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Sunday, June 07, 2009

The White OutHouse

In researching 1835 for a screenplay I'm writing, I needed to find out about plumbing and the existence or lack thereof.

Indoor plumbing was spotty at the time and I had to decide if my character's humble abode had a water closet or an outhouse.

From there, my addled brain took a turn to the White House. Which of our august chief executives had the privilege of a toilet and who had to trek out to the Rose Garden for a little hands on fertilizing?

Who knew the White House had few amenities for a long time? Congress apportioned funds for building and renovations, and back then they were spendthrifts instead of today's porkbellies.

When Adams took office (Washington didn't live in the Presidents House... later to be called the Executive Mansion, and only after it was burned down by the British in 1815 and was rebuilt that it became the White House), there was no water at all. Servants had to carry it in from 5 blocks away.

The first toilet was installed in 1902. No wonder so many of our early presidents had sour looks on their faces for their presidential portraits.

3 comments:

sherlock said...

Thought you might get a small kick out of this:
http://www.drawergeeks.com/images/topic/topic81/71_Yokom_small.jpg

Screenplay writing? Sounds cool.

This post made me laugh pretty hard. Silently, inside my head, but laughter just the same.

sherlock said...

You will have to double click the link and right click "copy" and then paste to view the picture.....

stupid blogger.....

Rob said...

Fun stuff. Was there a particular one you wanted me to see? The link didn't work but I could get to the root site.