Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1921-11-20
First Bathtub.
ton city

THE first house in washington SieS
to be piped for running water,
hot and cold, was the Van Ness man
sion, which was torn down in lsos 10
make room for the an-AineLican
building 1t is believed IL IT cons,
tanned other plumbing fixtures and
a bathroom, but this is not known,
and il there was a bathroom in that
old house it was not bathroom IN
the sense that we understand That
term today The great house was
built about 1920 by John p. Van Ness.
In the square i'll which the Van
Ness mansion stood and in when
the Pan-American building stands
was the log cabin, or log cottage
of David Burns. whose farm occupied>
large part of the site of Washing
ton at the time the survey and de-
sign of the proposed capital were
made. His daughter Marcia, in lSo2'
became the wife of John p. Van Ness,
of an old New York Knickerbocker
family, who had come to Washington
in 1So0-the year of the first meeting
of Congress in Westinghouse rep
for his bride good brick house
which still stands a few yards west OF
the Post Office Department building,
12001a and 1902 d street. Their only
child daughter, returned from
boarding school in Philadelphia in.
1920. and Immediately entered society,
and il was at about that time that
| the Van Ness family moved into the
great house. They had built TINS
L.. Job
| big garden. in 1hich the log cabin
stood, in which Marcia Burnes Van
Ness was born and in which her
/ mother and father died. The cabin
was built in 174S and torn down III
1884
If there was a bathroom in this
great mansion which cost $4,000. it
! was not furnished with a stationary
\ bathtub. or one into which you could
| turn water from pipe. Following
; the English custom. the great houses
| of America did not have special
i room for the bath bathtub very
1 much like a plain washtub and often
: nothing more than the family wash
| tub. was brought to the sleeping room
J and filled with water from buckets
| by a servant. The bath was taken in
that way.
There was no bathtub In the White
| House until 1850. and il was installed
by President Fillmore soon after the
\
The story goes that he saw the first
| bathtub in Cincinnati, tested it by
| taking a bath in it. found that il was
a remarkable innovation and ordered
| that a duplicate of the strange device
I should be set up in a special room in
+. the White House.
An authority has said that the first
/ bathtub-that is, regular bathtub
| into which water was piped-was in
stalled in Cincinnati. Ohio. in 1S42, by
one Adam Thompson. 1t was a large
| coffin-like affair made of mahogany
and lined with sheet lead. 1t is said
| that he gave a party to his friends
that they might examine the inven-
ton. and that to prove its worth
several of them took bath in the
new tub.
The bathtub caught popular fancy.
but it had hard time with the legal
and the medical professions 1t was
| such useless luxury that the tax
authorities got after it; it required SO
| much water to fill that the water
companies disapproved of it. because
of the waste IL entailed; and the
| doctors condemned il because il en-
| couraSed too frequent bathing. which
they claimed. was bad far ones health.
| Ihe bathtub idea spread to the south,
and in 1s43 the Virginia legislature
| lald>a tax of $50 a year on every such
tub. The city of Boston passed an
ordinance in 1S45 that there should
be no bathing in bathtubs except on
the advice of a physician. and tina
ordinance. which seems never to have
been enforced. was repealed in 1862
In 1S43, because of the growing pop
ularity of taking baths in bathtubs
the Philadelphia common council had
before it a bill to prohibit bathing
/ between November l and March Is.
and the bill was defeated by only
two votes. Various cities laid extra
heavy water rates on the owners of
bathtubS