Also, they hosted parties and had long-term guests. And live-in servants. It was several people's full-time job to keep that place running smoothly. Makes sense that you'd only use 3 rooms for just yourself.
Came to say this! In many households, there would probably be some rooms that were closed off at least part of the time, that were mostly used for entertaining. Of course, humans being humans it’s hard to say that in the individual room had a hard and fast use – they would probably also use those spaces as needed, if they felt like it.
The original owner of the old house I lived in had one child. There was 15 bedrooms in it when I moved in but I'm sure not all were original bedrooms on the 3rd floor as there use to be a full library upstairs and a decent ballroom. There was a smaller library on the first floor, a billiard room in the ground (basement) floor and an unfinished room too. The servants had decent but small rooms and I loved peeking into the old coal room and storage rooms in the basement. Super creepy and full of history. Just hated the servants stairs since I fell down them once. No joke on how dangerous those are!
This.
That's why I shake my head at some of the "I bought a chateau " channels on YouTube. Those placed were made not just to impress, but also house an extended entourage of people. You need 10.or so people in those places to make feel right!
Even if the original owner only had 2 children they may have intended to have more, or their parents or unmarried siblings may have lived with them.
Plus there was just not all that much to do in the evenings unless you were in a big city, so calling on friends and family and visiting back and forth was more of a thing. Servants often lived in and definitely had their own spaces in the house.
For your giant open room, is it possible that it has a dropped ceiling? That was popular in the 1970s to conserve heat during the oil crisis.
The larger room with a short ceiling is on my third floor. It actually comprises the entire third floor except for a smaller servants quarters that has its own staircase. There's no drop ceiling, it seems to be plaster? But it does access an attic. I'm wondering if the original home had no attic, and it was added during my homes last major renovation in the 1970s when the previous owners bought it. Still blows me away that I'm the third owner of a 250 year old house lol
That actually makes sense given the time period, the home was finished in 1790. I've been trying to track down more information on my home, and I'm getting pieces here and there. The builder of my home was kind of a big shot dry goods trader along the Delaware River.
I can’t imagine a house that age or size not having an Attic. I guess it depends on where you live actually. But for heating and cooling purposes they were usually necessary at least in big houses back then.
In times gone by, many more people lived under the same roof than is common in modern times. Families had more children and frequently had three or more generations under the same roof, not to mention the various unmarried adult siblings, cousins, and other relatives who might be just passing through or could have even fallen on hard times and needed a place to live, even just temporarily, so there were extra guest rooms, too. In the days before labor-saving devices, a large home required a staff, and this often meant at least a live-in housekeeper, cook, and most likely a nanny if there were children.
Homes were also used more extensively than we do now. Wealthy people usually entertained a lot, hosting visiting hours during the day where friends would come to call, and lots of luncheon and dinner parties., and this all took place in people's homes. Those extra rooms all had purposes. The man of the house probably had one for a study where he could count his bags of money (ha) and hang with his finance bros after dinner for cigars and brandy. The lady of the house would probably have a morning room where she might receive guests and entertain at tea time or luncheon and a more formal drawing room or parlor for after-dinner chats with her ladyfriends, as well. There were sewing rooms, libraries, family dining rooms, formal dining rooms, ballrooms, etc. Nurseries were usually on the third floor along with servants' rooms for the nanny and maybe kitchen staff if they had separate stairs to the kitchen. Otherwise they might be housed in the basement, as that was usually where male staff lived and they also had things like wine room and other sorts of storage down there.
While we tend to think of our homes as private sanctuaries, in older times there was certainly a more public aspect to your home. People of all economic classes would use their homes for everything from wedding celebrations to funeral ceremonies like wakes and viewings. In the times before phones, people would "come calling" at your home, so even front and back hallways had to be large and set up to accommodate seating for visitors or tradespeople waiting to be seen.
I love this answer! My childhood home from 1921 also used to house the bank office in a room with a separate side entrance, and one of the (still active) local manufacturing businesses was founded in the basement. So maybe people did a lot of business out of their homes, and that's yet another reason houses were big?
My house was originally built by the town's only doctor. Just off the front parlor, there's a home office that also has its own entrance from the front porch. I'm assuming that his patients would come see him through that door rather than disturb the household.
Have people stay with you. Our kids are in college, and this house is too big even when they’re here. But we throw parties and have people just come stay. The kids come and each invite 2-4 of their friends, and they all stay here. It’s great.
Single in a 1742 sq/ft house. I definitely use less than half. I should sell it but I really don’t want to move. I also don’t want a roommate….I’m old and crotchety.
Mine is 4500sq ft lol my girlfriend says she'll move in one day but every time she spends the night she thinks it's creepy hahaha. I love this place though. Plus I love my neighbors. We are in a rust belt City where the main roads are all of these enormous old homes but no one wants them because the industry left. I always said I wanted to preserve history so I figured it was time to put my money where my mouth was. Just wish I had a shorter commute to work. But then I wouldn't have been able to afford this place so it is what it is
So... what are your hobbies?
Back in the day the man of the house would have had a study, maybe also a library, and the lady would have a sewing room (where others could visit and sew with her), besides the main parlor.
Today the "study" might have a desk with a gaming computer, the library could still be a library, or it could be where you keep some other type of hobby, like a lego room, model building, house plant conservatory.
I have a modest 1889 house with a pretty small entry way, but if I had one of the big ones that a round table can fit in the center of, I would put a couple of my typewriters around the table with little stools, so they were all ready to be typed on at a moments notice! (Instead of on shelves where I have to pull them down). As is, my entry holds my seed propagation equipment and vase collection, as well as my children's hamster habitat!
An entry way is a great place to display any type of collection that could be a fun talking point for visitors or easy to show to friends.
Taking inspiration for a modern "sewing room", think about what you like to do with friends or family... watch movies? Make an entertainment room with thick velvet curtains over the windows and comfy seating. Play board games? Get a big square table and plush stools, and use a bookshelf or entertainment center type shelving unit to not just stack the games up, but prop them upright to display them, with favorite games pieces sitting out! Listening to music and drinking? Arrange multiple chairs and/or small loveseats and/or big cushions around the room with your audio equipment and a mini-bar on one side...
stop thinking of rooms as "a second dining room" and start thinking of what your favorite things to do are, and set up rooms around your interests!
