1081 W. Shore Dr. WPA Outhouse  

A Culver historic landmark?

Culver's own Verl The Barber" Shaffer was called upon to spruce up this important artifact from Culver's past, a WPA outhouse, circa 1937.

Dr. James U. Guthrie (better known locally as "Doc Guthrie" and shown at below right with wife Betsy), who shares the building's West Shore Drive property, says the structure was constructed by the WFA (Works Progress Administration) in 1937, the same time the WFA built the Culver Beach Lodge, in the Town Park.

"According to my parents, Earl F. Guthrie & Helen Uhi Guthrie," he says, 'The WPA, needing employment, went around Lake Maxinkuckee offering to build outhouses on anybody's property that wanted them. This building was nicknamed -- in seriousness or jest - 'the Roosevelt Toilet.' My Dad had an indoor water closet under the stairs, but almost yearly roots in the clay tiles would cause an obstruction that would have to be dug up to find the offending root. So the outdoor privy was in use fairly often."

Guthrie adds that to his knowledge this edifice is the only remaining one of its kind on the lake.

"We will have applied to the registry of historic landmarks," he adds, "and perhaps they will give us a grant to restore this remaining outhouse to its once proud state."

Guthrie asked Shaffer to restore the "noble building" with a fresh coat of paint (adding his wife, Betsy, "Thinks that I am crazy"),

noting he added the "graffiti of its day" to the building ("JUG+ BMG') to the outhouse circa 1970

noting he added the "graffiti of its day" to the building ("JUG+ BMG') to the outhouse circa 1970, and asked Shaffer to "sign your famous signature, 'Verl the Barber' on it for us." Verl was only too happy to cornply.

28 Oct 2010 - Culver Citizen

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The WPA Outhouse

O'ehnemaheo'o
(The Story of the Outhouse)

This is Charles Eagle Plume's recounting of the history of our outhouse...

This outhouse or "backyard privy" was built by the W.P.A. in 1930, when the great depression was putting thousands of men out of work.

So the President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his far sighted wisdom, created the W.P.A., a work project agency to give men employment. Among the many fine things they did was to pave our highway which for years had been only a simple dirt road. But to keep the men employed, as soon as the job on the highway was finished then men would tear it up and repave it, again, and again, and again, and again, which was ruining our business since it depended on tourist travel. So in desperation I wrote a letter directly to President Roosevelt, saying "What we country people need is not a new highway every week, but clean, non-smelling, fly-free outhouses", because in those days outhouses were notoriously bad smelling and fly infested, spreading small pox, chicken pox, measles, and typhoid. In due time I was called upon by some typical government workers, dressed in blue serge suits, white shirts and correct neckties who said to me in great awe, "We have a letter directly from the President instructing us to build you an outhouse. Where do you want it built?". I took them to a spot convenient to the store but where I knew the underground drainage was not to a spring nor a well. When the outhouse wa s finished the men called on me again and said "Now you must pay for it." And I in astonishment said "I thought all W.P.A. work was free" and they answered that the work was free but I must pay for the materials: lumber, shingles and paint (which amounted to $13.00 in 1930) and you can help repay the cost of the labor by reporting to our office after your inspecting it every morning and every evening for one month how many flies were in it and how bad it smelled. To my delighted surprise I was able to report after a month of twice a day inspections "no flies and no smell", to which the government men said "Excellent.

We built an experimental outhouse and with such a good report, it will be the model for all federally built outhouses, in federal parks, campgrounds, anywhere the federal government builds an outhouse."

And so, I call this outhouse the great-grandmother of all federally built outhouses.

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In 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) authorized a program whereby outhouses would be constructed through a partnership with county health departments. WPA workers often traveled to a house or farm, poured a concrete foundation, then built the structure above. This program coincided with a national movement to educate the public about the spread of infectious diseases such as typhoid fever and dysentery, while eliminating unsanitary privies. WPA outhouses were designed to allow for more ventilation in the structure, with a closable lid above the hole and concrete pits that could be drained so that waste would not contaminate nearby ground water. In all, during the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built two million pit privies.

Because this was in the midst of the great Depression,people were out of work and destitute, and because most politicians lived downstream from rural people, the federally funded Works Progress Administration (WPA) built thousands of outhouses according to a basic design developed by the American Red Cross.

This design featured an enclosed, vented pit for the waste, was fly and vermin proof and afforded a standard of cleanliness and sanitation that earlier generations would have considered effete.

The building had a concrete floor and a carefully carpentered seat with a close fitting lid to exclude flies. Although many design variations have been noted, the two basic designs were single seater and two seater.

The crescent shaped vent or peephole in the door beloved by a generation of cartoonists was not a feature of these WPA edifices, possibly because photographs might appear in newspapers in Muslim countries, where the crescent has the same religious significance that the cross has in Christian societies.

Tight houses needed some ventilation. A sort of trademark for privies was the small hole--a quarter or half moon or star cut into each side near the top for ventilation. Though no one knew for sure, most people thought the original reason for using astronomical shapes for the openings was a superstitious belief.

Crecent Moon: The crescent moon cutout and the star cutout on the door of many outhouses goes back to Colonial times. In a time when few people could read, the crescent moon was the symbol for women while the star cutout was for men.
It is thought that the men, in general, let their outhouses fall into such bad shape that it was the women's outhouses that survived the test of time. The cutout also let light into the outhouse as there were usually no windows.

The concrete floor for these buildings was pre-cast and then moved over the pit and the building constructed. This gave the owner of the edifice a choice as to the number of seats and their arrangement.

Poster created for the Federal Art Project by artist John Buczak, Illinois, 1940. The poster promoted sanitary facilities by showing a giant fly above an outhouse, with text: "Outwitted by community sanitation. Community sanitation planning keeps flies away from deadly disease germs with the ... modern approved sanitary privy.">

Poster created for the WPA Federal Art Project, artist unknown, Chicago, Illinois, between 1936 and 1941. The poster shows an outhouse in a picturesque, small town setting, with text: "Your home is not complete without a sanitary unit, recommended by the State Department of Public Health

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