Evolution of Bathrooms: Restrooms in the United States

Brief History of Bathrooms

Bathrooms in the past were shared public spaces, with little to no privacy. In Pompeii, the bathroom was an area that contained latrine blocks with seats as slabs of stone which contained holes for the users. A sponge was passed as a shared form of toilet paper. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, Britain was undergoing a large development change in extension of cities and a largely growing population. This led to industrialization, and the growing population began to stress the sewage and drainage systems. The demand for clean water and sanitary conditions called for a “greater  state  intervention  and  town  planning  controls” (Greed 54). Before sewer systems, people with fortunate homes had built in rooms that would collect sewage underground with trap-door-like installations.  The previous uses of public toilets may have worked in the past, but would create public health problems in the rapidly growing population which lived in urban areas. However, hygiene was not the main concern for people, which would dispose of their sewage by waiting for the waste collectors to come, or piling it in a garden. The spread of cholera and other deadly diseases made improved public hygiene measures important, with a major outbreak in 1832 (Greed 36). 

Concern for Public Health

 State involvement and provision became more appropriate because a city-wide drainage program was developed to stamp out diseases such as cholera. Cholera was a waterborne disease that did not value personnel; while it could originate in working-class areas, it could spread across the city’s unsanitary water systems everywhere. The Health of Towns Association was founded in 1844 and improvements to drainage and sewerage were seen as an essential part of urban planning for disease prevention. The 1868 Artisans’ and Labourers’ Dwellings Improvements Act (the Torrens Act) further strengthened government regulations, but the need for city-wide measures was seen to be primary in halting illness rather than just individual focusing reforms (Greed 38). 

First Public Toilet

At the Great Exhibition in 1851 at Crystal Palace, London, held  the first public toilet, and was designed by  manufacturer and inventor of the toilet, George Jennings. After the success of the Great Exhibition, for health reasons, the RSA worked to set up a system of public restrooms in London (Greed 42).

Aesthetics of the American Bathroom

During the most prominent years of Art Deco and it’s expression of modernity, bathrooms manifested the stylistic design choices even more. Bathrooms were seen as more than functional spaces, and rather areas of design expression. However, hygiene determined the evolution of American toilets, as opposed to bodily comfort. Therefore, bathrooms evolved to be more minimalist in 1890, with less emphasis on decoration and aesthetic appeal. Some even argued that ornament was deemed as wasted labor power and therefore wasted health. (Adams 26). 

Plumbing Impact 

As plumbing began occupying nineteenth-century households, bathroom appliances within bathrooms began to change. Portable bathroom furniture began to be replaced with appliances tied to plumbing and sewer systems. This evolution was displayed within the design of bathroom equipment, which “moved from its origins in conventional furniture types to its modern incarnation as overtly industrial fixtures” (Adams 27)

Bibliography

Adams, Annmarie. “Waste Not, Want Not: An Exhibition ReviewThe Process of Elimination: The Bathroom, the Kitchen, and the Aesthetics of Waste.The Bathroom, the Kitchen, and the Aesthetics of Waste: A Process of Elimination [Exhibition Catalogue]. Ellen Lupton , J. Abbott Miller.” Winterthur Portfolio, vol. 27, no. 1, 1992, pp. 75–82., doi:10.1086/496567. 

Examines the evolution of American bathrooms and their design. Art Deco and minimalism.

“Information.” Arts Development, 26 Jan. 2017, bccad.wordpress.com/home-2/edwardian-cloakroomsinformation/information/.

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Washing facilities in the home of Elmer Johnson, hired farmhand. Near Battle Ground, Indiana. His employer has a bathroom in a modern house” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1937.

Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. “Town of Tomorrow – Houses – Interior – Bathroom” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1935 – 1945. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/5e66b3e9-1c5f-d471-e040-e00a180654d7https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/3d2e5e40-aae0-0136-e05a-03637b3d1fb9

Greed, Clara. Inclusive Urban Design: Public Toilets. 1st ed., taylor & francis, 2003.

History of public safety and restrooms.