A privy history: How the modern bathroom was born

              The Historic
Dimension Series
A student publication series by the UNCG Department of Interior Architecture
A Privy History:
How the Modern Bathroom was Born
by Jennifer Rossi 	 Fall 2010
Although the modern
bathroom is arguably
one of the most
important rooms in the house, its history
is a mystery to many. The main fixtures of
the bathroom as we know it—the tub, toilet,
and sink—came together and moved inside
the house to form a room of their own in
the late nineteenth century. The bathroom
evolved over time due to changes in both
technology and culture. New materials
and designs improved bathroom fixtures
while scientific innovations, specifically
the germ theory of disease, changed how
people viewed and built their bathrooms.
Knowledge of the evolution of bathroom
design is not only important for an accurate
restoration of an historic house, it also
provides a better understanding of late
nineteenth and early twentieth century
American culture.
The Birth of the Bathroom
Although life without it today seems
impossible, the bathroom was only slowly
integrated into the American house. In
1940, fifty-five percent of homes had one
complete private indoor bathroom, whereas
by the mid-1990s, bathrooms were nearly
universal. Building codes made bathrooms
in houses mandatory in the 1920s, and the
typical early twentieth century house gener-ally
had only one bathroom, usually on the
second floor.
Prior to the indoor toilet, people used
outdoor privies or chamber pots, both of
which were emptied into pits. Toilets were
used in some houses in the early nineteenth
century; for example, Thomas Jefferson had
one installed in the White House in 1804.
The earliest American toilet belonged to
Governor Horatio Sharpe’s Annapolis home,
Whitehall. During the mid-1800s, indoor
toilets were rare due to cost, water supply,
and sanitary waste disposal, but, according
to Ierley, the major reason that many homes
lacked indoor toilets was people’s reluctance
to bring what they considered filth inside
the house. Human waste was associated
with the outdoors; even chamber pots were
emptied as quickly as possible. People were
also concerned with the odor associated
with human waste, and they doubted the
reliability of indoor toilets, fearing their
private actions would not remain so due
to faulty water closet systems. Bringing
the toilet indoors was not only difficult
because of the technology required but also
because of strong cultural feelings regarding
the place of human waste. Despite initial
resistance, arguments for bringing the toilet
inside prevailed: with an indoor toilet
one could avoid exposure to all kinds of ill
weather.
The bathing function of the bathroom
changed in the nineteenth century as well.
People did not commonly wash themselves
prior to this time. Bathing oneself was done
for social or restorative purposes rather than
for hygienic ones. People went to the ocean
or spa but did not regard these activities
in terms of personal cleanliness. If one did
bathe at home, it was generally done using a
sponge and washbasin in the bedroom and
was not performed on a regular basis. Pub-
In 1940, fifty-five
percent
of homes
had one
complete
private
indoor
bathroom,
whereas
by the mid-
1990s,
bathrooms
were nearly
universal.
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Fig. 3: Toilet decorated with bas-relief design. This toilet
was designed with a wall-hung cistern.
lic baths began to appear in America in the last decade
of the eighteenth century. The first indoor bathtubs in
American households were used in the beginning of the
1800s but were few and far between and not connected
to any plumbing systems. Bathtubs did not become
more common until the advent of piped-in public water
supply systems.
People’s bathing habits also began to change when soap
became more readily available. Soap was originally
associated with laundry rather than personal hygiene.
Ivory soap, manufactured by Proctor & Gamble, was
introduced in 1879 and made with a notch down the
middle which allowed it to be divided for multiple uses,
including personal sanitation. The main reason that
bathing became common was the same reason for so
many other changes at the end of the nineteenth century:
a better understanding of disease. People realized that
bathing could prevent the spread of germs.
The third major fixture of the bathroom, the sink or lava-tory,
evolved from the bedroom washstand. The wash-stand
came into use in the late 1700s and subsequently
became a standard fixture in bedrooms of the wealthy.
The modern bathroom combines the functions of bath-ing
and elimination which, before the room’s creation,
had nothing in common. Prior to the invention of the
bathroom, bathing generally took place in the bedroom
or the warmest room in the house, the kitchen. Mod-ern
people take for granted the design of the bathroom,
which incorporates the toilet, tub, and sink, but the
reason that these disparate fixtures were put together in
one room was because it was economical and practical to
do so. Due to the plumbing requirements of bathroom
components, locating all of the fixtures in one room so
that all of the pipes and drains had to come in and out
of the same area made sense. Bathrooms were often
located on the second floor to provide continuity with
the bedrooms as well as privacy. As bathrooms became
more affordable and were added to more homes, small
second-story bedrooms were often the spaces that were
converted.