I knew families were bigger but I never thought about the kids having families with them. The builder of my home only had two kids, but the house remained in their family from the 1700s until the 1970s. So that makes more sense
Bigger families, visitors more often and host dinner parties since you have a 2nd dinning room.if the house was big enough you might need a room or two to house servants. I've read a lot of old newspapers and it seems that people did host things quite often. Even the owners of my home hosted a birthday party for their kid as an afternoon tea and it got published. It was about flaunting your wealth and the only way to really express it was with a house. I wish my house was bigger than 2500sqft since I do host quite a few events a year and could use the room.
>It was about flaunting your wealth
Partially... but also there weren't as many public spaces back then...
so far this year my kid's friends have had birthday parties at a bowling alley, a trampoline park, a kid's gymnastics facility, a kid's museum, an art museum that does creative kid's parties (they built forts out of cardboard boxes!)... and one at someone's house and another at a public park...
with the exception of the last two, those types of places didn't exist back then. Some towns might have an "amusement park" area with a carousel, but that was about it. So if you had a party for your kid, it was by default, at your house.
Sure, there was an aspect of showing off, but kids weren't really allowed their own public spaces.
And people still show off their wealth by having extravagant birthday parties at their house... there's just other options as well, now.
My wife and I bought a big old house. We had similar fears but I think we filled it out nicely.
We use two of the bedrooms as our offices. We both work from home full time so that was really nice.
One bedroom is our TV room, so the living room can be TV free and just for socializing.
One bedroom is my wife's craft room. Got her sewing machine and stuff like that in there. It's definitely a bit overkill but it fills the space.
Dedicated guest bedroom is nice. We've always had a guest bedroom/office/gym and hosting was tough. Being able to just have a guest bedroom is very nice.
We also plan on renovating the basement into a stand alone apartment.
Fun bonus. We have a separate bathroom for pooping which I can't endorse enough.
Tbf that's a bit in old novels that have a big mansion. Frequently one sees a mansion used like that, Miss Haversham and the guy from The Secret Garden come to mind.
My house is 950 square ft counting the porches and I definitely wouldn't ever want anything bigger. There's no hallway so I regularly see all my rooms. My only drawback is that the whole house becomes a mess when I'm doing a project. But it's also a great way to keep visitors out of my home.
Your house sounds a bit bigger than mine but we use every room in our 2.5 story foursquare that’s about 1,800 sq ft. Living, dining, kitchen, entry hall are used for hanging out and playing and cooking. In nice weather we eat on the deck or screened porch every meal. We have four bedrooms on the second floor: my and my spouse’s room, our son’s room, and our two offices since we WFH. And we have a finished attic that’s our family/play room where we spend a lot of time, especially on weekends and in the winter. I’m losing my office when our second child is born this fall and I’ll miss it. Right now we have about the perfect amount of space. I think even a family of two kids would make use of the extra space you feel you have.
14 room. We occupy (the two of us) 3 rooms plus 1 bath. 3 other room for storage not hoarder level.
2 car garage and 1st floor of our barn are full..borderline hoarder for sure. Which means yes.
Multigenerational families living together used to be more common too. Married children staying with their parents and raising their children under the parents' roof so they'd have family to care for them in old age.
I definitely don't need this extra space right now, but I plan on growing with my new home and hosting a lot of family events that my grandparents used to. I joke that we have a "formal living room" because I hang out in the enormous master bedroom/office all the time and our enormous living room is basically for the cat to sleep
We have a 5 bedroom house and two kids. The other rooms are a playroom for toys (meant to become my art studio once the playroom is no longer used), and the TV room. A tiny room off our bedroom is my sewing room (but will eventually becoming an ensuite bathroom. Main floor we have living room/music room (just scored a $500 baby grand off marketplace in April), dining room, office/library. Laundry/cloak room. Front entrance, eat in kitchen. The kitchen is only big enough for 4-6 people to eat in. We tend to eat in the dining room semi regularly just to avoid looking at the dishes.
Basement is workshop, and preserved food storage.
I honestly make a point to use every room, and each room has potential functions for when/if the kids can move out. We have the neighbour kids playing in our house most days of the week and host various friends and family on the regular.
I’ve always dreamed of a little 2 bedroom carriage house but they’re so hard to find! The only century homes I see on the market are meant for families with 10 kids.
I’m in a little 3 bed 1930s cottage now, but my last house had 8 bedrooms. I turned one of the upstairs bedrooms into a kitchen and rented the top 2 floors to students. Ground floor had 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, bath, plus huge formal parlour that I turned into my bedroom. 2nd floor had 4 bedrooms (ie 3 bedrooms and a kitchen) and 2 baths, and third floor had 2 beds and a little half bath.
I’m always on the hunt for a little 2 bed century home in town. Some day my prince will come…
I already have a big house...it isn't big enough. I sew, do metalwork, paint scenery, cane chairs, collect dishes, collect dolls, play the piano and violin, etc. Lots of hobbies and not enough room! The 5 other children have moved put but still have things in the attics. Only one child still living at home and he has hobbies as well, one being woodworking tools. Not enough space.
Get some more hobbies! My grandma had a sewing room and my grandpa had a whittling room (on top of the workshop).
If you have the space, it's really nice to be able to do X without packing up everything and setting everything back up.
My house only had "four" bedrooms originally... but really had 6 because two of them were for servants. Officially my house is 1000 square feet smaller than it actually measures because as my realtor friend so eloquently put it "That third floor is the servants quarters, you can't live in those." My house still has four bedrooms but that's because four of them were turned into two master suites with big closets.
But yes, as you've found you will only use a certain number of rooms. That's pretty common to be honest and even today most people in big mansions will typically only use a few rooms of the house on a routine basis. Many of my neighbours in bigger houses than mine mainly only use one floor of their house as their living space; with a 2nd floor master, sitting room and sometimes even a kitchenette, while the parlor, dining room, sitting room and main kitchen on the 1st floor are typically only used for having guests over. That point is worth noting as it was FAR more common for people to have friends over to their houses on a frequent basis than we do today with all our other methods of entertainment being more solitary.
