How was my 1880's house heated?

AdmiralYoda

This has always been a curiosity of mine. Looking back at census records our house was built and occupied in the 1885-1890 timeframe. The town records were destroyed in a fire around 1900 so any official surviving documents are long gone.

This Mill town exploded in population growth in the late 1800's and early 1900's. In the span of 20-30 years it went from Mill buildings and apartments owned by the Mills to many of the workers building their own homes on new land.

My house is a "cookie cutter" house as many of the houses on our street and general area share the same basic architecture but many have been added to over the past 100-150 years. It is a 1.5 story 1600 sq.ft house, nothing fancy. My assumption is that it was built as "affordably" as possible. This was an entry level house, not luxury by any means.

No evidence of a fireplace. I have only one 6" chimney (original) heated by NG starting in the early 80's. It was heated by oil before that to at least the 50's/60's. In the basement it looks like an old basement window or two has been bricked up quite some time ago, perhaps there was a coal chute once upon a time?

I have one column style radiator in the kitchen and the rest in the house are tube style. Currently no heat upstairs except for the bathroom but I've found holes in the floor of all three bedrooms which leads me to believe steam may have existed in those rooms at some time.

There are small round holes that have been cemented over on the walls adjacent to the chimney. My guess is a 4" or so stovepipe dumped directly into the chimney. There is another of these patch jobs on an exterior wall as well. Perhaps from old coal or kerosene stoves?

Lastly there is evidence in the kitchen of an old wood or coal cookstove that had a small chimney that went up the side of the house.

So what do you guys think the original house had for heat? Maybe the kitchen cookstove plus some small coal stoves in the bedrooms with steam added later? Or perhaps a coal powered steamer from very early on? The lack of a fireplace throws me off a bit.

Thanks everyone!

EDIT*** Forgot to mention it is a single pipe counterflow system. Some chunks of asbestos in hard to remove areas but 95% was removed at some point.

Robert_25

Thanks for sharing. As an entry level home, I highly doubt it was built with steam heat. More than likely the house had several coal or wood stoves and at some point they switched to an oil fired steam system.

My grandparents home was built in 1880 as a summer boarding home. It had 10 bedrooms and small coal stove in each, with a few larger stoves on the first floor. In the 1950's my grandparents got a bunch of used radiators from a school that was being torn down and had an oil boiler installed with single pipe steam throughout the house.

My home was built in 1910 with a brick chimney up through the center of the house. I have found 3 thimbles that have been filled in (kitchen, dining room, and basement), and there is evidence of a large floor grate and smaller vents up into the second story. The previous owner of the home said the home was heated with coal stoves until the 1950's when a GE boiler and hot water convectors were installed.

Jamie Hall

I'd agree most likely small coal stoves. Probably not wood in a more or less urban setting, and very doubtful that there was any form of central heating. Small coal stoves don't need much in the way of flues -- the 4 inch sounds about right -- and back in the bad old days no one worried about having two or more plugged into one flue in one chimney. It seemed to work... Those bricked up windows may very well have been for coal delivery, particularly if they are more or less accessible from the street.

JUGHNE

Evidence of a coal storage room is hard to hide.

Some are still intact and obvious. If removed there may be the track of the lower and upper wall plates.

And even some coal dust up on the sill plate.

mattmia2

There very possibly may have been only one stove originally that was for heating and cooking, the cook stove likely was a later addition by an owner that had saved some money. It wasn't at all a given that it was heated completely or evenly.

@Robert_25, the hole in the floor near a breach with some vents to the second floor sounds a lot like a floor 'furnace, there were styles of floor furnaces that use a CI HX like a gravity furnace but just had a grate that stuck up through the floor. My house as built in the 20's and from the patch in the floor and the patched breach in the chimney I think that is what my house originally had.

AdmiralYoda

Wow, great information everyone thanks! As far as a coal chute...to be honest I have no idea what to look for and based on what @JUGHNE described there may not have been one. A farmers porch was added along the front and side of the house and the "footings" for the porch were made using modern-ish hollow concrete blocks.

We have a small addition with its foundation made out of the same concrete blocks...which makes me think 50's or 60's construction. The framing for the farmers porch and addition is rough sawn lumber if that makes any difference. The windows that are bricked up in the basement may have been done so due to the farmers porch. There is no "room" in the basement for coal and not really any remaining evidence one was ever there.

Around this time a pipe was installed to fill an oil tank which is no longer there. A plaque on the wall on how to start the oil boiler looks like its from around the same time though there is no date on it.

