The Springhouse

Before refrigeration, springhouses served both as sources of fresh cool water and as places to keep food cool. Usually small one-room buildings, they were often built over a spring or small stream, with those over springs considered best because water coming from the earth or from small crevices in rocks was much colder than water in small open streams. This cool water kept the interior cool, and crocks, jars, and other containers were used to store milk, butter, eggs, and occasionally tea and lemonade, sometimes partially submerged to take advantage of the temperature. Shelves were sometimes built on the inner walls above the water level to store potatoes, apples, onions, and other produce. The sulphur spring at this site did not have a springhouse, but the community used it as a water source for many years. Springhouses were prominent throughout the area before the arrival of electricity and refrigerators in the 1930s and 1940s, and the one here was built to preserve a bit of the area's rural history.

West Virginia · United States