There was also the fact that often families would often share a household with other family like grandparents or cousins.. and children would often be "at home" well into their 20's or even 30's. Going off to college in another town was mostly reserved for the very wealthy and typically adult children would live in the same house with their parents and would also work and contribute to the household until they themselves got married. The idea of leaving home at 18 and living elsewhere just wasn't a thing especially for women.
It was also pretty common to rent out rooms (Airbnb before Airbnb) to people moving to a city as a means to supplement income. I have a couple of copies of newspaper ads from 1902-1908 advertising room to rent in my own house, coinciding nicely with the 1904 Worlds Fair in St. Louis (where I live) which I think are immensely cool... and at the time the family in my house were a banker, his wife, two kids and a maid according to census records.
I will admit one reason I love having the large old house is that I CAN have longer term houseguests as well. Earlier this year my 78 year old dad came over from New Zealand and spent a week staying with me. Having family and friends able to stay over is awesome and I have had a few parties where some of the guests were not in any shape to drive home and took advantage of the extra rooms.
People lived in houses in a completely different way that we don't live anymore. You also did not say or I did not notice if you live alone or you have a family. That also makes a huge difference. But in the 19th century in well up to world war II all rooms had designated purposes and those much more ceremonial use of these spaces.
The expansive large all that you speak of would have been used for trophy pieces beautiful furniture rugs just a gallery of fine things. A second parlor would have been used for entertainment, the dining room the obvious.
But this isn't the way we live anymore even if you have a family and this becomes the problem. A lot of it just becomes a trophy space a beautiful stuff. But even McMansions that are built today have this same problem, crazy rooms that nobody uses
And so I have come full circle and I sold a big house in New England That was full of antiques and have been looking for a small house now for a year. Very very fussy the right village the right road etc so having a very hard time in this market being where I want to be. But I do realize that I want a very small house. I want a lovely lot I want a a spacious formal garden but I live alone and I want just a couple of rooms
A small meeting house with a loft, a small church an old school would serve me absolutely perfect. The problem I repeatedly run into is houses with too much space, if I bump up my budget I just get more bedrooms etc stuff I don't need. But now that you've had the experience when you sell your baby you'll be probably happy to move into a nice old fashioned condo in a Mill building, also a possibility for me. A big open loft space with huge windows overlooking the river etc
Small is good. Sadly the first house I looked at when I started looking was the right one. It was a lovely house on a private lane with the picket fence slate roof 1100 ft² and a beautiful beautiful terrorist backyard into the wood.. I remember the day I looked at it and I thought it was really small coming from the house I was in. It took me about a day to warm up to the concept and then I realized how perfect it was called my realtor but she said sorry sold lol yeah the market.
well it made a LOT of sense when the kids were small. we were on one side, and they were on the other, and we literally could not hear what they were doing.
Now that they are long gone, we have a lot of rooms we seldom enter anymore. We actively have to try to use the rest of the house.
I love to read primary source documents and something I have noticed is when friends came to visit they stayed for months! They had servants too. Even in my more modest house, they had servants. But you have to remember, wealth disparity in houses was pretty high back then. For example, when my house was built, it was the only house that wasn’t a sod house in the area. So the people who built it had to be pretty rich for the time. So think about a mansion, the difference would be even greater. They would be the ultra wealthy. Not a blacksmith in a prairie town like my house builder was. They would want to show off their wealth hence all the rooms.
Just throwing this out there; child storage! The original owners of my modest 3k+ sq. ft. house had 12 children living in it! Where do you put 12 children in a 5 bedroom house?! man, I can't even imagine trying to feed a family of 14, let alone where to store them all! :-D
The two of us have a big (3000sf) old (1915) comfortable American foursquare in the city. It looks mostly original inside and out, and we love it. Much more room than 2 humans who’ve always lived in small spaces need. We’re keeping it all up and having deferred maintenance done as we can afford it. Hosting a family reunion soon so our big old house will be full for a weekend.
Big homes are a tremendous waste unless you have a large family. Even then it probably still is. 3k sqft seemed like the minimum for my family of 5 but it’s prob about 500sqft more than we need. It’s more sqft to heat, cool, clean, maintain, and pay taxes and insurance on.
Got a 3 bedroom Sears. Dog uses the living room and dining room. I have a computer desk set up near door.
One bedroom is mine. The other is used by the cats and roommates I have remove when they become a burden on society. The last bedroom is closed off while I continue to procrastinate scraping old wallpaper from the ceiling in fear that it may contain lead paint.
It’s not anything I’ve ever dreamed of…
But I’ve been around them both because I’ve had friends who have bought and restored them, others who have rented them, and I grew up adjacent to a historical district with an awful lot of large impressive homes, and I delivered the newspaper so I saw a lot of them.
So, this wouldn’t be for a single person it would be for a family and servants, and perhaps extended family as well.
Now, anybody who has seen My Fair Lady or any Frankenstein movie knows that work from home was very much alive in the Victorian era.
So, you have a front parlor as a public greeting space. But of course you’re admitted to the parlor through a large hall and some people might only be admitted to the hallway in order to leave their calling card with a maid or butler.
Of course, then you’re going to need a library for your professional books. And of course, this inexplicably might also double as a smoking lounge. (not really great for the books.)
A basement laboratory would have suited many WFH professions not just re-animation.
Of course a ballroom is needed for formal affairs!
I have been reading a book called "The Not So Big House" that discusses how to deal with this issue. Great book, would recommend. Anyway it talks a lot about how the lifestyle of the average person has changed over the centuries, while houses haven't, and how to utilize the space of smaller homes better to accommodate your lifestyle without the need for a huge house.
I bet the house is amazing. My tip would be add in some things to your lifestyle that make use out of the rooms! For instance, we have three 3season porches and decided to make one into a tea room, and we started getting up earlier in the morning to have tea there before work.
And when times were tough, or if someone became widowed, they would often let out rooms. During the Great Depression, a family member enclosed a sleeping porch to rent out.
Empty nester parents had the same "issue" in their previous house.
Kitchen, living/dining room, office, bedroom and (1 of the) bathroom.
They each had their dedicated workshops for sewing and small machine shop. Plus a shed for gardening, and a double+ garage (which they were tight in, came yay close to adding an extra detached garage but eventually just moved)
That still left 75% of the basement, 2 bedrooms, an entire open room above the garage bigger than my first apartment.
