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Old stone spring houses 
on some of the country places in the southern mountains are just as useful to-day as they were a hundred years 
ago and are excellent places for keeping milk and butter even during the hottest days of summer 
Keeping Provisions Cool Without Ice 
THE SPRING HOUSE, A SOUTHERN MEANS OF REFRIGERATION—HOW IT IS UTILIZED 
FOR KEEPING DAIRY PRODUCTS—VARIATIONS IN STYLE AND ARRANGEMENT 
by Sarah L e y b u r n Coe 
Photographs by the Author 
I N selecting the most suitable locations for the imposing houses 
on their farms or estates, the country gentry of one hundred 
and more years ago paid particu¬ 
lar attention to the whereabouts of 
alt available spring. In nine cases 
out of ten the house was situated 
with reference to that spring and 
by the time the dwelling was com¬ 
pleted there was a stone spring 
house ready for use. 
Especially was this true of the 
mountainous parts of Virginia, 
M aryl a ti d and Pennsylvania, 
where the springs somehow seem 
more numerous and larger, and 
even colder than anywhere else. 
Old stone spring houses on some 
of the country places in that part 
of the world are just as useful to¬ 
day and in as good condition, with 
an occasional renewal of the wood¬ 
work, as they were a hundred 
years ago, and their present owners are as independent of the 
ice man and all his works as were the Colonial housewives to 
whom that blessing* in disguise 
was an unknown quantity. 
On some of these old places, 
owing to the introduction of mod¬ 
ern methods with their accom¬ 
panying idea of the most work 
with the least effort, other ways 
of keeping milk and butter are in 
use, and the spring, houses have 
been torn down or allowed to go 
to ruin. On many other places, 
however (and it is really a matter 
of some surprise to the person 
who takes the trouble to look into 
it) the spring house is as impor¬ 
tant a part of the farm equipment 
as the stable or the chicken houses, 
and its methods, while apparently 
crude and antique and suggestive 
of the Eighteenth Century, are. 
1 here is a suggestion here of combining other outhouse features 
with those of the spring house 
(98) 
