Source: Wikimedia Commons
There was a box beside the kitchen stove, and keeping it full was the first real job most American children were given.
It held split wood cut…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Houses built before the twentieth century frequently had one small closet or none at all, and the reason is not that people were deprived of storage. It is…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
When a chair seat gave out, nobody threw the chair away. The frame was the expensive part and the seat was the part designed to wear, so a…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Every autumn, in the cold parts of the country, American households packed the bottom of the house.
Straw, spoiled hay, cornstalks, raked leaves, spent bedding or soil was…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
A great many older American houses have a hole under them that nobody uses. A brick or concrete chamber, sometimes plastered smooth inside, sometimes arched over, with a…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
It hung on a nail on the back of a closet door, or inside the pantry, or on the cellar stairs. A sack - usually itself made from…