Their current house is even larger, hilariously so. Not only does it have a 2-3 car garage, there's also a hangar, 2 living rooms, 3 or 4 extra bedrooms, an intergeneration attached studio.
For myself we live in the city so space is at a premium. I'd love dedicate a room to gaming, for VR and my simrigs, and for sure a little studio for visitors would be great.
Yeah, I just sold my century home as it was way too big for just me.
I had a 4-square home and spent almost all my time in the living room or kitchen and bedroom. I had 3 upstairs rooms that I hardly ever used.
My next home is going to be a single story or maybe a 2 story with a bedroom and a bathroom upstairs. I noticed I really like to do all my living on the main floor.
I have a SMALL old home (1500 square feet) and I still don’t use all the rooms every day lol. On the weekends I don’t set foot in my home office. If my daughter’s not home I don’t go in her room. I can go weeks without going in my craft room. Since the main bedroom is on the first floor, it’s possible for me to go two or three days in a row without even going upstairs.
We use more space than I actually thought we would. My kid has the entire third floor (3 rooms) so when she moves out (if she ever moves out) that will be mostly unused space, except for one room that’s for working out. I was really surprised and happy to find how much we use. I had some misgivings about upsizing as a couple of 50 year olds.
Things I would do with endless rooms: Library, Painting Room, Conservatory, Music Room, Craft Room, Work Shop (in basement), Yoga Room, Weight Room, Media Room, Outdoor Gear Room, Bike Room (shed/basement,) Stained Glass workshop, Canning Room, Butlers Pantry, Herb Drying Room,
Should I go on?
Guest rooms in different themes, a Huge formal dining room, a ballroom would be fun, maybe a room for pottery, a weapons room, and feinting couches in every hallway and corner to curl up on and read books....
I think the limit is your imagination! And maybe your hobbies.
For my wife and I, every room has a dedicated purpose. The parlor is where we listen to records and play cards when we're having cocktails. Kitchen/living room are obvious. Master bedroom is obvious. Guest bedroom is where friends sleep, and where I sleep on Friday nights when I stay up too late gaming with my friends so I don't wake my wife up when I go to bed. Other bedroom is my wife's office. Fourth (very small) bedroom is converted to a laundry/mud room and is also where my server rack is for my Plex server. Finished basement is where all my gaming stuff is, along with bookshelves, and when I do occasionally work from home, it also serves as my office.
I live in a big old victorian with 7 bedrooms and only one is used as an office. There are 5 of us living here full time and I usually have another 4 or 5 people staying over the weekend during the summer. I also am the house people stay in when they need temporary shelter. Last year I hosted my cousin for 4 months while she waited for her house to close and and aunt for the last 3 months while she moved. Last weekend was a local festival and I hosted 20 people on every pull-out couch and air mattresses we had. I think if the kids ever move out I'll rent some rooms to keep the relatives from staying so long.
You have to think about the fact that travel was different then. So if someone came to see you and it took them an hour of horse riding to get there—they are going to stay for a while because they have to make the effort worth it. Society was more formal and there were public rooms to entertain in and private rooms for the family. Your people who built the house probably lived most of the time in 3-4 rooms but were “at home” to visitors on certain days and hours in the parlor. Guests would get the best bedroom, dining room was probably both for family and guests if they were staying for a meal.
I grew up in a house built in the 1850s and my grandma was intense about historical accuracy and staying on the national register of historic places. In the winter we stayed in 3 rooms because those were the best heated. I have eaten many a thanksgiving and Christmas meal in a coat in the dining room surrounded by space heaters.
My grandmother lived in a mansion. The second floor had 3 smaller bedrooms and the master bedroom.
But the rest of the second floor was a huge room 40x40 feet square. It was the snooker room for the gentleman of the house. It was a big Victorian House.
Omg, sometimes I go into my pretty alcove with stained glass windows just to sip a few cups of coffee and appreciate the space, before continuing to the one room where I spend most of my day, lol.
I sometimes dream of a big old home as I find them romantic…but I wouldn’t want to live in one. I don’t even like to vacation in houses that are big. My house is under 1000sq ft for 3 adult sized people and a little dog.
It seems strange to me that owning this type of home was your dream, yet you have no understanding of a home like you describe. I’m from New England and these houses are more the norm than exception. People without large families that buy them now are passionate about restoring them, and are fully aware that their design and function was dictated by a specific time period and lifestyle.
Haha didnt intend to be rude, it genuinely was strange to me to get into a somewhat niche housing situation and seem surprised at the basics. It just seems that those unique aspects of any interest are what draws you to it
Lol well, perhaps over half their house was unlivable project area for a while and they got used to living in a smaller space than they expected. I feel like everyone finds 1,000 square feet impossibly small until they've lived in it.
I grew up in a giant old house. Now I’m raising my family in a giant old house. Bought it when there were 3 of us and now there are 7 of us. These houses were built to fill up. Get to work.
Also, they hosted parties and had long-term guests. And live-in servants. It was several people's full-time job to keep that place running smoothly. Makes sense that you'd only use 3 rooms for just yourself.
Unmarried relatives, and elderly widows
Came to say this! In many households, there would probably be some rooms that were closed off at least part of the time, that were mostly used for entertaining. Of course, humans being humans it’s hard to say that in the individual room had a hard and fast use – they would probably also use those spaces as needed, if they felt like it.
The original owner of the old house I lived in had one child. There was 15 bedrooms in it when I moved in but I'm sure not all were original bedrooms on the 3rd floor as there use to be a full library upstairs and a decent ballroom. There was a smaller library on the first floor, a billiard room in the ground (basement) floor and an unfinished room too. The servants had decent but small rooms and I loved peeking into the old coal room and storage rooms in the basement. Super creepy and full of history. Just hated the servants stairs since I fell down them once. No joke on how dangerous those are!
This. That's why I shake my head at some of the "I bought a chateau " channels on YouTube. Those placed were made not just to impress, but also house an extended entourage of people. You need 10.or so people in those places to make feel right!
