White House servants bathed in tinned sheet
iron tubs such as this one. Winterthur Museum.
|
|
Plumbing in the White House is not
for the convenience of the servants
References
to the installation of plumbing fixtures
began to appear in architectural plan books
in the 1840s. Plumbing systems were already
known in large hotels and grand mansions
by 1833, when water was first piped into
the White House. Sometime within the next
year, a "bathing
room" was
established in the east wing. Interim upgrades
appear to have been made during the 1840s,
by which time a toilet was probably in place
on the main floor.
In 1853, a permanent bath
tub, with hot and cold running water, replaced
the portable painted tin tubs in the President's
quarters. But there were no toilets, showers,
or tubs for the servants. "Running water,
not yet considered a necessity, was available
only where it could increase the servants'
efficiency—in the pantry on the main
floor, in the hall of the basement, in the
upstairs hall. [. . .] Servants bathed in
tin tubs in the west wing, hauling water
in buckets from one of the pumps. Privies,
one for men and one for women, opened off
the covered passages that ran between the
house and the wings."1
1 William Seale, The President's House,
(Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association,1986),
197–200, 317.
Read more:
Richard L. Bushman and Claudia L.
Bushman, "The Early History of Cleanliness
in America." Journal of American History 74
(March 1988): 1213-1238.
Maureen Ogle, All the Modern Conveniences: American Household Plumbing, 1840–1890.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.
Maureen Ogle, "Domestic Reform and American Household Plumbing, 1840–1870, Winterthur
Portfolio 28:1 (Spring 1993): 33-58.
William Seale, The President's House. Washington: White House Historical
Association, 1986. |
