Had one at my grandparent's house and the "coal chute" door was near it too. Back in the 1940's I can remember waiting for the coal truck to come and the man putting the chute up into the opening. Shortly, a 1/2 ton of coal slid down into a bunker on one end of the cellar.
Yup, they did have chain drive. I haven't seen one in 60 years. Haven't seen a "rag-man" on a horse drawn cart with a string of bells behind him since I lived in Paterson, NJ in the late 40's either.
There was one of those in our apartment in Los Angeles in the late 50's. No milkman, though. Closest was the Helms Bakery delivery truck which would come by once a week.
The house I grew up in had one, in Calgary, Alberta; the box was at the back door for easier access for the milkman, who came up the back lane. The house was built in 1955 and we lived in it until 1968, though I believe home milk delivery stopped in the early 1960s. We'd leave an order in the box for the next delivery. I remember many a cold winter morning when the milk would have frozen before we got to it, producing a pillar of cream - the milk wasn't homogenized - a few inches high projecting from the top of the bottle, forcing the cardboard cap and foil wrap on the bottle neck right off.
There are parts of Canada which still receive milk home delivery, I think mostly out east now though. It comes in 1L bags, and the milk company gives you a special jug that the bag slides into perfectly. The family I went to for before and after school care got milk bag delivery, and it was a treat for me to slide the new bag into the jug and cut the corner to pour. It required finesse - too small and the milk was a tiny stream that would arc too high, too big and it would dribble down the bag into the jug.
My apartment in Pittsburgh (built in the 1920s) still had a milk door in the early 1980s; the apartment handyman would take any small bags of trash that I left in it once a week (but anything that didn’t fit I would have to take to the basement garage trash containers myself). There was also a zinc lined ice delivery box with the exterior door plastered over; you could see the door from inside the apartment though. And the cabinets were amazing, things like a built in bread box, 2 slide out cutting boards and a glass flour storage bin with a glass lid and a built in sifter at the bottom. You could store flour in it, and then slide out a little panel to let flour drop into the sifter. The counter pulled out about 12 additional inches as well. It was like a giant built in Hoosier cabinet. The original floral linoleum on the floor was covered with hundreds of dents the size of the head of a ten penny nail. A very elderly neighbor told me that the only other tenant that she knew before me lived there from 1934 until 1983, and that the tenant wore high heels every day, didn’t own a pair of flat shoes; the indentations were from her 49 years of tottering around. Sadly the property owners have since remodeled the kitchen, and ripped out the lovely oak cabinets, per their website.
We have a (non-built-in) Hoosier cabinet that still has the original steel (not glass :( ) flour bin with built-in sifter. It hangs from a spring-balanced mechanism that allows to to pull it out of the cubby in the cabinet for use and it drops to a lower level to allow for easier filling. I've never tried to fill it, but I imagine it would easily hold 15 pounds of flour.
My rental house in college had a cabinet in the corner on an outside wall that was insulated and the shelves were all wire mesh. There was a small mesh-covered vent open the outside wall both low and high, I am pretty sure it was a root cellar type thing.
And thanks to Messy Nessy Chic I found out that the US Capitol has tiny doors... https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/01/18/13-things-i-found-on-the-internet-today-vol-dxxxviii/
Had one at my grandparent's house and the "coal chute" door was near it too. Back in the 1940's I can remember waiting for the coal truck to come and the man putting the chute up into the opening. Shortly, a 1/2 ton of coal slid down into a bunker on one end of the cellar.
ReplyDeletei remember the coal delivery trucks - they had a chain drive!
DeleteI-)
Yup, they did have chain drive. I haven't seen one in 60 years. Haven't seen a "rag-man" on a horse drawn cart with a string of bells behind him since I lived in Paterson, NJ in the late 40's either.
DeleteBogsidebunny won.
DeleteThere was one of those in our apartment in Los Angeles in the late 50's. No milkman, though. Closest was the Helms Bakery delivery truck which would come by once a week.
ReplyDeleteI used to live in an apartment in Chicago that had a similar delivery door for ice...for the icebox.
ReplyDeleteThe house I grew up in had one, in Calgary, Alberta; the box was at the back door for easier access for the milkman, who came up the back lane. The house was built in 1955 and we lived in it until 1968, though I believe home milk delivery stopped in the early 1960s. We'd leave an order in the box for the next delivery. I remember many a cold winter morning when the milk would have frozen before we got to it, producing a pillar of cream - the milk wasn't homogenized - a few inches high projecting from the top of the bottle, forcing the cardboard cap and foil wrap on the bottle neck right off.
ReplyDeleteTo be accurate, there was always a bit of cream at the top of a milk bottle, but not enough that the projecting pillar of frozen dairy was all cream.
DeleteWe'd get milk in glass quart bottles and cream in pints.
There are parts of Canada which still receive milk home delivery, I think mostly out east now though. It comes in 1L bags, and the milk company gives you a special jug that the bag slides into perfectly. The family I went to for before and after school care got milk bag delivery, and it was a treat for me to slide the new bag into the jug and cut the corner to pour. It required finesse - too small and the milk was a tiny stream that would arc too high, too big and it would dribble down the bag into the jug.
DeleteMy apartment in Pittsburgh (built in the 1920s) still had a milk door in the early 1980s; the apartment handyman would take any small bags of trash that I left in it once a week (but anything that didn’t fit I would have to take to the basement garage trash containers myself). There was also a zinc lined ice delivery box with the exterior door plastered over; you could see the door from inside the apartment though. And the cabinets were amazing, things like a built in bread box, 2 slide out cutting boards and a glass flour storage bin with a glass lid and a built in sifter at the bottom. You could store flour in it, and then slide out a little panel to let flour drop into the sifter. The counter pulled out about 12 additional inches as well. It was like a giant built in Hoosier cabinet. The original floral linoleum on the floor was covered with hundreds of dents the size of the head of a ten penny nail. A very elderly neighbor told me that the only other tenant that she knew before me lived there from 1934 until 1983, and that the tenant wore high heels every day, didn’t own a pair of flat shoes; the indentations were from her 49 years of tottering around. Sadly the property owners have since remodeled the kitchen, and ripped out the lovely oak cabinets, per their website.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I've never heard of a flour bin with a built-in sifter. Tx, KaraBoo.
DeleteWe have a (non-built-in) Hoosier cabinet that still has the original steel (not glass :( ) flour bin with built-in sifter. It hangs from a spring-balanced mechanism that allows to to pull it out of the cubby in the cabinet for use and it drops to a lower level to allow for easier filling. I've never tried to fill it, but I imagine it would easily hold 15 pounds of flour.
DeleteMy rental house in college had a cabinet in the corner on an outside wall that was insulated and the shelves were all wire mesh. There was a small mesh-covered vent open the outside wall both low and high, I am pretty sure it was a root cellar type thing.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks to Messy Nessy Chic I found out that the US Capitol has tiny doors...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.messynessychic.com/2021/01/18/13-things-i-found-on-the-internet-today-vol-dxxxviii/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aizDj6gp0g0&feature=emb_logo