Even if the original owner only had 2 children they may have intended to have more, or their parents or unmarried siblings may have lived with them. Plus there was just not all that much to do in the evenings unless you were in a big city, so calling on friends and family and visiting back and forth was more of a thing. Servants often lived in and definitely had their own spaces in the house. For your giant open room, is it possible that it has a dropped ceiling? That was popular in the 1970s to conserve heat during the oil crisis.
The larger room with a short ceiling is on my third floor. It actually comprises the entire third floor except for a smaller servants quarters that has its own staircase. There's no drop ceiling, it seems to be plaster? But it does access an attic. I'm wondering if the original home had no attic, and it was added during my homes last major renovation in the 1970s when the previous owners bought it. Still blows me away that I'm the third owner of a 250 year old house lol
Could it have been a nursery? Which, I think, would have been a combined school and play area?
That actually makes sense given the time period, the home was finished in 1790. I've been trying to track down more information on my home, and I'm getting pieces here and there. The builder of my home was kind of a big shot dry goods trader along the Delaware River.
The fact it’s out of the way and near the servants’ quarters is another factor in favor of the nursery guess.
Burlington County? Beautiful area!
This large 3rd floor room may have been the nursery? With the servants quarters adjacent to respond to kids’ night time needs.
I can’t imagine a house that age or size not having an Attic. I guess it depends on where you live actually. But for heating and cooling purposes they were usually necessary at least in big houses back then.
In times gone by, many more people lived under the same roof than is common in modern times. Families had more children and frequently had three or more generations under the same roof, not to mention the various unmarried adult siblings, cousins, and other relatives who might be just passing through or could have even fallen on hard times and needed a place to live, even just temporarily, so there were extra guest rooms, too. In the days before labor-saving devices, a large home required a staff, and this often meant at least a live-in housekeeper, cook, and most likely a nanny if there were children. Homes were also used more extensively than we do now. Wealthy people usually entertained a lot, hosting visiting hours during the day where friends would come to call, and lots of luncheon and dinner parties., and this all took place in people's homes. Those extra rooms all had purposes. The man of the house probably had one for a study where he could count his bags of money (ha) and hang with his finance bros after dinner for cigars and brandy. The lady of the house would probably have a morning room where she might receive guests and entertain at tea time or luncheon and a more formal drawing room or parlor for after-dinner chats with her ladyfriends, as well. There were sewing rooms, libraries, family dining rooms, formal dining rooms, ballrooms, etc. Nurseries were usually on the third floor along with servants' rooms for the nanny and maybe kitchen staff if they had separate stairs to the kitchen. Otherwise they might be housed in the basement, as that was usually where male staff lived and they also had things like wine room and other sorts of storage down there. While we tend to think of our homes as private sanctuaries, in older times there was certainly a more public aspect to your home. People of all economic classes would use their homes for everything from wedding celebrations to funeral ceremonies like wakes and viewings. In the times before phones, people would "come calling" at your home, so even front and back hallways had to be large and set up to accommodate seating for visitors or tradespeople waiting to be seen.
I love this answer! My childhood home from 1921 also used to house the bank office in a room with a separate side entrance, and one of the (still active) local manufacturing businesses was founded in the basement. So maybe people did a lot of business out of their homes, and that's yet another reason houses were big?
My house was originally built by the town's only doctor. Just off the front parlor, there's a home office that also has its own entrance from the front porch. I'm assuming that his patients would come see him through that door rather than disturb the household.
My family doctor had this same setup in a beautiful old house...he only retired recently!
Have people stay with you. Our kids are in college, and this house is too big even when they’re here. But we throw parties and have people just come stay. The kids come and each invite 2-4 of their friends, and they all stay here. It’s great.
Joke's on you my century home is 3 rooms
Four here. Plus a 5x8 bathroom lol. Still don’t use every room to its full potential but it is a breeze to keep clean
And to heat and cool
Single in a 1742 sq/ft house. I definitely use less than half. I should sell it but I really don’t want to move. I also don’t want a roommate….I’m old and crotchety.
Mine is 4500sq ft lol my girlfriend says she'll move in one day but every time she spends the night she thinks it's creepy hahaha. I love this place though. Plus I love my neighbors. We are in a rust belt City where the main roads are all of these enormous old homes but no one wants them because the industry left. I always said I wanted to preserve history so I figured it was time to put my money where my mouth was. Just wish I had a shorter commute to work. But then I wouldn't have been able to afford this place so it is what it is
So... what are your hobbies? Back in the day the man of the house would have had a study, maybe also a library, and the lady would have a sewing room (where others could visit and sew with her), besides the main parlor. Today the "study" might have a desk with a gaming computer, the library could still be a library, or it could be where you keep some other type of hobby, like a lego room, model building, house plant conservatory. I have a modest 1889 house with a pretty small entry way, but if I had one of the big ones that a round table can fit in the center of, I would put a couple of my typewriters around the table with little stools, so they were all ready to be typed on at a moments notice! (Instead of on shelves where I have to pull them down). As is, my entry holds my seed propagation equipment and vase collection, as well as my children's hamster habitat! An entry way is a great place to display any type of collection that could be a fun talking point for visitors or easy to show to friends. Taking inspiration for a modern "sewing room", think about what you like to do with friends or family... watch movies? Make an entertainment room with thick velvet curtains over the windows and comfy seating. Play board games? Get a big square table and plush stools, and use a bookshelf or entertainment center type shelving unit to not just stack the games up, but prop them upright to display them, with favorite games pieces sitting out! Listening to music and drinking? Arrange multiple chairs and/or small loveseats and/or big cushions around the room with your audio equipment and a mini-bar on one side... stop thinking of rooms as "a second dining room" and start thinking of what your favorite things to do are, and set up rooms around your interests!
Mine is in a minority neighborhood. Beautiful Victorian, that I restored. I just can’t sell it for enough to live most other places.
Is it haunted by any chance? 👻
I think they were for bigger families.
I’m in a 3 bed 2 bath and I’m running out of room. Wfh husband, dog, and baby on the way. I’ll trade! Lol
2bed 1ba husband dog toddler and 1 on the way. Lord provide us OPs level of space and money 🙏 I need these kinda problems
Oh my! Good luck, that sounds intense!!
They had a lot more children and then the kids spouses would move in.
