What is the cut off year for privies?

AnthonyCoil · Feb 8, 2015

Does anyone know what the cut off year is for Privies? Is it 1900? or shortly after?

G.A.P.metal · Feb 8, 2015

We had and used one till 1972
Gary

uglymailman · Feb 8, 2015

You can still find some maintained ones on farms around here. Last time I visited one was in the 1980's.

2screwed · Feb 8, 2015

We had one on the ranch up until the mid 70's i remember using. in high school on Halloween we would steal them from people and leave them on the front lawn of the school.

AnthonyCoil · Feb 8, 2015

unclemac · Feb 8, 2015

I think you mean ..."when did cities and towns get running water and sewers". that question needs to be answered locally and should be pretty easy to find the info. Remember too, most rural places are on septic tanks and not sewers, so the answer to that would have to do with local building codes and the advent of county public health departments...so generally speaking post WW2.

GaRebel1861 · Feb 9, 2015

I was over in Mississippi a year ago and I ain't picking on anyone there or from there but, I pasted several houses that I saw a clear, well worn path going out to the outhouse. These were in the very rural areas. I'm sure they still exist in rural Georgia as well. Don't dig in these! Lol.

DeepseekerADS · Feb 9, 2015

We had one here at the farm I'm living at now. I put in an inside toilet in 1983. Therefore, the privvy lasted probably another year beyond that. Granny was slow to adopt...

sunrunner · Feb 10, 2015

there is no clear cut off date when it comes to out houses . thou in towns and cities you will see were thy were condemned in heath department records .and in some places they were slow to install sewage . but id say in towns and city's the late 1940s.

Jason in Enid · Feb 10, 2015

If you are talking about digging one, I wouldn't dig unless I was certain it was 100 years old

Indian Steve · Feb 13, 2015

When my grandparents put a toilet in the house in the late 60s, my grandfather refused to use it. He said " A dog won't s**t in its house and I won't either. In 1983 we moved into a farm house that had not been lived in since 1963. No running water. The county laws said that you could not build a new outhouse but you could remodel an existing one. I found the old out house site, re dug the hole and used 3 old boards that were left on the outside and it passed inspection. We used it until 86.

Bullet:Mich. · Feb 18, 2015

Outhouses are still being used in a lot of rural area's.

Tejaas · Feb 26, 2015

My papaw used to tell us he remembered sitting in the privy, doing his business - while reading the newspaper article about how LBJ brought electricity to the county!

What was funny was they got the newspaper a week or so late, and only if someone had stopped by with one coming from town.

~Tejaas~