The Toilet Over Time
An integral part of the modern bathroom is the toilet.
One of the earliest flush toilets is attributed to Sir John
Harington, a godson of Elizabeth I, who designed and
installed his invention in his home in 1592 in anticipa-tion
of a visit from the queen. Although his invention
did not flourish at the time, it did not die completely,
and in 1775, the toilet was improved upon by Alexander
Cumming, who replaced the plunger device with a valve
mechanism and installed an S-trap in the waste pipe to
prevent sewer gas from entering the house. Unfortu-nately,
the valve mechanism often stuck. In 1778, Joseph
Bramah developed a toilet with a crank-operated flap
valve which was used for the next century.
Several types of water closets were simultaneously
in use throughout the late eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. However, many of them did not work well.
For example, the pan, hopper, and plunger water closets
were used at the same time as the valve water closet but
were not as efficient. The main problem with all of these
toilets was that the bowl was not thoroughly cleansed
and waste was not adequately ejected upon flushing.
The development of the modern toilet began in the 1880s
and was marked by the use of a siphon which improved
the flushing action. The toilet of 1910 looked and
worked very much like the modern toilet. Indoor toilets
were still uncommon at the turn of the twentieth centu-ry,
although their cost had markedly decreased. As the
Fig. 2: Bathroom in the Mary Mitchell House (1883); St.
Louis, MO. Note the fixtures encased in wood.
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Fig. 4: Claw foot tub with sloping head and vertical foot. Fig. 5: Symmetrical Roman-style claw foot tub.
water closet became more affordable and people realized
its utility, indoor toilets became increasingly common as
the twentieth century progressed. The major difference
between toilets of today and toilets of old is the amount
of water used during flushing.
Up until the 1890s, water closets, as well as bathtubs and
sinks, were encased in wooden cabinetry to conceal the
connections between parts made from different materi-als
(see Figure 2). Manufacturers of ceramic parts were
vexed that their products sold for far less than metal
parts. After the invention of the flushing rim, wash-down
and washout toilets could be made from a single
smooth piece of earthenware, thereby increasing the
demand for skilled ceramics workers. Ceramic fixtures
could now be left visible and were decorated with bas-relief
shapes or painted (see Figure 3). Wooden cabine-try
was no longer considered necessay (or sanitary), and
ceramics manufacturers made a larger profit selling their
wares.
Tale of the Tub
The bathtub is another key component of the modern
bathroom. Antebellum tubs were movable and kept in
storage until needed. Mid-nineteenth century bathtubs
were made of sheet copper or zinc. In wealthy mid-nineteenth
century houses with early water heating
capabilities, large tubs made of sheet lead in wooden
boxes were used.
As running water became more common, the bathtub
became less portable and more ubiquitous. The pre-ferred
bath in the early twentieth century was a copper-lined
steel-cased tub with oak or cherry rim on bronzed
cast iron legs. Cast iron had been poured into sinks
since the 1850s; however, corrosion was a problem, and
a good covering for tubs was difficult to find. While
cast iron sinks were porcelain enameled, tubs were of a
more complicated shape and could expand beneath their
coating when filled with hot water, potentially destroy-ing
the coat. In the 1850s, British artisans developed
all-ceramic tubs with glazed surfaces. These tubs were
heavy, fragile, and expensive.
By the 1920s, the cost of porcelain tubs had decreased
enough to become affordable for more households. This
tub generally came in two styles: a round-bottomed
trough with a sloping head and vertical foot holding the
faucets (see Figure 4) and the Roman-style tub with flat
sides and bottom with identical, almost vertical slop-ing
rounded ends with plumbing on one long side (see
Figure 5). The interiors of these tubs were white, but the
outsides were often decorated, especially in flowered or
striped motifs, as shown in Figures 8 and 10.
The problem with the footed tub was that cleaning
underneath and behind it was difficult so it lost its feet
and was recessed into a wall, causing the hard-to-reach
spaces to disappear. In 1911, the Kohler Company
developed the one-piece, built-in tub; it was considered
integral to a modern, functional bathroom along with a
toilet and wall-hung sink.