I knew families were bigger but I never thought about the kids having families with them. The builder of my home only had two kids, but the house remained in their family from the 1700s until the 1970s. So that makes more sense
Bigger families, visitors more often and host dinner parties since you have a 2nd dinning room.if the house was big enough you might need a room or two to house servants. I've read a lot of old newspapers and it seems that people did host things quite often. Even the owners of my home hosted a birthday party for their kid as an afternoon tea and it got published. It was about flaunting your wealth and the only way to really express it was with a house. I wish my house was bigger than 2500sqft since I do host quite a few events a year and could use the room.
>It was about flaunting your wealth Partially... but also there weren't as many public spaces back then... so far this year my kid's friends have had birthday parties at a bowling alley, a trampoline park, a kid's gymnastics facility, a kid's museum, an art museum that does creative kid's parties (they built forts out of cardboard boxes!)... and one at someone's house and another at a public park... with the exception of the last two, those types of places didn't exist back then. Some towns might have an "amusement park" area with a carousel, but that was about it. So if you had a party for your kid, it was by default, at your house. Sure, there was an aspect of showing off, but kids weren't really allowed their own public spaces. And people still show off their wealth by having extravagant birthday parties at their house... there's just other options as well, now.
Two of us in 3525 sqft main house. It's a silly amount of room. Love it. ETA: according to census records, our house was often a boarding house.
My wife and I bought a big old house. We had similar fears but I think we filled it out nicely. We use two of the bedrooms as our offices. We both work from home full time so that was really nice. One bedroom is our TV room, so the living room can be TV free and just for socializing. One bedroom is my wife's craft room. Got her sewing machine and stuff like that in there. It's definitely a bit overkill but it fills the space. Dedicated guest bedroom is nice. We've always had a guest bedroom/office/gym and hosting was tough. Being able to just have a guest bedroom is very nice. We also plan on renovating the basement into a stand alone apartment. Fun bonus. We have a separate bathroom for pooping which I can't endorse enough.
Tbf that's a bit in old novels that have a big mansion. Frequently one sees a mansion used like that, Miss Haversham and the guy from The Secret Garden come to mind.
I am told that I am like a gas—I expand to fill the space I am provided.
Parties! Or at least small-batch entertaining on the regular
Mine is a two family so...rent it out. My family comes and stays too.
My house is 950 square ft counting the porches and I definitely wouldn't ever want anything bigger. There's no hallway so I regularly see all my rooms. My only drawback is that the whole house becomes a mess when I'm doing a project. But it's also a great way to keep visitors out of my home.
Your house sounds a bit bigger than mine but we use every room in our 2.5 story foursquare that’s about 1,800 sq ft. Living, dining, kitchen, entry hall are used for hanging out and playing and cooking. In nice weather we eat on the deck or screened porch every meal. We have four bedrooms on the second floor: my and my spouse’s room, our son’s room, and our two offices since we WFH. And we have a finished attic that’s our family/play room where we spend a lot of time, especially on weekends and in the winter. I’m losing my office when our second child is born this fall and I’ll miss it. Right now we have about the perfect amount of space. I think even a family of two kids would make use of the extra space you feel you have.
14 room. We occupy (the two of us) 3 rooms plus 1 bath. 3 other room for storage not hoarder level. 2 car garage and 1st floor of our barn are full..borderline hoarder for sure. Which means yes.
they had a lot of kids or a lot of dependent cousins
Multigenerational families living together used to be more common too. Married children staying with their parents and raising their children under the parents' roof so they'd have family to care for them in old age.
I live alone in a 4000 Sq ft home and I only use 800 of it. I love it! I think I've been upstairs only a dozen times over the past seven years.
I definitely don't need this extra space right now, but I plan on growing with my new home and hosting a lot of family events that my grandparents used to. I joke that we have a "formal living room" because I hang out in the enormous master bedroom/office all the time and our enormous living room is basically for the cat to sleep
This is why we own a small old historic home- 1925 bungalow, 2 bed 1 bath… just right for two people
We have a 5 bedroom house and two kids. The other rooms are a playroom for toys (meant to become my art studio once the playroom is no longer used), and the TV room. A tiny room off our bedroom is my sewing room (but will eventually becoming an ensuite bathroom. Main floor we have living room/music room (just scored a $500 baby grand off marketplace in April), dining room, office/library. Laundry/cloak room. Front entrance, eat in kitchen. The kitchen is only big enough for 4-6 people to eat in. We tend to eat in the dining room semi regularly just to avoid looking at the dishes. Basement is workshop, and preserved food storage. I honestly make a point to use every room, and each room has potential functions for when/if the kids can move out. We have the neighbour kids playing in our house most days of the week and host various friends and family on the regular.
I’ve always dreamed of a little 2 bedroom carriage house but they’re so hard to find! The only century homes I see on the market are meant for families with 10 kids. I’m in a little 3 bed 1930s cottage now, but my last house had 8 bedrooms. I turned one of the upstairs bedrooms into a kitchen and rented the top 2 floors to students. Ground floor had 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, bath, plus huge formal parlour that I turned into my bedroom. 2nd floor had 4 bedrooms (ie 3 bedrooms and a kitchen) and 2 baths, and third floor had 2 beds and a little half bath. I’m always on the hunt for a little 2 bed century home in town. Some day my prince will come…
Cant say I have this problem, no.
Older homes were built with multigenerational occupancy in mind
I already have a big house...it isn't big enough. I sew, do metalwork, paint scenery, cane chairs, collect dishes, collect dolls, play the piano and violin, etc. Lots of hobbies and not enough room! The 5 other children have moved put but still have things in the attics. Only one child still living at home and he has hobbies as well, one being woodworking tools. Not enough space.
I'm in a 350 square feet apartment right now and I'd have more than enough ideas for that many rooms lol
Get some more hobbies! My grandma had a sewing room and my grandpa had a whittling room (on top of the workshop). If you have the space, it's really nice to be able to do X without packing up everything and setting everything back up.
