15 Old House Features that we were wrong to abandon...

[Hemingway Jones]

According to Bob Vila:

http://www.bobvila.com/dutch-doors/...were-wrong-to-abandon/slideshows#.VGfJC4e1_0d

One of those pleasant lists from the net.

What would you add???

For me it would be built-in-s: built-in shelves in libraries and built-in hutches in dining rooms. Boston area triple-deckers almost always have these.

 

[HudsonHawk]

How common are pocket doors these day? I had two put in my house when I did a kitchen remodel, but I never see them anywhere else. They used to be much more common. I think they're great.

 

[Stearmen]

How common are pocket doors these day? I had two put in my house when I did a kitchen remodel, but I never see them anywhere else. They used to be much more common. I think they're great.

Funny, all the hardware is readily available for ornate pocket doors. They were not even that common back in the Victorian era. I have lived in three, and only one had them. I also love the clawfoot tubs. Every one is pushing me to install one if I make one of the spare bedrooms into a bath. They are also being made new. In fact, this is the Golden Age for Victorian house trim, even push button light switches are available new!

 

[Shangas]

My family doctor's old house (and, I think, even his new house), comes with laundry-chutes. When I used to go there for sleepovers (I grew up with his son), we used to love chucking our laundry down there. So convenient.

Folding wall shutters like that are great.

Our house also has an old intercom-system. It still exists because it's also the electric-lock for the front gate.

Dutch doors are fun, but I don't think I'd like one. A good old flyscreen would suit me fine.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Intercoms were more of an old apartment-house thing around here. I lived in one that had one, complete with buzz-me-in lock, but the intercom system never worked. I tried to fix it, but got my arm stuck in the wall.

In that same building I had a telephone nook in my apartment -- which I gladly filled with a telephone.

Another apartment I lived in had a built-in icebox in the kitchen and a Murphy bed. Someone, however, had taken the bed frame with them when they moved out, so I just had a loose mattress in the closet that would flop down with a thud when you opened the doors.

 

[3fingers]

My grandparents home had several of these things and a few that weren't listed. No pocket doors though. When we were kids we got a huge bang out of taking turns putting toys or other things down the laundry chute. One would go to the basement to recover them while the other dropped the little bombs. This was great sport until our grandmother would catch us and put a stop to it.

 

[tonyb]

How common are pocket doors these day? I had two put in my house when I did a kitchen remodel, but I never see them anywhere else. They used to be much more common. I think they're great.

I see pocket doors in residences made (or remade) to accommodate wheelchair users. Other than that, they are a rare sight in new(er) construction.

 

[tonyb]

Gotta wonder how many of those old features went the way of the dodo out of safety concerns. I recall an old hotel undergoing remodeling some 30-odd years ago. Among the changes demanded by fire code was walling over the transoms above the individual room doors.

Perhaps laundry chutes and dumbwaiters posed similar concerns?

 

[Edm1]

My grandparents had a pocket door off the kitchen. I have the mail slot. I also have awnings which should have made the list....

 

[BR Gordon]

I've lived in a number of houses that that had built in ironing boards. Another item was the swing door between a kitchen and dining room. It swung in either direction and was great when your hands were full.

 

[BR Gordon]

Boot scrapers are more a function of where you live. I've had modern houses that had them.

 

[3fingers]

I've lived in a number of houses that that had built in ironing boards. Another item was the swing door between a kitchen and dining room. It swung in either direction and was great when your hands were full.

My grandparents home had both of these things. However, in later years my grandmother inexplicably had the swinging door removed.

 

[Fading Fast]

Some other great old features:

- Built in hamper in the bathroom. I lived in a 1940s / 50s built (don't remember anymore) apartment that had a built in metal hamper in the bathroom (small opening panel on top to put your clothes in, then, the entire front opened when you emptied it and the bottom, sides and top (the inch and a half that was exposed from the wall) were vented with holes. A very neat little item that was a great place to put your dirty clothes until you did laundry

- Casement windows. I lived in a different apartment building built in 1949 that had these great casement windows that opened out (some opened out and up, others out and down, and others out and left or right) so that they could scoop in air from whatever direction it was blowing. Pre-airconditioning these were awesome.