So definitely oil fired steam in the 50's-ish but was that the first oil burner or was it converted from coal is the tough question. For a small house does there need to be a coal chute? It is very close to the street but perhaps the coal was brought in manually.

mattmia2

Sometimes they used a basement window instead of purpose made coal chute but there would still have to have been a coal bin somewhere.

ChrisJ

Our 1860s house had stoves.
2 on the 2nd floor in the bedrooms , apparently something in the basement under the Livingroom and then a kitchen stove. The bedroom stoves had the clay thimble right in the wood lathe and plaster wall. The wood lathe around one was black and burned. They almost flew too close to the sun, but not quite.


I even found where they were dumping the ashes in the backyard when I was digging for fence posts. Coal was stored in the basement.


Something I find interesting is the guy that built our house was a carpenter, and his brother built right next door and for whatever reason chose fireplaces.

WMno57

Klein Creek Farm, West Chicago, IL farmhouse built 1890
https://www.dupageforest.org/kline-creek-farm
I had a tour 12 years ago and recall it was entirely heated by pot belly stoves and the kitchen stove. No central heating. Let's take a walk around the exterior and then come into the rear kitchen to warm up. We'll travel counter clockwise starting at 8 o'clock. Note the three chimneys, two in the main house for pot bellies, one in the rear kitchen for the stove.
8 o'clock


4 o'clock


4 o'clock


1 o'clock


burr, it's cold outside today

mattmia2

The thing in the floor was probably this type of floor furnace:
https://www.alamy.com/farmers-magazine-january-december-1920-ry-why-makeshift-with-stoves-that-merely-overheat-a-small-part-of-the-house-and-leave-the-re-mainder-cold-why-confine-christmas-festivities-to-one-stuffy-room-give-the-young-merry-makers-the-run-of-the-whole-housea-househealthfully-heated-from-kitchen-to-garret-and-think-of-mother!-give-her-a-littlemore-time-to-enjoy-the-great-day-there-is-anold-saying-that-whatever-lessens-womanswork-benefits-the-race-by-saving-the-timeand-energy-of-thousands-of-housekeepers-thepilot-superior-pipeless-furnace-has-proved-abenefit-to-all-mankind-in-homes-where-image339195754.html?imageid=86768FE1-B76B-4239-9B90-DA4D86C51443&p=1221884&pn=1&searchId=15e1b4e62df1a6d2556ca17272505b26&searchtype=0

Jamie Hall

Not all coal was delivered loose in a chute -- smaller amounts, as might be for stoves, was sometimes delivered in 100 pound sacks.

AdmiralYoda

@Jamie Hall I remember my great grandfather in the 80's carrying bags of coal down to their basement when I was a little kid. Probably was a similar situation in my current house back in the day.

Not that it makes much difference, I just have a fascination for how other people lived just a century ago. It would be interesting to find out all the secrets of my old house but I likely never will.

ChrisJ

AdmiralYoda said:

@Jamie Hall I remember my great grandfather in the 80's carrying bags of coal down to their basement when I was a little kid. Probably was a similar situation in my current house back in the day.

Not that it makes much difference, I just have a fascination for how other people lived just a century ago. It would be interesting to find out all the secrets of my old house but I likely never will.

All I'll say is....

They didn't have toilet paper.

AdmiralYoda

@ChrisJ yup!  Gross.  Maybe if they were lucky the well pump was inside the house.  

And without running water, I'd hate to be the person that got to wash all the poop rags.  And somehow they crammed 3 adults and 6 kids into this tiny 3 bedroom back then.  Must have smelled great!

ChrisJ

AdmiralYoda said:

@ChrisJ yup!  Gross.  Maybe if they were lucky the well pump was inside the house.  

And without running water, I'd hate to be the person that got to wash all the poop rags.  And somehow they crammed 3 adults and 6 kids into this tiny 3 bedroom back then.  Must have smelled great!

I've never heard of poop rags.
I have heard alleged stories about ears of corn....

@Jamie Hall ?

JUGHNE

Corn shucks....before they dry up.

Or the Sears & Roebuck catalog.......last year's edition of course. Also gave reading material.

And never a hand sink in sight...and most survived with good antibodies obtained by these methods.

ChrisJ

JUGHNE said:

Corn shucks....before they dry up.

Or the Sears & Roebuck catalog.......last year's edition of course. Also gave reading material.

And never a hand sink in sight...and most survived with good antibodies obtained by these methods.

