Now You See It, Now You Don't!

TellZall's object for April is the Outhouse

Until fairly recently, for many Americans, "going to the bathroom" meant "taking a trip out back." Indoor bathrooms equipped with flush toilets only slowly caught on in the United States, beginning in the late nineteenth century.

While it is true that rich Greeks and Romans had elaborate indoor bathrooms and municipal sewage systems as long ago as 800 b.c., complete with rudimentary flush toilets, the practice of bathing and providing public sanitation lagged in the centuries following. Indeed, the connection between disease and sanitation was not firmly established until Louis Pasteur (1822-95) established the germ theory of disease.

Before the introduction of sewage systems, the outhouse was the in common use. Usually placed fifty to one hundred fifty feet behind the residence, the average outhouse was about four feet square and seven feet high. The tiny building was placed atop a hole, dug about five feet into the ground. A simple plank with a hole or holes was about all the interior “finish.” Running water and toilet paper were unknown, and the structures were cold in winter and full of flies and odor in summer. To help combat odor and insects, lime often was dumped into the hole during warm weather. When the hole filled, a new one was dug and the outhouse moved.

Gradually, municipal sewage treatment improved. In 1876 George Waring published The Sanitary Drainage of Houses and Towns, which became a Bible for sanitary engineering. Nine years later, a heavy rainstorm in Chicago dumped sewage into Lake Michigan, from which the city took its drinking water. The result was some 75,000 dead and a new emphasis on water purity.

As cities grew, so too the demand for better sanitation. Beginning in the late 1850s, improved toilets and sewage systems were developed and tested. By the 1870s, most of the mechanics had been worked out. Still, installing a complete sewage system required large numbers in order to justify the expense. Outhouses remained a common rural sight. Today, fewer than 1 percent of American households lack indoor plumbing.