- My girlfriend lived in an old house that had a beehive bread oven that was part of the fireplace (the opening was in the fireplace surround) where she used to bake bread. She said it was great 'cause you could get it really hot. Also, the fireplace surround had a separate cupboard to keep brandy in so that you could keep it warm (it was "hidden" in the mantel woodwork).

- "Hidden" doors that are made to look like part of the wall or bookcases so that you don't see them unless you know where they are (I've seen them, but never had one).

- Dairy box / milk box: the house I grew up in had one in the kitchen which was a metal box built into the outside wall which opened on both sides so that the milkman could put your milk in it in the morning from outside and, then, you could get the milk by opening the inside door. In city apartments, they had a milk box which was also built into an outside wall, but this was so that in the cooler months, pre-refrigeration, you could put your dairy in it to keep it cold.

- My girlfriend grew up for a while in a house in Maine that had speaking tubes (a very early intercom system).

- Silver safe - I stayed at an in in Maine that was a converted mansion and it had an old silver safe - a full scale safe for the family to store its silver.

- Potting sink / shed - an attached room with a sink and a stone floor with drain where one could cut / arrange flowers etc.

- Walk-out windows - floor to nearly ceiling windows that allowed one to walk out side (good access) but also, in warm weather, was great for breezes

- Radio room - a small, often wood paneled (for acoustics) room where the family could listen together to the radio.

We just bought a 1927 apartment that has an intercom system to the lobby, window seats, an original 1927 bathroom (subway tile), built in cabinet in the master bedroom closet, (they are turned off) but the jets for gas lights are still there, wood-burning fireplace, wood-mullioned windows and an original wall-mounted bathroom radiator (that looks like something out of a 1930s submarine). Unfortunately, it also still has much of the original 1927 wiring that is not going to be inexpensive to upgrade, but it is cool to see the cloth-covered wires.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Mail Slots -- My grandparents' 1925 house had a mail chute where the mailman would drop the letters into the slot and then you'd open the little hatch in the dining room and there it was.

 

[sheeplady]

You can still buy the hardware for a pocket door in any hardware store. The new house will have two or four pocket doors, we haven't decided.

A pocket door is best for a space that will likely have to door open most of the time, but still needs a door to close for privacy or during certain uses.

 

[Guttersnipe]

While these have already been mentioned in this thread, I think they really ought to have been included that list: built-ins (shelves, hutches, cabinets, breakfast nook booths, etc.); Murphy beds; and wall-mounted ironing boards!

 

[tonyb]

You can still buy the hardware for a pocket door in any hardware store. The new house will have two or four pocket doors, we haven't decided.

A pocket door is best for a space that will likely have to door open most of the time, but still needs a door to close for privacy or during certain uses.

Or where there just isn't space for an open hinged door -- where it might collide with another door, for instance, or block a path, or cover a cabinet, or ...

 

[HudsonHawk]

My grandparents had a pocket door off the kitchen. I have the mail slot. I also have awnings which should have made the list....

I hate awnings, because growing up in Florida before most people had air conditioning, my grandmother made me scrub hers. Worst. Chore. Ever.

 

[HudsonHawk]

- Casement windows. I lived in a different apartment building built in 1949 that had these great casement windows that opened out (some opened out and up, others out and down, and others out and left or right) so that they could scoop in air from whatever direction it was blowing. Pre-airconditioning these were awesome.

Growing up, most homes had jalousie windows. I'm sure those are one of those that have gone away due to safety concerns.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Or where there just isn't space for an open hinged door -- where it might collide with another door, for instance, or block a path, or cover a cabinet, or ...

I had one put in between the breakfast area and laundry room (the hinge door took up a lot of space in the laundry room) and in the powder room, which was *really* small with a hinge door.