Go ahead and look up the average age of death in 1800 to 1850.

I'll stick with today's recommendations.

JUGHNE

I did look up average age of death for those years.

The infant mortality rate pulled that age down considerably.

A lot of the causes was doctors not washing hands between patients or even autospies.
Mothers and babies died from infection.

TB was one of the main killers at that time.

I am thinking of the 1920's thru 1960's with the outhouse usage.

But everyone washed their hands before meals....sort of.

ChrisJ

JUGHNE said:

I did look up average age of death for those years. The infant mortality rate pulled that age down considerably. A lot of the causes was doctors not washing hands between patients or even autospies. Mothers and babies died from infection. TB was one of the main killers at that time. I am thinking of the 1920's thru 1960's with the outhouse usage. But everyone washed their hands before meals....sort of.

Yeah, the average is around 40 if you take the infants into consideration. 

Certainly not what it is now.


Use toilet paper.  Use a bidet if possible and always wash your hands.

JUGHNE

Yes Mom, we have TP and a Bidet and do the hand washing.

ChrisJ

JUGHNE said:

Yes Mom, we have TP and a Bidet and do the hand washing.

Just want you to be healthy and live a decent life

Jamie Hall

On the mortality -- the big difference between then and now is that relatively few people nowadays die young. 150 years ago, there was quite a variety of miscellaneous childhood ailments which got you, and then there was TB (a great aunt of mine, for instance, at about 24), and death in childbirth (a great great aunt of mine, at 22). And for men, work injury. But if you survived all that it wasn't at all unusual to live to be the biblical "three score and ten" -- 70 -- and even into the late 80s (a great grandmother of mine). And that hasn't changed in at least 2,500 years.

Averages do strange things when distributions are strange...

ChrisJ

I feel like I shouldn't have to argue that eating waste is bad.

@JUGHNE and @Jamie Hall have at it.  

JakeCK

And that is why vaccines are amazing.

JakeCK

That said my mothers current house is a large farm house, it was originally heated by three pot belly stoves I believe. And of course the stove.

ChrisJ

I wish I had gotten my grand father's "Army Cannon heater"

JakeCK

ChrisJ said:

I feel like I shouldn't have to argue that eating waste is bad.

@JUGHNE and @Jamie Hall have at it.  

Eating feces is bad. But an over sterile environment causes a whole laundry list of autoimmune disorders. Not to mention the evolution of super bugs.

ChrisJ

JakeCK said:

I feel like I shouldn't have to argue that eating waste is bad.

@JUGHNE and @Jamie Hall have at it.  

Eating feces is bad. But an over sterile environment causes a whole laundry list of autoimmune disorders. Not to mention the evolution of super bugs.

Yes that's a separate subject.

The Steam Whisperer

Jamie Hall said:

On the mortality -- the big difference between then and now is that relatively few people nowadays die young. 150 years ago, there was quite a variety of miscellaneous childhood ailments which got you, and then there was TB (a great aunt of mine, for instance, at about 24), and death in childbirth (a great great aunt of mine, at 22). And for men, work injury. But if you survived all that it wasn't at all unusual to live to be the biblical "three score and ten" -- 70 -- and even into the late 80s (a great grandmother of mine). And that hasn't changed in at least 2,500 years.

Averages do strange things when distributions are strange...

I wonder what impact the infant mortality rate in the US is having now? I understand our infant mortality rate is now right there with 4th world countries and the life expectancy in the US started dropping the just before the Pandemic hit. Many other factors like suicides and other responses to mental health issues, drug overdoses, etc. were supposed to be big factors even before the Pandemic started impacting the numbers.

ethicalpaul

I’m sure people who want to minimize COVID for bizarre reasons that don’t make sense to me are scrambling to blame it on all kinds of other causes, but until I see some science showing some other cause, it’s pretty clear what has hurt the US rates

https://scitechdaily.com/covid-19-pandemic-caused-unprecedented-shock-decline-in-life-expectancy/

sivasilvan

Your house's history is such a cool puzzle to piece together. Yeah, I also think that steam setup in the bedrooms might've been added later for more comfort. Funny how these old homes hold onto their secrets, huh? Keep digging – your detective work is fascinating! And if you decide to sell it, there's a good buyer here https://www.firecashbuyers.com/selling-a-fire-damaged-house-massachusetts/. I hope that helps!

