Food preparation, using coal or wood stoves, was an arduous task relieved in many households by the use of bakery bread, commercial dairy products, and canned goods.

Commercially produced condiments, extracts, fruits, meats, sugars, crackers, baking powders, candies, soaps, and starches were available to virtually everyone in the 1890s, either at the local dry goods and grocery stores or through mail-order catalogs.

By the time that this house was built, fresh foods could be quickly transported to and from Riverside by rail.  The cooler room, insulated with double-brick-thick walls that extend through the basement to the ground, maintained interior temperatures lower than elsewhere in the house.

On rainy days, the laundry was hung on the porch to dry. On baking days, bread and pastries were put in the pie safe -- away from the heat of the kitchen -- to cool.

Wash boilers were brought out from the range where the water had been warmed and the clothes were run through the hand-cranked washing machine and wringer.

This washing machine with an agitator powered by a mighty hand and arm was the state of the art for doing laundry in the late nineteenth century.