Heating, lighting, and plumbing provide comfort and convenience to the modern home. How did the historic row houses of Capitol Hill accommodate these modern interventions? This lecture highlighted how houses and occupants' lives changed in the decades after the Civil War. As fireplaces evolved into central heating, lamps became electrified, and outdoor privies moved indoors, new designs of row houses were called for, influenced by changing ideas about sanitation and the germ theory. This examination of heating, lighting, and plumbing looked at the broader ideas concerning public health as well as the specifics of introducing new facilities into row houses with an emphasis on Capitol Hill.
Alison K. (Kim) Hoagland is the author of several books on architecture, including The Row House in Washington, DC: A History (University of Virginia Press, 2023) and The Bathroom: A Social History of Cleanliness and the Body (Greenwood Press, 2018).