Prior to the 1930s, the tub and its accompaniments were
kept white for sanitary reasons. Once it ceased to be a
hygienic concern, color entered the bathroom. Initially
bathroom fixtures were made in pastels; later on, darker
colors such as Ming green became popular. Colored
bathtubs and fixtures gave bathrooms a far more dra-matic
appearance and afforded the homeowner the op-portunity
to customize the bath.
Bathroom Tile
As Americans became more concerned with bathroom
cleanliness, carpet and wood were no longer considered
acceptable floor coverings, and ceramic tile flooring be-came
prevalent during the Victorian era. These tiles first
became popular in England due to the Gothic Revival
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movement, which used medieval encaustic tiles: single
tiles with an inlaid pattern in different colors made
using the new dust-pressed method. Encaustic tiles
were brought to America by Andrew Jackson Downing
and his book The Architecture of Country Houses (1850).
During the 1850s, encaustic tiles were imported from
England and were very expensive. Typical colors at this
time were browns inlaid with blues and beiges, and geo-metric
tiles were also available. In 1876, the selection of
tiles in America expanded due to the Philadelphia Cen-tennial
Exposition. Many different tiles were displayed
there, and producers realized an American market for
ceramic tiles existed.
Dozens of ceramic tile manufacturers were in produc-tion
by the 1890s, and germ theory spurred the public’s
desire for sanitary flooring like ceramic tile for both
bathrooms and kitchens. All-white tiles were popular
during the height of the sanitary movement because
white surfaces were the easiest to keep clean. As tiles
were more cheaply and easily manufactured and new
ways to set them were developed, tile designs became
more elaborate. For example, pre-mounted sheets of
one-inch ceramic mosaic tiles in geometric shapes made
patterns and designs easier to create.
Simple tile designs were about as common as all-white
tiles at the beginning of the twentieth century. Wealthy
homeowners opted for more elaborate tile designs such
as diamonds, pinwheels, and nautilus shells decorated
with flowers, starbursts, and other designs surrounded
by a frame of border tiles in other patterns.
Good tile choices for classic, clean-lined houses, such as
Arts and Crafts or Colonial Revival style, are hex mosa-ics
interspersed with dots or small flowers framed by a
simple border (Figure 6). For high Victorian, Gothic Re-vival,
or Tudor style homes, geometric or encaustic tiles
are a good choice, although they would not have been
used in most original bathrooms but were very popular
during the Victorian era.
Designing a Period Bathroom
Bathrooms were not traditionally restored like other
rooms in historic houses; rather, they were replaced with
the modern equivalent. According to the editors of Old-
House Interiors, the old-fashioned bath is now the pre-ferred
style when restoring or rehabilitating an historic
home. Creating a period-appropriate bathroom is also
much easier now due to the wide variety of refinished
original and period reproduction fixtures available to
today’s old house enthusiast.
During the Victorian era, bathroom design ranged from
lavish to simple. Appropriate period designs for this
time include the decorative woodwork bathroom and
the plain white sanitary bathroom. High Victorian baths
were embellished with fine materials such as ceramic
tile, hardwood wainscot, porcelain, nickel, and painted
frieze. Early Victorian bathroom fixtures were encased
in wooden cabinetry, but free-standing fixtures were
used after 1890. Cistern placement also changed at this
time. Previously, cisterns were hung on the wall five to
six feet above the water closet (see Figures 8 and 11), but
in order to alleviate the noise caused by flushing, they
were lowered to the toilet bowl. High-tank toilets were
flushed using a pull chain, often with a porcelain handle,
and held toilet paper in a box on the back of the toilet.
When choosing a faucet for a Victorian bathroom, a
fixture with separate hot and cold taps and cross or lever
handles made of metal or porcelain is in keeping with
the period. The bridge faucet, which combined hot and
cold water from a single spout, also became a popular
fixture at the time.
Fig. 7: The pedestal sink was introduced in the early
1900s, and its use was widespread by the 1930s.
Fig. 6: Simple hexagonal tile design.
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Plain white sanitary bathroom design was used well
into the 1930s (Figure 9). Appropriate designs for early
twentieth century bathrooms include one-piece or
recessed tubs, combination closets (toilets with low-level
cisterns), porcelain pedestal sinks (see Figure
7), and tiled flooring. Period faucet choices include
nickel-plated brass dual taps and simple bridge faucets.
The sanitary bathroom is interpreted in various ways
in different early twentieth century architectural
styles. For example, typical characteristics of Prairie
style bathrooms include graphic tile flooring, wood
wainscoting, and period moldings. Bungalow bathroom
designs feature porcelain fixtures, built-in linen drawers,
hex-tile flooring, wall-hung sinks, linoleum tiles, and
freestanding furniture. Characteristics of shingle style
bathrooms include beadboard wainscoting, period wall
treatments and moldings, fine lighting fixtures, and
furniture-like sink consoles.
