Floor1BackHallPlus

This small bathroom was restored in 2000 with an old-style high tank toilet. Powder rooms were a brand new innovation in housing when the mansion was built in 1892. Before this time, either an outhouse was used, or else large bathrooms with big tubs were located near a bed room. The powder room was intended for use by visitors to the mansion, who therefore were not inconvenienced by going either upstairs or outside.

In the hallway outside the powder room is a flight of servant’s steps, made from pine. The servants used this stairway exclusively, except when they were dusting the Grand Staircase at the front of the house.

Also in the hallway is the dumb-waiter, a small elevator used to bring wine up from the basement, or to lift trays of food to the second floor for a breakfast in bed.