbit about the coffin corner, first time I've heard that one. As for door knockers, whenever I see a door knocker I automatically think of Marley's ghost from A Christmas Carol. A bit of undigested beef indeed.

Love these videos!! Keep them coming.

Here in Northern California outside Sacramento summer temps 90 to 105 but most evenings temps 65-75. Whole house fans are still very popular. Please do a video about the Sizzler when you can.

I lived in a 70's split level house, that had the central vac. I loved it. It was great for vacuuming the carpeted steps.

Laundry shoots are such a great idea.

I knew about all of these features and enjoyed the video. If you do more of these, you should describe a sleeping porch.

The house I grew up in during the 1950s, was built in 1907 and contained many of the features shown. One item I don't see in large homes are French Windows which opened onto a porch from either the living room or dining room.

One of our first houses in Chicago was a brick bungalow. It had 6 rooms on the first and only level, but had an unfinished basement with a laundry area. It had a closet in the middle of the house next to the washroom. In that closet was a access panel to the bathtub plumbing. Being enough room in the corner, my dad cut out and hinged a door and made a chute to the basement laundry area…..it was a great help. Years later our custom home in a suburb had laundry on the second floor and had a central vacuum. For our later years we bought a ranch home in a subdivision with a basement and a 3 car garage. We added a central A/C system, a whole house fan (in the middle of the home, in a hallway, in the ceiling and controls in the closet adjacent) and a central vacuum. The central vacuum I installed and purchased myself. The builders cost for this was $2600. I bought all the parts for about $700, including the power broom and attachments (this was not supplied by the builder with the central vac system). I had never in stalled such a system but was pretty DIY orientated. About 2 months after moving in (2003) I had a week off before Christmas, with my 9 year old grandson, we installed the system. The system has 3 attachment points on the first floor, 4 in our finished basement and workshop and one in the garage. It’s in the garage by the house door entrance to the laundry/mudroom and the hose and attachments are next to it. This Is my wife’s favorite way to vacuum, because of the light weight and easy way to do this, easier to operate vs. a regular push vacuum. All central vacuums have a built-in canaster that is usually on the bottom of the unit and can have a paper bag or not, ours doesn’t. It’s been operating for 19 years and has never been repaired or replaced. The hardest part of this system is finding someone that sells 10 foot plastic pipe that’s used for these systems. I found a local electrical supply that sold me 16 pipes for $4.04 each, this pipe is not the same as the pvc plumbing pipe, it’s thinner wall. Thanks…Jim

I grew up in a house with an attic fan. I once lived in a house with a floor furnace in the hall floor. My school had radiators and transom windows.

My house was built in the '70s, I think. I have an attic fan that works great. It's a little on the noisy side but it sure can pull that cool night air in

I live in a 3 story Victorian built for a doctor in 1893. At that time, the town had no running water supplied to the homes. I have a picture of my home taken when it was first built. The picture shows the roof gutters several feet above the edge of the roof line. Rain water was captured and run inside the house and stored in a large water tank in the third floor. This water was used to operate the one flush toilet in the house. I doubt the water was used for drinking as it couldn't be very clean. But at least the good doctor had "indoor plumbing" as most houses of that time still employed "out houses".

I've been preparing to move from South Florida to West Virginia and many of the things you showed here are in the houses I've been considering to purchase.

Fun Fact: Early limousines (with glass dividers) had acoustic speaking tubes so the passengers could give instructions to the chauffeur!

My parent's house still has their whole house fan.

My childhood home was a custom house built in the 1950s. It had a laundry chute. Very civilized. If I were to design my own home, I'd definitely put one in.

The 1940 bungalow that I grew up in, in the 60's, had an attic fan and a built in ironing board. That attic fan pulled in cool night air and tons of humidity. (Baton Rouge)

I have a room in my house that was originally used as a laundry "pass-through". The washer and dryer are in the back hall. This room is at the back of the house and laundry would be taken there for folding and ironing. It still has a fold-down ironing board in the wall. There is also a door leading outside which gave easy access to the clothesline.

Dumbwaiters are still being built into some luxury houses. What I was hoping to see mentioned were the small niches covered with a sliding door installed into the front door of older houses (1930s and before). These were for visitors to literally leave their calling card should they stop by when you’re not at home.

I remembered my grandparents home had a laundry chute near the bedrooms of their home. Even seeing an attic door in one of the bedrooms looked pretty old in a closet. Even the vents around the house was big square shape for the heat. They even had a fireplace that they didn’t used at all. I think their house was built in the 1930’s. Even this one family had built a home in the late 1980’s had a central vacuum in the house and even a laundry chute for the upstairs 2 bedrooms. To me it was so cool. I grew up in a 1970’s style home with out of those things in it. I liked having wood paneling in one room in the house. That one room was the family room. It was the most comfortable room in the house at that time.

This randomly popped up. so I watched, liked & subscribed. Well done and THANK YOU.

Whole house fans are not obsolete. They are common in California. I've owned three newer homes with them. We just had one installed in a remodel. When the outside temperature is equal or cooler than the inside temperature, we turn off the air conditioning, open the windows and turn on the whole house fan. It runs on a timer and typically turns off in the morning before it gets warm. Then we close the windows. The A.C. doesn't turn on until the early or mid afternoon, saving electricity. They're also good for removing unwanted cooking smells in the house. I wouldn't own a house without one here. I've never seen an old house here with an originally-installed whole house fan. They're rather new things (well, within the last twenty or thirty years, up to the present). Attic fans aren't the same thing as a whole house fan for the nit pickers.

