late 19th century plumbing

It's the US, it's 1885, and I'm in an orphanage, which is, I've invented, a converted long-term hospital from the Civil War that has been updated since and donated to the Children's Aid Soc. by the owner who made lots of money off it back then. I want second floor (first floor to you Europeans) indoor plumbing, but cold water only, firewood stoves to heat water in winter, showers, basins.

Is this possible/likely? I assume the pipes are going to be exposed in those rooms...after a couple hours of research, during limited internet access today, I can't find exactly what I was hoping for, ideally images, or long descriptions...so perhaps one of you is a history-of-plumbing expert and has ideas about this.

How is water pumped up there?--do you think electricity is likely or not? (I had assumed the whole building wasn't wired, but I could be flexible on the matter). It's not crucial for the plot, but I want to make sure it all works logically.

I probably won't be on line again for another two weeks, but I'll read answers then and appreciate them!

DeleyanLee said:

What city/state are you in?

The thing with plumbing is that you have to have it connected to something, whether it's your own well/water source or the communities..

Click to expand...

Oh yeah, sure.

The children's home is set in a town just south of Indianapolis, IN. Doesn't have to be a real town, in fact (the orphanage isn't real--the real one in the area was located in downtown Indy, but I wanted a more rural setting nearer to other orphanages of the day I've read about), so perhaps Greenwood (small back then, but with churches and stores), but if I want to invent, I can invent a town and what I need for the town or nearby towns (I need a nearby population sufficient to support the institution financially, though the family of the original donor will do some of that and churches some of it and the orphanage is, in part, self-supporting in various ways, again well-researched in what books there are of 19th century orphanage life--for instance, they have dairy cows but the kids never get to eat butter, as it's sold/traded in town for flour, sugar, other foodstuffs they can't grow or raise. This was a pretty common strategy).

For water source, I assumed an on-site well or wells , perhaps an old one dug years ago and a newer one. I'm dithering about a windmill for the pumping. There's an outbuilding laundry with hand wringer-washers, a ground-floor kitchen, ground-floor boys' bathroom just under the girls', a barn with work animals and the cows, so there also has to be pumps outside, as well. I just didn't want them hauling water upstairs for 100 kids--bad enough you have to take cold showers in summer and heat it by the kettleful in the winter.

It's an interesting era (part of why I'm writing it) when the Industrial Revolution had changed several things, but you still had people mostly farming with horses, oxen, scythes and flails. Indoor bathrooms were a sometimes sort of thing in orphanages of the era. It's not impossible.

From what I can get on-line, the institutional showers that did exist didn't have overhead showerheads but tiny side sprayers, which sort of hurt, particularly in winter. Brass fittings, I got that. I have a lot of little details like the brass, but I'm trying to imagine how the whole system worked. It always helps me if I have my imaginary worlds working right.

Alessandra, could be gravity fed, though it'd be heavy (interesting plot development to have it come crashing through a rotting roof) and they'd still have to pump it up there somehow.

I was really hoping to avoid electricity. I could go with outhouses and hauled water, which I have plenty of research details on (10-seater outhouses for boys and girls at one Maine--brr--orphanage) and basin-bathing only. But little scenes happen in the indoor bathrooms that I'd rather keep there. And cold painful showers appeal, as well--in many ways "my" orphanage is a model institution, reasonable well-funded, but there's still privation if you compare it to our lives.

Thanks. good answers there. I've gotten rid of the showers, will do a windmill, which can pump the water that high, but only if there's wind, to tanks in the rooms A few calm days is no big deal; a few calm weeks, and they'll need to carry buckets. Indoor plumbing was indeed rare, and I read that people of the time with indoor toilets "regretting having them." The smell, I think. But I'm trying to figure out, if it was once a hospital before an orphanage, they might have had something indoors for patients. I've put in outhouses, too, two long eight-holers out past the barn, deciding that because of the field/garden/laundry work going on, it'd just make sense.

Just lanterns for light, Siri Kirpal. Though Indianapolis was early to electricity, I think you're right in that it wouldn't have gotten that far out. And I think I've nailed the clothes, but it's good to hear affirmation of that. At orphanages, generally Christmas was a time local people donated clothing, and I've imagined a big swap and pass on week for the kids (though I only reference it in one short paragraph, again, in my head, I need to know what's going on). That my character has a pair of white cotton gloves is a big deal to her, even tho they are too small. It's a rare thing to have a ribbon or gloves. My girl has exactly your grandmother's wardrobe, except I have the dresses get washed twice a week for field and kitchen workers.

The laundry works five days a week--diapers, sheets, sick kids--so it's not much added burden to do filthy work clothes. Also, the laundry is where the few teen girls work, under supervision, which helps keep them un-pregnant. I did work that through, that keeping the few remaining older kids from having constant sex with each other could be a challenge, especially since teens left there, not indentured out are going to be troublesome in one way or another, "incorrigible."

Thanks cactuswendy. I'm in AZ today and it's HOT, nasty hot here; hope you're keeping cool. Your info matches my ideas, and again, it's good to hear assurance. My grandfather cut and delivered ice for ice boxes, and as a kid, I loved hearing his stories of the old days, which is sure paying off now. It's easy for me to see taffy-pulling parties when I heard so many stories about them my whole life. Heck, I did laundry myself with a non-electric wringer washer from ages 4-6, so I don't have to research it. I just have to remember struggling the sheets through and not smooshing the fingers!