At Home with the Swans: The Necessary Room

May 22, 2026

Overview of the purpose of the Necessary Room in Rose Hill Mansion.

By Heather Green, Visitor Services and Programs Manager at Rose Hill Mansion & Johnston House 

While on a tour of Rose Hill, guests get a glimpse of daily life of the Swan family. This includes where they eat, where they work, where they relax, and of course, where they take care of physical necessities. Whether it is called a cloakroom, office, powder room, necessary, lavatory, garderobe, jake/john, toilet, bathroom, washroom, restroom, loo, water closet, little girls’/boys’ room …. the euphemisms are endless for the room in which we “do our business.”

I have found that on a tour of any historic place, children are more likely to ask than adults, “But where did they go to the bathroom?” Perhaps because it’s more on the mind of children, or that they haven’t been fully indoctrinated to the taboos of polite society. Perhaps, though, they simply have not yet learned what many adults already have: using the facilities has changed a great deal over the centuries.

So … where did the Swans go when nature called? Or the Strongs, or the Roses, or anyone who lived here before plumbing was installed.

Hand drawn map of Rose Hill by Caleb Swan. Dated August 1850. — Uncle Caleb’s Map, 1850

The Swans certainly had an outhouse. According to journals written by Robert’s Uncle Caleb Swan, Uncle Caleb used the outhouse whenever possible. He did not want to dirty the chamber pots because he wanted to stay on the good side of the maids. Unfortunately, Uncle Caleb’s map – usually so thorough about the locations of outbuildings – let us down. None of his maps or journals include the location of the outhouse. Then again, when telling people about a new house we live in, we don’t usually mention the bathroom unless it is particularly unusual. Why talk about it when everyone already understands what it is and what it looks like?

Despite not knowing where the outhouse was, we can presume where the Swans would “go” inside. Often in the 1800s, a chamber pot or a close stool would be in the corner of a bedroom. A close stool is a chair designed to hold a detachable bucket, like a chamber pot. Occasionally, though, these items would be tucked away in a small closet-sized room.

Between some of the bedrooms at Rose Hill, you will see we have two small rooms set up with a wash basin, ewer, and a close stool. We call these either dressing rooms or necessary rooms. A dressing room was literally a room in which to change clothes, but if large enough, could also contain washing facilities and a chamber pot.

We do not know how exactly the Swans had these little spaces set up. Though they are certainly bigger than the bedroom closets, they were not quite large enough to be a full-fledged dressing room. Possibly, they could be small dressing rooms, but it would be quite natural to use these spaces as necessary rooms.

Hidden away from the public and not really mentioned, the rooms were nonetheless a necessary part of life.

At Home with the Swans: Breakfast Room