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Virginia:
Home of the Outdoor Privy Race
Or,
Whatever Happened to Outdoor Plumbing?
Even
in the 21st century, Virginia celebrates its long
tradition of outdoor privies or outhouses, also once
known by such euphemisms as necessaries, boghouses,
jakes, garde-robes, conveniences and some 30 other
terms.
On
January 9, 2008, House
Joint Resolution 76 was offered in the Virginia
House of Delegates “recognizing the Town
of Independence as the Official Home of the
Grand Privy Race in Virginia.” Adopted 88-7
on January 21, the resolution still awaits final
approval in the Senate, according to the General
Assembly website.
Independence,
in Grayson County, organized its first Mountain
Foliage Festival back in 1984. In addition to
celebrating southwest Virginia’s traditional
crafts and music, the powers-that-be decided to
celebrate the humor of mountain folk with the first
ever Grand Privy Race. Apparently, each October,
contestants put outdoor privies on wheels and race
down the streets in the center of town. The winners
are crowned Grand Privy Champions. As the resolution
goes on to explain, the Mountain Foliage Festival
“includes a multitude of family-friendly
activities, including a parade featuring the winner
of the ‘Potty Princess Pageant,’ art and craft
exhibits by regional artisans, plenty of delicious
food, and diverse entertainment from bluegrass music
to local theatre.” It sounds like a lot of fun and
must draw quite a crowd!
Outdoor
privies have a long history in the Old Dominion and
some, built by founding fathers such as Washington
and Jefferson, were quite elegant. In an article in CW
Journal a few years back (“Necessary and
Sufficient,” Autumn 2002), historian Michael
Olmert, an expert on dependency buildings, discusses
the structures in colonial Williamsburg. While those
who reconstructed the town in the 1930s, built
paired privies on several properties, in some cases
there is no evidence such structures existed at
those locations. However, there were quite elegant
paired privies at Thomas Jefferson’s home in
Poplar Forest and at Washington’s Mt. Vernon.
The
folk belief is that privies were built in twos among
the wealthy so that one could be cleaned, while the
other was still in use. Jefferson’s and
Washington’s privies were built in an octagonal
shape, perhaps to resemble the baptisteries in
Church of England buildings. They were built of
brick with special features such as wood painted to
resemble limestone. “This is architecture that
celebrates, even elevates its earthy origins,”
Olmert writes.
Most
Williamsburg homes had much simpler
“necessaries.” They were unpainted and not built
to last. A few had pits and when the pit filled,
they were moved. Most did not, and the belief is
that waste was taken away through clean-out doors in
the back of the privy or drawers under the seats.
Virginia
also had multi-hole privies in its colonial era.
Olmert describes a fancy one at the Westover
Plantation that dates before 1783. It is reached
by five steps – sort of a “temple” approach.
There is a fireplace and a mantle inside, as well as
two lower children’s commodes. At the top level
there are three holes, with the central one
obviously meant for the head of the family. It is
“as if the family were going to court, not to a
private function,” Olmert comments.
It
would be more than a century before the backyard
privy began to disappear. There had been experiments
with indoor plumbing as far back as the 16th century
when John Harrington invented a water closet for his
godmother Queen Elizabeth I in 1596. But it wasn’t
until 1885 that an inventor named Thomas Twyford
changed the course of history by inventing a flush
toilet made out of porcelain, much easier to clean
than earlier wood or metal models.
It’s
hard to know exactly when that familiar structure
with the half moon began to disappear from the
Virginia landscape, but it certainly corresponds to
the transition from a rural to urban society that
occurred in the commonwealth in the late 1930s,
1940s and 1950s. (By the way, apparently the half
moon is an ancient symbol for “female” and in
colonial days when many could not read, a privy with
such a symbol was designated for women and one with
a sunburst or circle for men. The half moon may have
survived because it was easier to cut into a door
than a sunburst.)
As
late as 1995, there is a reference to hold-outs in
rural Virginia Beach. An editorial in The Virginian-Pilot
(“Privy to Politics,” August 13, 1995)
admonishes rural farmers “who prefer privies in
rural Virginia Beach to the officialdom accompanying
septic tanks,” but want government intervention
when they hope to subdivide and sell their land. The
editorial refers to a City Council meeting in which
the idea of a “privy patrol” was suggested to
make sure city sanitation regulations were enforced
in rural areas.
These
days outdoor privies have become collectibles, even
appearing on eBay, although they don’t seem to
sell for much according to one commentator. And,
“shipping could be a major pain.” (Outhouse
FAQ).
Those
interested in competing in the Grand Privy Race next
fall can make their own equipment using instructions
from the 1908 edition of "Household
Discoveries and Mrs. Curtis's Cook Book."
Her chapter on “How to Build a Privy” suggests
surrounding it with latticework and vines. “This
plan, which adds but little to the expense, renders
the building much less unsightly and much more
private.” Other construction plans can be found in
"The
Vanishing American Outhouse" by Robert S.
Barlow, apparently the seminal work on the topic.
See
you Saturday October 11 in Independence! Privies
need to be at the starting line by 9 a.m.
NEXT:
The Physics of Incentives: Enterprise Zones in
the Old Dominion
--
February 11, 2008
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