INfo on the OUThouse

Proud of Our Schoolhouse Privies

It is interesting to note how proud one-room school preservationists are when they say their schoolhouse still has the "original privies." Recently one of the One-Room Schoolhouse Yahoo!Group readers asked if we had any information on how to build a "two-holer." Our country schoolhouse buffs didn't bat an eyelash at the question and came up with some very interesting answers. Here are the responses from three of our CSAA members who offered some particular knowledge about the "necessaries."

Richard Lewis of West Bay Common School Museum wrote: "Please check the Yahoo Group (Oneroom) for 5 sets of plans. The link can be found at the end of this article. Three of the plans are from the Library of Congress and are historical, and two are modern day plans from state agricultural extension services. You can look at them in the "Photos"  section, but print them from the "Files" section. They are not the greatest quality in the world; after all some of them are between 200 and 300 years old. If you want better quality and better choices of plans, you may want a book entitled - The Vanishing American Outhouse: Privy Plans, Photographs, Poems, and Folklore, by Ronald Barlow. See the link at right under Books Suggestions.

Mike Day, owner of Clippership Publications, Books for a One-room Schoolhouse wrote: "There is a delightful little book that I would recommend to anyone thinking about privies; it's called "The Specialist" by Charles (Chic) Sale, copyright 1929, renewed 1956. It appears to be a speech by a man  who is quite proud of the special skills he has developed in his particular line of work, the design and construction of outhouses. I'm not sure just how seriously to take it, but it does cover many of the fine points that us modern types would not know to consider when building an outhouse. It's a cute little book - 27 pages - and a number of copies are available from Amazon. Not really a schoolhouse book, but fun anyway.

Fay Stone of the Pioneer Sholes Schoolhouse wrote: "Privies were usually a simple tall box with no windows but a design (often a new moon) cut high in the door for light. The roof was slanted to allow snow and rain to run off. The important thing was the two holes. A considerate builder would make one side lower than the other, for smaller people, and the hole smaller for obvious reasons. Sometimes they had a lid, but rarely. I doubt there was ever a written plan. If I were making one for use today, I'd include a simple hinged lid, as it cuts down on odor. We dug in a large metal barrel split into half under the holes, and they were pumped out often by the caretaker or garbage crew. We built a fence between boys and girls and planted a vine along it."

We took Richard and Mike up on suggestions and found the plans Richard included at the following link: Outhouse Plans  They are terrific!

We found the books on both Amazon and Alibris. You may also be interested in: Passing of the Outhouse, by Tom G. Murray; The All-American Outhouse:Stories, Design & Construction, by Bob Cary; Nature Calls:The History, Lore and Charm of Outhouses, by Dottie Booth; Ouhouses by Any Other Name, by Tom Harding.

In researching the books, we found that outhouses have many other supporters out there, as evidenced by a calendar, a shower curtain, and hand towels with the outhouse motif. Good luck in your research!