Wright Brothers Summer Kitchen & Outhouse

When Henry Ford purchased the Wright Brothers home for relocation to Greenfield Village, he also bought their summer kitchen and the outhouse as well.
A summer kitchen was a separate entity from the main house, used mainly in the warm weather months for cooking as it was too hot to cook big meals inside the house during the heat of summer in the days before air-conditioning.
Orville arranged with his father to use the small out-building for his printing endeavors (during the cool winter months he used the dining room inside of their home).
At one point he darkened the tiny building and used it to develop photographic slides.
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Have you ever noticed that there is usually a small, shed-like structure off to the back of these historically restored homes? That under the beds in their bedrooms are porcelain bowls?







Have you ever noticed that homes from the early part of the 20th century and before do not have indoor bathrooms?
Mr. Webster defines this structure as "an outbuilding with one or more seats and a pit serving as a toilet."
And there you are.

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