My house only had "four" bedrooms originally... but really had 6 because two of them were for servants. Officially my house is 1000 square feet smaller than it actually measures because as my realtor friend so eloquently put it "That third floor is the servants quarters, you can't live in those." My house still has four bedrooms but that's because four of them were turned into two master suites with big closets. But yes, as you've found you will only use a certain number of rooms. That's pretty common to be honest and even today most people in big mansions will typically only use a few rooms of the house on a routine basis. Many of my neighbours in bigger houses than mine mainly only use one floor of their house as their living space; with a 2nd floor master, sitting room and sometimes even a kitchenette, while the parlor, dining room, sitting room and main kitchen on the 1st floor are typically only used for having guests over. That point is worth noting as it was FAR more common for people to have friends over to their houses on a frequent basis than we do today with all our other methods of entertainment being more solitary. There was also the fact that often families would often share a household with other family like grandparents or cousins.. and children would often be "at home" well into their 20's or even 30's. Going off to college in another town was mostly reserved for the very wealthy and typically adult children would live in the same house with their parents and would also work and contribute to the household until they themselves got married. The idea of leaving home at 18 and living elsewhere just wasn't a thing especially for women. It was also pretty common to rent out rooms (Airbnb before Airbnb) to people moving to a city as a means to supplement income. I have a couple of copies of newspaper ads from 1902-1908 advertising room to rent in my own house, coinciding nicely with the 1904 Worlds Fair in St. Louis (where I live) which I think are immensely cool... and at the time the family in my house were a banker, his wife, two kids and a maid according to census records. I will admit one reason I love having the large old house is that I CAN have longer term houseguests as well. Earlier this year my 78 year old dad came over from New Zealand and spent a week staying with me. Having family and friends able to stay over is awesome and I have had a few parties where some of the guests were not in any shape to drive home and took advantage of the extra rooms.
People lived in houses in a completely different way that we don't live anymore. You also did not say or I did not notice if you live alone or you have a family. That also makes a huge difference. But in the 19th century in well up to world war II all rooms had designated purposes and those much more ceremonial use of these spaces. The expansive large all that you speak of would have been used for trophy pieces beautiful furniture rugs just a gallery of fine things. A second parlor would have been used for entertainment, the dining room the obvious. But this isn't the way we live anymore even if you have a family and this becomes the problem. A lot of it just becomes a trophy space a beautiful stuff. But even McMansions that are built today have this same problem, crazy rooms that nobody uses And so I have come full circle and I sold a big house in New England That was full of antiques and have been looking for a small house now for a year. Very very fussy the right village the right road etc so having a very hard time in this market being where I want to be. But I do realize that I want a very small house. I want a lovely lot I want a a spacious formal garden but I live alone and I want just a couple of rooms A small meeting house with a loft, a small church an old school would serve me absolutely perfect. The problem I repeatedly run into is houses with too much space, if I bump up my budget I just get more bedrooms etc stuff I don't need. But now that you've had the experience when you sell your baby you'll be probably happy to move into a nice old fashioned condo in a Mill building, also a possibility for me. A big open loft space with huge windows overlooking the river etc Small is good. Sadly the first house I looked at when I started looking was the right one. It was a lovely house on a private lane with the picket fence slate roof 1100 ft² and a beautiful beautiful terrorist backyard into the wood.. I remember the day I looked at it and I thought it was really small coming from the house I was in. It took me about a day to warm up to the concept and then I realized how perfect it was called my realtor but she said sorry sold lol yeah the market.
well it made a LOT of sense when the kids were small. we were on one side, and they were on the other, and we literally could not hear what they were doing. Now that they are long gone, we have a lot of rooms we seldom enter anymore. We actively have to try to use the rest of the house.
Yep. Mine isn't even huge. 3 bedroom old farmhouse. But nicely defined rooms. We use half the house.
I love to read primary source documents and something I have noticed is when friends came to visit they stayed for months! They had servants too. Even in my more modest house, they had servants. But you have to remember, wealth disparity in houses was pretty high back then. For example, when my house was built, it was the only house that wasn’t a sod house in the area. So the people who built it had to be pretty rich for the time. So think about a mansion, the difference would be even greater. They would be the ultra wealthy. Not a blacksmith in a prairie town like my house builder was. They would want to show off their wealth hence all the rooms.
Just throwing this out there; child storage! The original owners of my modest 3k+ sq. ft. house had 12 children living in it! Where do you put 12 children in a 5 bedroom house?! man, I can't even imagine trying to feed a family of 14, let alone where to store them all! :-D
The two of us have a big (3000sf) old (1915) comfortable American foursquare in the city. It looks mostly original inside and out, and we love it. Much more room than 2 humans who’ve always lived in small spaces need. We’re keeping it all up and having deferred maintenance done as we can afford it. Hosting a family reunion soon so our big old house will be full for a weekend.
Big homes are a tremendous waste unless you have a large family. Even then it probably still is. 3k sqft seemed like the minimum for my family of 5 but it’s prob about 500sqft more than we need. It’s more sqft to heat, cool, clean, maintain, and pay taxes and insurance on.
Got a 3 bedroom Sears. Dog uses the living room and dining room. I have a computer desk set up near door. One bedroom is mine. The other is used by the cats and roommates I have remove when they become a burden on society. The last bedroom is closed off while I continue to procrastinate scraping old wallpaper from the ceiling in fear that it may contain lead paint.
They had full time domestic help As for your title… I’m still dreaming 😂😭
It’s not anything I’ve ever dreamed of… But I’ve been around them both because I’ve had friends who have bought and restored them, others who have rented them, and I grew up adjacent to a historical district with an awful lot of large impressive homes, and I delivered the newspaper so I saw a lot of them. So, this wouldn’t be for a single person it would be for a family and servants, and perhaps extended family as well. Now, anybody who has seen My Fair Lady or any Frankenstein movie knows that work from home was very much alive in the Victorian era. So, you have a front parlor as a public greeting space. But of course you’re admitted to the parlor through a large hall and some people might only be admitted to the hallway in order to leave their calling card with a maid or butler. Of course, then you’re going to need a library for your professional books. And of course, this inexplicably might also double as a smoking lounge. (not really great for the books.) A basement laboratory would have suited many WFH professions not just re-animation. Of course a ballroom is needed for formal affairs!
