Wash House

One of the first things Dad did when we moved into the Idylwood house was build an extension to the back of the garage to house the washing machine. It was probably 12’ X 12’ with an interior door into the back wall of the garage and an exterior door leading to the back yard.

The Wash house is visible above Terry’s head. It is clearly attached to the back of the garage. At the time we had a ringer washer.

It probably was not a Maytag, more likely a Kenmore.

I think it worked by putting the clothes and the soap in the tub and running it for a bit. Then the soapy water was drained and replaced by clean water for rinsing, maybe twice. The final step was to run the newly washed clothes through the ringer rollers at the top and let them fall into a laundry basket for taking to the clothes line.

What a bunch of work! My mom was glad to have this ‘convenience’.

By ‘55 or so we had upgraded to a more modern washing machine - really not much different from what we have today, but probably sturdier. We did not have a clothes dryer until we moved to the Horn Street house. Clothes were hung on a clothes line in the back yard. I can remember scrambling to get the clothes off the line and into the house to beat a thunderstorm - more than once. I also recall hanging and retrieving clothes in really cold weather. It was tough on my hands. The rest of the story: A portion of the washhouse was dedicated to the washing machine. The rest of the area was dedicated as Dad’s workshop and tool shed.