Spring house
![](../I/m/Springhouse.jpg)
A spring house, or springhouse, is a small building, usually of a single room, constructed over a spring. While the original purpose of a springhouse was to keep the spring water clean by excluding fallen leaves, animals, etc., the enclosing structure was also used for refrigeration before the advent of ice delivery and, later, electric refrigeration. The water of the spring maintains a constant cool temperature inside the spring house throughout the year. Food that would otherwise spoil, such as meat, fruit, or dairy products, could be kept there, safe from animal depredations as well.
In some cases, an unenclosed spring was used for cooling. In settings where no natural spring is available, another source of natural running water, such as a small creek or diverted portion of a larger creek, might be used. In addition, some people put jars of milk in a bucket suspended by a rope in an "open-mouth" well during hot weather.
The Tomahawk Spring spring house at Tomahawk, West Virginia, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.[1]
See also
- Root cellar
- Icehouse (building)
- Windcatcher
- Smokehouse
- Butter
References
- ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13.
- "In the Wake: Cool Food Storage (from Tools for Gridcrash)". Retrieved 2007-05-13.
- "Hopewell Furnace NHS -- Virtual Tour". Retrieved 2007-05-13.
- "The Spring Cellar". Retrieved 2007-05-13.