15 old house features we were wrong to abandon??

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My mom ...

... insisted on a laundry chute when they built their house in 1983. Unfortunately, she didn't get her other wish, which was a dumbwaiter.
 
That's a nice list, but it left out one feature of older homes that I miss in my current abode: a cooler cabinet in the kitchen with a screened and louvered opening to the outdoors, preferably on a north facing wall. These are good in a mild climate for keeping vegetables like onions, potatoes, etc that don't need to be refrigerated but which will last longer if kept cooler than indoor temps, esp during the winter.
 
Isn't that where the iceman used to put the ice? I've seen those on old buildings before.

We grew up with a laundry chute (always wanted to drop my brother down it) a mail slot and a phone nook. I think phone nooks were popular in the 30's-40's.

A friend of mine in college had a mother who had horses on their property. They had a dutch door in the kitchen and when it was open in the morning a horse or two would come by and stick their head in the kitchen. It was quite something to see.
 
I have three!

I have a phone nook, the mail slot and three ceiling medallions.  They could have included decorative plaster moulding, inlaid hardwood floors and leaded glass windows, then I would have six!

 

I wish I had a laundry chute.  They're awesome.  We had them in a couple houses growing up, but never used them.  I think my parents were afraid something would get stuck.  If I had one, I would use it daily.
 
Good link, Bob , thanks. I like many of those and had some in my childhood home or last 2 homes we occupied. BTW, I really like transom windows.
 
Isn't that where the iceman used to put the ice?

I don't think so, because the cabinet didn't have any provision to catch the drips, and no outer door, just a screened and louvered outer wall. It's just a ventilated cabinet, vented to the outside.
 
Letterbox?

Is that really an abandoned feature over there? I have never seen a house without one!
 
We have a laundry chute in the bottom right front corner of our linen closet, and a mail slot off to the left of our front door.  The mail goes into a little box with a door on the inside.  I would love to have transoms, and a phone nook.  Our laundry chute is no longer used since we converted our enclosed front porch into a laundry room in 2001.  Before that time though it was always used by us.

[this post was last edited: 3/2/2014-12:33]
 
I love my laundry chute, it is a door on the bottom of a small linen nook in the hallway, it drops to a large wooden cage in the basement.
I think I'm going to add a ceiling medallion in my living room to further accentuate the chandelier
 
We have the Phone Nook and the Mail Slot. We also have, by the side door, a small door for the milk-man to deliver the milk. There is a small door on the inside and one on outside. It can fit about 2 milk jars. I wait every morning for the milk man to deliver the milk, but he never shows.
 
Matt (Hoover1100):

Here in the States, the Postal Service is trying to get all residential mail delivery moved to curbside. Most American homes have a mailbox on a post at the curb, right beside the driveway. The Postal Service will make exceptions for disabled people, who can still have their mail delivered to the door. Most of us Yanks have to walk to the mailbox to check on our mail.

This is an incomplete effort; in some areas, mail is still brought to the door. But most are curbside delivery.

One of the house features I miss is not really abandoned, but is not nearly so common as it once was and still should be: The post lamp beside the driveway. Having lighting available when you drive up to your house is very helpful.
 
While here in Canada all home delivery of mail is scheduled to be discontinued in 2015. Replaced by community mailboxes scattered throughout neighborhoods.. That already began with any new subdivisions built in the last 10 or 15 years..
 
Wow ...

"While here in Canada all home delivery of mail is scheduled to be discontinued in 2015. Replaced by community mailboxes scattered throughout neighborhoods.. That already began with any new subdivisions built in the last 10 or 15 years.."

Hello 1860!
 
The postal service is doing that around here too with new subdivisions.  When my great-uncle and aunt built their home in 1988 that's what they had/have in that neighborhood.
 
And nobody says anything???? With the costs of USPS and also Canadian postal service......many compliments!
And me that I hate italian postal service, they're expensive as hell, negligent and steal and loose packages etc....but at least they still have the goodvsense to still deliver mail in a damn post box of each family as it should be, world is really going backwards!
 
A subdivision I built a house in 1984 had begun using the clustered mail boxes for the "newer" areas of houses. It was quite a large subdivision which dated back to the early 1970s and that area still had individual mailboxes. I detested the clustered boxes and that was probably the only thing I didn't regret about moving out of that house 10 months later due to transfer.
 
Our house has the phone nook...

The first thing Donalds Dad said was.."We can take that old thing out", And Don and I both said in chorus,,Oh no you WONT!!!!
 
.....Mail delivery in large eastern cities......

I don't think that will ever happen in these large cities. In mine we have mail slots in the front door, or built into the front wall of the house and no room for mail boxes at the curb. In fact it would be illegal to do so. Apartments in brown stones have individual mail boxes with with keys in the vestibule. The mail person enters the vestibule via key that is placed in a post office box outside of the structure. Large apartments and condo's have mail rooms on the ground floor again with mail boxes with keys for each unit.

Where I live every house has a transom over the front door, and I have one over the back.. and in my bedroom, but I live in an old old neighborhood so that may not matter any more.
 
I live out in the country where most people have a mailbox at the foot of their driveway. I however do not because the mail driver will not stop at my driveway claiming it is dangerous due to the main road being on a hill. My newspaper does get delivered to the box at the end of the driveway however. Go figure - not dangerous for the newspaper delivery person but too dangerous for Canada Post. So I have to pick up my mail at the local post office. For this service I have to pay around $160 per year to rent the mail box.

Gary
 
I have a phone nook and two other smaller built in cubbyholes in my breakfast area. I have a mail slot/interior box like Polkanut's. I have added several ceiling medallions as I've remodeled, just waiting to take down and clean two chandeliers to add two more. I wish I had the transoms.

 

I know the postal service is having a hard time (maybe they should cut about a third of the management - they are a top-heavy organization). They could save some money by switching neighborhoods like mine to curbside boxes so the drivers don't have to walk a route to each front door, they would get the job done faster and maybe with fewer employees. I wouldn't mind this change but I would strongly fight a neighborhood cluster at the end of the block.

 

In college I rented a farm house that the family hadn't lived in for 25+ years (but they maintained it somewhat so it was liveable), thus no mail box. I had to contact the post office to get an address assigned and they had a rural program that provided me with a free mailbox which they delivered. This was set at the property entrance by the paved road which was over 1/4 mile from the house.
 
Built-in ironing board

The house I was raised in had a built-in ironing board in the kitchen.  Not that I do much ironing, but it sure was handy for quick touchups like those shirts with shriveled button holes.  Dragging out the free standing ironing board is a big to-do for small tasks like that.

 

Ken D.
 
 
My grandmother's house (built in the mid 1940s) has a built-in ironing board.

My parents' house (built in the early 1970s) also has one.
 
DUH!

How could I forget the built-in ironing boards in my paternal grandparents, parents, and my own home?  That was one of the first things my wife fell in love with when we first looked at our house.  The 2nd thing she fell in love with were the built-in china cupboards on both sides of our dining room window.  
 

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