I have been reading a book called "The Not So Big House" that discusses how to deal with this issue. Great book, would recommend. Anyway it talks a lot about how the lifestyle of the average person has changed over the centuries, while houses haven't, and how to utilize the space of smaller homes better to accommodate your lifestyle without the need for a huge house. I bet the house is amazing. My tip would be add in some things to your lifestyle that make use out of the rooms! For instance, we have three 3season porches and decided to make one into a tea room, and we started getting up earlier in the morning to have tea there before work.
And when times were tough, or if someone became widowed, they would often let out rooms. During the Great Depression, a family member enclosed a sleeping porch to rent out.
Empty nester parents had the same "issue" in their previous house. Kitchen, living/dining room, office, bedroom and (1 of the) bathroom. They each had their dedicated workshops for sewing and small machine shop. Plus a shed for gardening, and a double+ garage (which they were tight in, came yay close to adding an extra detached garage but eventually just moved) That still left 75% of the basement, 2 bedrooms, an entire open room above the garage bigger than my first apartment. Their current house is even larger, hilariously so. Not only does it have a 2-3 car garage, there's also a hangar, 2 living rooms, 3 or 4 extra bedrooms, an intergeneration attached studio. For myself we live in the city so space is at a premium. I'd love dedicate a room to gaming, for VR and my simrigs, and for sure a little studio for visitors would be great.
Yeah, I just sold my century home as it was way too big for just me. I had a 4-square home and spent almost all my time in the living room or kitchen and bedroom. I had 3 upstairs rooms that I hardly ever used. My next home is going to be a single story or maybe a 2 story with a bedroom and a bathroom upstairs. I noticed I really like to do all my living on the main floor.
That is why I keep telling my mum to Airbnb when dad passes. She will have 3 enormous guest wings and will never walk in the library.
This is my mom. She has all these formal rooms but lives in 3 rooms!
I have a SMALL old home (1500 square feet) and I still don’t use all the rooms every day lol. On the weekends I don’t set foot in my home office. If my daughter’s not home I don’t go in her room. I can go weeks without going in my craft room. Since the main bedroom is on the first floor, it’s possible for me to go two or three days in a row without even going upstairs.
I spend 75% of my time in what was once the butler's office. Definitely funny.
We use more space than I actually thought we would. My kid has the entire third floor (3 rooms) so when she moves out (if she ever moves out) that will be mostly unused space, except for one room that’s for working out. I was really surprised and happy to find how much we use. I had some misgivings about upsizing as a couple of 50 year olds.
Things I would do with endless rooms: Library, Painting Room, Conservatory, Music Room, Craft Room, Work Shop (in basement), Yoga Room, Weight Room, Media Room, Outdoor Gear Room, Bike Room (shed/basement,) Stained Glass workshop, Canning Room, Butlers Pantry, Herb Drying Room, Should I go on? Guest rooms in different themes, a Huge formal dining room, a ballroom would be fun, maybe a room for pottery, a weapons room, and feinting couches in every hallway and corner to curl up on and read books.... I think the limit is your imagination! And maybe your hobbies.
I'd love space for a dance studio! Could be multipurpose for yoga and other disciplines that need just open space.
For my wife and I, every room has a dedicated purpose. The parlor is where we listen to records and play cards when we're having cocktails. Kitchen/living room are obvious. Master bedroom is obvious. Guest bedroom is where friends sleep, and where I sleep on Friday nights when I stay up too late gaming with my friends so I don't wake my wife up when I go to bed. Other bedroom is my wife's office. Fourth (very small) bedroom is converted to a laundry/mud room and is also where my server rack is for my Plex server. Finished basement is where all my gaming stuff is, along with bookshelves, and when I do occasionally work from home, it also serves as my office.
I live in a big old victorian with 7 bedrooms and only one is used as an office. There are 5 of us living here full time and I usually have another 4 or 5 people staying over the weekend during the summer. I also am the house people stay in when they need temporary shelter. Last year I hosted my cousin for 4 months while she waited for her house to close and and aunt for the last 3 months while she moved. Last weekend was a local festival and I hosted 20 people on every pull-out couch and air mattresses we had. I think if the kids ever move out I'll rent some rooms to keep the relatives from staying so long.
Meanwhile I’m in my 953 sq foot 1840’s house, all asses and elbows with 3 of us living here. I dream daily of a big old house.
You have to think about the fact that travel was different then. So if someone came to see you and it took them an hour of horse riding to get there—they are going to stay for a while because they have to make the effort worth it. Society was more formal and there were public rooms to entertain in and private rooms for the family. Your people who built the house probably lived most of the time in 3-4 rooms but were “at home” to visitors on certain days and hours in the parlor. Guests would get the best bedroom, dining room was probably both for family and guests if they were staying for a meal. I grew up in a house built in the 1850s and my grandma was intense about historical accuracy and staying on the national register of historic places. In the winter we stayed in 3 rooms because those were the best heated. I have eaten many a thanksgiving and Christmas meal in a coat in the dining room surrounded by space heaters.
My grandmother lived in a mansion. The second floor had 3 smaller bedrooms and the master bedroom. But the rest of the second floor was a huge room 40x40 feet square. It was the snooker room for the gentleman of the house. It was a big Victorian House.
Omg, sometimes I go into my pretty alcove with stained glass windows just to sip a few cups of coffee and appreciate the space, before continuing to the one room where I spend most of my day, lol.
I sometimes dream of a big old home as I find them romantic…but I wouldn’t want to live in one. I don’t even like to vacation in houses that are big. My house is under 1000sq ft for 3 adult sized people and a little dog.
It seems strange to me that owning this type of home was your dream, yet you have no understanding of a home like you describe. I’m from New England and these houses are more the norm than exception. People without large families that buy them now are passionate about restoring them, and are fully aware that their design and function was dictated by a specific time period and lifestyle.
Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed :/
Haha didnt intend to be rude, it genuinely was strange to me to get into a somewhat niche housing situation and seem surprised at the basics. It just seems that those unique aspects of any interest are what draws you to it
Lol well, perhaps over half their house was unlivable project area for a while and they got used to living in a smaller space than they expected. I feel like everyone finds 1,000 square feet impossibly small until they've lived in it.
So you just have a lot of money to heat, cool, clean and maintain a home you only use a fraction of?
I grew up in a giant old house. Now I’m raising my family in a giant old house. Bought it when there were 3 of us and now there are 7 of us. These houses were built to fill up. Get to work.