The Germ’s Impact on the Bathroom
Though the germ was discovered in the last decades of
the nineteenth century, people often understood dis-ease
prevention in terms of their outdoor environment.
Now, however, they focused on controlling the environ-ments
within their homes. In The Gospel of Germs, Tomes
argues that upon the widespread acceptance of the germ
theory of disease, late Victorians adopted a gospel of
germs that sanctioned certain behaviors and condemned
others in order to prevent the spread of disease, which
lasted through the 1930s. The tenets of germ theory
were readily accepted because they frequently paralleled
the advice given by earlier adherents of sanitary science.
According to Tomes, germ theory “[justified] widely ac-cepted
precautions of ventilation, disinfection, isolation
of the ill, and general cleanliness” as well as “bestowed
germicidal rationales on already trusted strategies of
protection” (57).
The interior of the middle-class Victorian home un-derwent
a thorough renovation after the acceptance of
germ theory. Interior decorations, building materials,
and entire rooms were transformed in order to become
more germ-proof. Although the Victorian trend was to
use heavy carpeting and drapes in home decorating, the
Association of College Alumnae advised women to use
home furnishings that were much simpler. “To propiti-ate
the goddess of health we can well afford to sacrifice
on her altar the superfluous draperies, carpets, and orna-ments
of our living and sleeping rooms” (60).
One room that underwent a major transformation was
the bathroom, an area that was considered especially
dangerous. Tomes argues that the white china toilet
became the ultimate symbol of the germ-proof home.
Before its porcelain makeover, the bathroom was
furnished and decorated as lavishly as other rooms in
the Victorian home, featuring carpeting, drapery, and
wooden furniture. The new, germ-proof bathroom was
comprised of free-standing white porcelain appliances
set on white tiled floors. “Not only did this style
eliminate the dangers of ‘hidden work’ inside the cabinet
areas; it also provided bathroom surfaces that could be
scoured more effectively” (85). White china fixtures
helped people feel better about germs and cleanliness; if
a material was easier to clean and allegedly less able to
harbor germs, then it was inherently safer to use.
Public health officials and physicians were not the only
ones who embraced changes in home interiors for the
cause of disease prevention; architects and other home
goods manufacturers also changed the products they
offered to their customers. Early twentieth century
interior design differed markedly from Victorian dé-cor
as the inside of the home evolved to become more
impermeable to disease. “The white tiled bathroom and
enameled kitchen; the living room furnished with par-
Fig. 9: Typical early twentieth century bathroom in the
North Fortieth Street Housing Group; Philadelphia, PA.
Fig. 8: Bathroom in The Elms (1901); Newport, RI. Note
the decorative tub and wall-hung cistern.
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quet floor, area rugs, scanty curtains, painted, molding-free
walls, and pared down furniture; and the spare use
of decorative items all paid tribute to the new sanitary
standards” (161).
The bathroom, the most dangerous area of the home to
people’s health, was furnished with what were believed
to be the most sanitary materials available: porcelain,
tile, and linoleum. These prescriptions for interior de-sign
gave people power over the spread of disease and
germs; if one could control one’s environment, then one
could allegedly prevent illness and death.
Conclusion
A knowledge of the history of bathroom design is help-ful
when working on a restoration or adding an accurate
period bathroom to an historic home, but it also helps us
appreciate how people of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries understood the world around them.
Bathroom design was not just a function of improved
technology; it was also closely related to the scientific
breakthrough of the germ theory of disease. In a world
where death and disease were widespread and unpre-dictable,
the sanitary bathroom gave people a sense of
control over their environment. The discovery of the
germ changed the interior of the bathroom just as much
as technological innovation did.
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Acknowledgments
All bathroom photographs are from the American
Memory Collection of the Library of Congress.
The Historic Dimension Series is a collection of briefs prepared
by UNCG students under the direction of Professor Jo Ramsay
Leimenstoll. For information on other topics in the series please
visit the website at go.uncg.edu/hds
Fig. 11: Theodore Roosevelt’s bathroom at Sagamore
Fig. 10: Bathroom in Whittier Mansion (1895); San Fran- Hill (1884) in Long Island, NY features a high tank toilet.
cisco, CA. Note the bidet between the tub and toilet.