A bathtub in the kitchen. Why?

[Radiana]

Posted: 1/19/09 at 11:05pm

Can anyone tell me the story behind bathtubs in kitchens in New York City. Maybe they are in other places as well. We saw MARRIED TO THE MOB the other night and the little apartment had a bathtub in the kitchen. My husband was curious and googled the question but no luck. Hoping to find out from someone here. Thanks.

Updated On: 1/20/09 at 11:05 PM

[sabrelady]

Posted: 1/19/09 at 11:11pm

There is a bath tub in the kitchen in "Beaches" as well, and I've seen an apartment in Paris that also had a tub in the kitchen.
I know when I visited the Tenement Museum the only "Plumbing" was the sink in the kitchen and one "water closet" per floor.
The only thing I can think of is most hot water had to be boiled on the stove so it would make sense that the tub would be as close the the hot water as possible to keep it(the h20) hot.

[Manny2]

Posted: 1/19/09 at 11:11pm

I had never heard of that.

In France the washing machine is in the kitchen, to save space so that more units can fit in a building I s'ppose. Same reason possibly? Maybe it's just something that dates way back to those days of mass emigration which for some odd reason made sence in the 30's?

[jenna2]

Posted: 1/19/09 at 11:12pm

Doesn't it have something to do with all of the hot water plumbing pieces being piped near each other?

[sabrelady]

Posted: 1/19/09 at 11:30pm

What hot water plumbing? There was only one tap w one faucet for cold water @ the Tenemant Museum.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/19/09 at 11:30pm

Pipes.

[jenna2]

Posted: 1/19/09 at 11:36pm

What hot water plumbing? There was only one tap w one faucet for cold water @ the Tenemant Museum.

Ha! That makes sense. I need to refrain from posting while trying to write papers on entirely different topics...

[Mamie]

Posted: 1/19/09 at 11:37pm

As sabrelady says, they go back to a time when water had to be heated on a stove. It was easier and made more sense to heat the water in a large pot and then empty it directly into the tub. It took quite a few of these pots to fill the tub and carrying it back and forth to another room would just cause it to cool faster. (Not to mention all the extra work!)

I remember my mom telling me that they didn't have a tub in the wc when she was little. The tub was hung up on a nail in the basement stairway and they would bring it into the kitchen at bath time. This was in Ohio so I think it was common in the old days.

Updated On: 1/19/09 at 11:37 PM

[SNAFU]

Posted: 1/19/09 at 11:57pm

A friend of mine had an apartment in Little Italy in NYC that had a tub in the kitchen. There was a board on top of it that he threw a table cloth over and viola!, a dinner table!
I also know someone who lives in a building where the passenger elevator is still operated by a rope on pulleys like a dumb waiter. Ah, old New York!

[Manny2]

Posted: 1/20/09 at 12:02am

hahaha, SNAFU, you wrote "viola."

It's funny because it makes me think of string instruments. :)

Why does noone use happy faces on here by the way?

[SNAFU]

Posted: 1/20/09 at 12:03am

ooooops

[Radiana]

Posted: 1/20/09 at 2:17am

That makes sense that the water had to be boiled on the stove. So much for the good old days, that I wished I lived in.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/20/09 at 9:34am

Many of the apartments where the bathtub is in the kitchen were built as "cold water flats" for newly arriving immigrants. The immigrants didn't have bathtubs in their apartments. Once a week, they would go down to the municipal bath house for a full scrub down. As New York began to modernize, and bathing became a private event, bath tubs were installed in the kitchen because there was no room to put them anywhere else.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/20/09 at 10:00am

And there were pipes there!

[wonkit]

Posted: 1/20/09 at 12:38pm

The kitchen was also the only room that was consistently warm, since the wood burning stoves would have been used for cooking all day long, and the fires then banked for the night.