When Were Bathrooms Put In Houses

Bathrooms in houses began being regularly installed in the late 1800s. However, the modern bathroom did not come into widespread use until the middle of the 20th century. By the 1960s, plumbing was becoming more affordable, and bathrooms became a regular feature in most homes.

The conversion of older houses to include bathrooms did not take place until the late 1800s. It was not until the 1900s that all but the smallest houses were built with an upstairs bathroom and toilet. Back cover, The Evolution of the Bath Room, circa 1912.

The 1870s-style bathroom is shown on top. The 1912-era bathroom is on the bottom. The bathrooms of this pamphlet look like the ones we have in 21 st century America (except, in some cases, for their cavernous size and luxurious fittings).

Although bathrooms, or their precursors, have been in existence for thousands of years, the modern bathroom as we know it today didn't really come into existence until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The bathroom didnt become a thing until the nineteenth century, and most working-class US homes added plumbed-in amenities in piecemeal fashion over time. The history of bathrooms extends through several centuries, with private home bathrooms first becoming more popular in the 16th century in a modest form.

Only a century or so ago, most homes did not have indoor bathrooms. It was only at the beginning of the 20th Century that indoor bathrooms became standard. The average brownstone bathroom did not have all of this stuff, but as houses grew more grand, you can often find bathrooms from the late 1880s and after, with a multitude of appliances, in both mansions and upper-class speculative houses.

Bathrooms such as these are so universal in homes today that we can hardly imagine a time when they did not exist. But in fact, bathrooms as we know them are comparatively recent in origin and began appearing in American middle-class homes in large numbers only during the last third of the 1800s. With a modern sewage system in place, newer homes were constructed with a dedicated toilet, sometimes several toilets.

Plumbed water was added and the concept of the bathroom, or water closet, was created.