My 1838 house had the stepping stone but I needed to add the horse hitch! We also had a laundry shoot on the 2nd story. I’ve added laundry shoot to at least a couple houses I’ve owned. The house I free up in from 1951 had one so it was expected in my houses! I loved my historical home! Miss it terribly!

In the 60s/70s I grew up in a house built in the 1800s. There was a cistern in the basement that had been used to collect rainwater before indoor plumbing had been installed. There was also a hand pump in the back yard where there was a still-functioning well.

We use our root cellar as intended. We have a butler's pantry which we use for china, silverware and serving dishes as well as a breakfast nook. Our old home had a built in ironing board as well as a milk door.

Am I the only one who still uses an ironing board 🤣🤣 🤣

Looked more like a spring house than a root cellar to me but maybe not. My grandparents had a summer kitchen attached to the house. Mounting block. Before electric fans, first floor draft could be created by burning gas piped up to a cupula with windows or other openings. It was like the draft produced by a chimney. This was popular in some of the great southern mansions.

My friend has a victorian home, with both a horse block and hitching post out front. His mother had them declared historical landmarks so they cannot be removed. The house is amazing, has two staircases one for servants, and maids quarters, that are a separate‘floor’ on the 2nd and 3rd floors. There are secret passageways. It is a very cool house to play hide and seek in.

We had neighbors around the corner from us that had a house built around 1880. They had an elegant two step curbstone made of marble that had the name of the street carved into it. Our little village was a national hub for marble quarrying back in the day, so there's a lot of it in the remaining old buildings.

When my front door was upgraded by the landlord, my door bell was taken out as the new door came with a knocker. It's amazing how many people do not know what to do with it!

Some of those are not totally obsolete, they are still in use for many. As our families get smaller, we need less room, but, super handy to have a laundry chute for basement or lower floor laundry area. Room intercoms were also developed--although it was more of a novelty and very difficult to hear. Really enjoyed the vid.

I enjoyed this very much 🥰

Hi, thank you for this wonderful and important video. It's like stepping back in time!!! I love them.

We did not have a laundry chute growing up. However we did keep a snow shovel by the back door so I could shovel off the back steps and then shovel a path to the clothes line. And shovel out under the clothes line. That is almost as laundry efficient, right?

We had a central vacuum system when I was growing up. My sister lives in the house now and uses it!

I had the pull out ironing board in an apartment in my 20’s. I loved it. I used it every morning before work.

Dining Room servant button: An electrical button in the center of the Dining Room floor (like a door bell). Used to alert the staff during a formal meal.

Here is a fun tidbit, the currently being produced Fleming 55 yacht has a dumbwaiter from the main deck galley to the flying bridge, so they are still being installed today.

The house I grew up in had a speaking tube, which didn't work by the time I was 4 or 5.

Butler’s pantries are hugely popular in higher end houses right now…often with little doors that open into the garage so you can load groceries directly from your car into the pantry without climbing the little flight of stairs from the garage to the house. They also contain all the unsightly small appliances you don’t want cluttering your counters in the kitchen. Sometimes even with a computer nook for looking up recipes and such. My cousin and I love checking out the big new houses during the Parade of Homes. :)

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

When I was a child, we lived in a 2 story old farmhouse...in the center of the upstairs, in the floor, was a metal grate (not stamped, it was cast iron) which was used to passively circulate the warm air from downstairs to the cooler upstairs.

I live in an old building and there is a transom window above my front door but unfortunately the place has been remodeled so many times it has pipes going through it so it's completely non functional! My aunt lived in a really beautiful house in San Jose CA that had a stairway very similar to the one shown. She once saw an article about houses but in it there used to be an indent with an urn so she didn't think it was the same. But then my cousin went up the stairs and she noticed that there was actually one that was plastered over! That stairway also had an incredibly sharp turn at the top I nearly fell down because a few of the first steps were as narrow as a few inches wide! Those eventually became outlawed to build anymore!

I had an Attic fan installed in my.2 story shirtwaist, built in 1911, in 2004. Best thing I ever did. Really hot nights are few and no sky high electric bills.

Attic fans are great! It does sound like a plane taking off when you fire it up, but it cools off a house in minutes in the evening.

Funny thing, that "Central Vacuum" ,,,, something I've only "heard" of/about until we've bought this (current)home, built in '99, we 've bought it in '06. It has this, one of the strangest things I've seen!

Oh for the good old days. What will people do when the power goes out and times get tough?

Owning a big 70s home is the best. You'll find all the cool conveniences of the 70s like large rooms, tall ceilings and vaulted ceilings, sunken living rooms, full wall wood burning fireplaces, double door entrances, large entry halls, steel beam construction, open stairs, central vacuum, built in intercoms with music and built in speakers outside and in every room, built in refrigerators tile countertops with blender station, double ceramic sinks, built in double ovens, down draft stoves with grills, big jetted tubs, separate showers, lighted inground pool with cabana, power rooms off main entrances, finished walk out basements, patios, huge attached garage with lots of storage, wrap around driveway, big walk in closets, real alarm systems covering every window and exit door, real wooden cabinetry, large wet bar, pool table for entertaining. Ahhh guve me a 70s house over anything built before or after.

Thanks R.R.👏😊

When I was a kid, we moved into a brand new house (this was the mid 70s) My stepfather made a laundry chute in a hallway closet over our basement laundry room. Very convenient.

We had a dumb waiter in my childhood home in Brooklyn, NY