During Roosevelt's Works Progress
Administration - the WPA - there were teams of
builders who built most of the
in rural areas.
Considered a luxury by most rural families, newspaper or pages from
old catalogs was more often used.
Usually they were 3 to 4 feet square by 7 feet high with no window,
heat, or electric light. Due to the odor, most were
built between 50 and 150 feet from the main house, often facing away
from the house. So that didn't have to smell the unpleasant
odor, many people left the door open while they were using it. Old-timers will admit that they had trouble breaking this habit with
the invention of indoor bathrooms.
Outhouses: How in the heck did that work? Well, the
upstairs facilities were situated a little further back so that the
"materials" released from the second floor would fall behind the wall
of the first floor. There are a few of these old relics still around. The one below was built next to a large store in Gays,
Illinois. The store has long since been torn down, but thanks to those fine
citizens of Gays, the "skys-crapper" was preserved.
Two-Story "skys-crapper" in Gays,
Thomas Crapper: It is a myth that
Thomas Capper invented the toilet. Though the man held several
patents for plumbing related products, he did not invent the water closet.