Mad Dog_2

I was in a very smart, but eccentric tree huggers home about 20 years ago.  I had to use the bathroom 🚻 .  There was NO TP to be found...very awkward situation...I guess he heard me searching the vanity and linen closet.  "Oh..sorry I don't use TP."..."we" protect the environment!! ..use one of the "Clean" towels!!!"   Ah...now I knew what the "other" towels on the top of the hamper were.  The ones with the long straight, brown lines on them ..💩 💩 💩 ....I started gagging. Gotta love people ❤....Mad Dog 🐕 
.  

mattmia2

I mean bidets existed 20 years ago although they were not as popular in the us and we still rarely have dedicated bidets.

Mad Dog_2

Bidets were a Status symbol 30 yrs ago.  We put them in and most people rarely used them. I have not been asked to rough in and install one in 20 yrs.  The oddest fixture I ever saw was a "Female urinal" in very old 1920s Public Gang bathrooms 🚻 in NYC.
They were like giant Baptismal Fonts that the ladies would straddle...all Porcelain...Crazy man...Mad Dog 🐕 

ChrisJ

Bidets existed in Europe for almost 300 years.......
I think they have been very common in some areas for an extremely long time.

For some reason Americans are ok with dirty butts.

I don't even want to think about washing towels that were used in the manner @Mad Dog_2 just said. Wonder how much water, electric and gas are used to try and wash towels for such an application. Seems insane when you could just use a bidet.......I'd bet even toiletpaper is better for the environment than that.

Mad Dog_2

Ha ha...yup disgusting..although disposable diapers weren't popular until the early 1970s.  All of our moms threw them in the  washing  machine on hot with a ton of of bleach...separate "load" (pun-intended) of course!!  I'm not  in the "follow Europe's lead" in  much of anything, save boiler technology.  Europe's best days are unfortunately behind her.  I don't have or have EVER used a Bidet, nor would I ever use a Bidet.  I'm fastidiously clean back there!  😎.  Baby wipes are a HUGE problem in NYC buildings, sanitary sewers AND the 
Sewage Treatment plants...The DEP has to clean out giant mounds of wipes blocking the flow.  They call them something "bergs," 
Because they are like icebergs down that there.."Fat bergs"?

"Gimme my Charmin or give me death!"

                            Mad Dog 🐕 🤣 

ChrisJ

@Mad Dog_2 If you're wiping with paper, and not washing with liquid, you're not even close to clean.

And that's just that.

When you're done working on a toilet, or a used sewer pipe is wiping your hands off with toilet paper good enough to get them clean enough to stick in your mouth or touch your eyes?

I think not!

Come on, let's improve the health of the nation and push for more bidets and bidet toilet seats!

Mad Dog_2

Is this a Joke Chris?  Are you the National Salesman for Bidets??  I don't know ANYONE who actually has one in their house and I been in and out of houses for 40 years.  I've roughed in and installed less than 10 in all those years....only in NYC luxury apartments and Long Island 🏝. Mega-Mansions.  I recall one in a Larger 3 Bathroom House.  Anytime  I'm anywhere near toilets,, sewers et cetera I don Rubber Gloves...then I always wash with soap and hot water...YES!! then I suck my thumb!  😂 🤣 😆 Last, just about every room that has a toilet 🚻 also has running water...a lavatory sink.  Il'l leave the rest to your imagination.  TP plus Water = clean
Don't need a Bidet for that...Mad Dog 🐕 

ChrisJ

Mad Dog_2 said:

Is this a Joke Chris?  Are you the National Salesman for Bidets??  I don't know ANYONE who actually has one in their house and I been in and out of houses for 40 years.  I've roughed in and installed less than 10 in all those years....only in NYC luxury apartments and Long Island 🏝. Mega-Mansions.  I recall one in a Larger 3 Bathroom House.  Anytime  I'm anywhere near toilets,, sewers et cetera I don Rubber Gloves...then I always wash with soap and hot water...YES!! then I suck my thumb!  😂 🤣 😆 Last, just about every room that has a toilet 🚻 also has running water...a lavatory sink.  Il'l leave the rest to your imagination.  TP plus Water = clean
Don't need a Bidet for that...Mad Dog 🐕 

50/50.

You've never sold or installed a Toto Washlet?

I know several people with them.

Mad Dog_2

Cool 😎" thought so...I'm at The Glenn Hughes Ywingwie show..intermezzo...Out of body performance!  Mad Dog 🐕 

mattmia2

I have a toto washlet. i've thought about plugging it in to the generator during power outages.