I recently completed excavation of late 19th century washhouse at Riverside
in Louisville Kentucky. I am actually putting the finishing touches on a
paper for the Ohio Valley Historic Archaeology conference this weekend about
the washhouse. I was surprised to find out that there were few
architectural examples of these structures in KY, much less archaeological
examples. The only archaeological example I could find was a washhouse
excavated at Shakertown, Pleasant Hill by Kim McBride (there is an
architectural example there too). I found one architectural example, where
a spring house had a room that included a hearth with a built-in kettle that
was probably a laundry. I suspect that laundry activities rarely had their
own building, but were carried out in other buildings or in the work yard.
Vlach's book "Back of the Big House" has a couple of good pictures of
laundry areas and architectural floor plans of buildings that have a laundry
area.
The artifacts found at our washhouse were typical of the work yard around
domestic buildings, consisting of some dish and bottle fragments, toys,
personal items, and of course quite a few buttons.
Our washhouse was constructed over a cistern and included a drain system.
Behind the structure was a rectangular open hearth with no chimney that
could accommodate maybe two large kettles. We even found a posthole for a
kettle crane next to the hearth. Additionally there were a couple of
trenches that I believe were used to produce wood ash for soap making. I
don't think the much of the laundry process took place inside of the
structure, but it was more or less a yard activity. It seems that our
structure was more an elaborate cover for the cistern than a laundry.
However it could have been used during inclement weather. Prior to the
construction of this structure, I think the laundry activities took place in
the detached kitchen.
I think features to look for at a laundry site would be a nearby water
source and a place to heat a large amount of water. Features like wells,
cisterns, spring, large hearths or fire trenches where kettles could be used
to heat water. The work yard, kitchens, springhouses, well houses could
probably handle the laundry activities.
I would be glad to scan our site map and e-mail it to you if you like. I
can send you a copy my paper as well.
M. Jay Stottman
Kentucky Archaeological Survey
----- Original Message -----
From: "Zahava Shaffer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2002 11:16 AM
Subject: Late 18th century -- early 19th century laundry buildings
> Hello,
>
> I am researching laundry sites in order to evaluate one at Shuter's Hill,
> Alexandria, Va. I was wondering if anyone on the list happens to have any
> information regarding them, such as the following:
>
> 1. Does anyone know of an excavated laundry site?
> 2. If so, were they generally used just as laundry buildings or also as
> kitchens?
> 3. What artifacts were recovered?
> 4. Are there any particular features that help sites to be defined as
> laundry sites?
> 5. Does anyone know where I could access site maps of laundry sites?
> 6. Does anyone know of any literature (archaeological and historical)
> available regarding laundries?
>
> I would appreciate any assistance in this matter.
> Thanks,
> Zahava Shaffer
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