Closets
Unlike most old houses, my house--at least upstairs--has closets. It also has built-in wardrobes in two bedrooms. One bedroom is even lucky enough to have a closet and a built-in wardrobe.
But the weird thing is that my bedroom doesn't have an original closet. Or, at least, not one that I've been able to find evidence of. Instead, I get a whopping huge built-in wardrobe and nothing else.
So why doesn't my bedroom have a closet if the other three do?
My bedroom is part of the 'addition', somewhere between 1912 and 1920. And that would make sense if my office was also closetless, but the POs combined the closet from the bedroom that adjoins my office to make a secret passageway closet that joins both rooms.
In between my bedroom and my office is the upstairs bathroom, but as far as we can tell, it's the original bathroom to the house. (Or, at least to that part of the house; there was an outhouse too.) Since I'm assuming that all three rooms were added at the same time (that makes sense, after all) then it doesn't make sense to think that the bathroom--or a portion of it--was once my room's closet.
Any suggestions as to why my bedroom wouldn't have a closet?
But the weird thing is that my bedroom doesn't have an original closet. Or, at least, not one that I've been able to find evidence of. Instead, I get a whopping huge built-in wardrobe and nothing else.
So why doesn't my bedroom have a closet if the other three do?
My bedroom is part of the 'addition', somewhere between 1912 and 1920. And that would make sense if my office was also closetless, but the POs combined the closet from the bedroom that adjoins my office to make a secret passageway closet that joins both rooms.
In between my bedroom and my office is the upstairs bathroom, but as far as we can tell, it's the original bathroom to the house. (Or, at least to that part of the house; there was an outhouse too.) Since I'm assuming that all three rooms were added at the same time (that makes sense, after all) then it doesn't make sense to think that the bathroom--or a portion of it--was once my room's closet.
Any suggestions as to why my bedroom wouldn't have a closet?
Labels: closets, conundrums, old houses
posted by Jennifer at 2:40 PM
2 Comments:
My upstairs had only two closets. One is a tiny linen closet that seems to be there mostly to give access to the roof hatch. The other, like yours, is a narrow passageway between the two large bedrooms. Unlike yours apparently, it's original to the house (1906). But lack of closets is very common in old houses.
I've heard two reasons for this (from the old-timers). The most plausible is that middle class people didn't own a lot of clothes back in those days. Three sets of clothes were it, and the reason for that was that since all fabrics were "natural" clothes didn't last very long. What the rough washing processes didn't destroy, the moths did. Dress clothes were usually stored in a cedar chest.
The other reason is because municipalities taxed a house by the number of rooms it had and a closet was considered a "room" for tax purposes. And that's why there are so many antique armoires out there.
That could be. I just thought it was weird that only one bedroom didn't have a closet. :)
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