Sick rooms in period homes?

[Becky Morgan]

This might cause too much thread drift in the mattress thread, so here goes. How many of you who are familiar with period homes have found sick rooms, usually under the stairs nearest the kitchen?

In the houses I've known, they aren't large at all, sometimes only an alcove big enough to hold the bed. In the years when many illnesses dragged on for weeks or months, it made sense to put the child with whooping cough or adult with pneumonia in the warmest room, close to where the homemaker worked most of the day. Most of the spaces have been re-used as kids' playrooms, closets or pantries.

[Drygoods]

Re: Sick rooms in period homes?

Miss Morgan,

My father once told me about the sick-room that he had as a child, it was a small closet, probably walk in size or some such thing, that was connected to his parents bedroom. This was where he slept at night and when his parents went out to start their day, he was moved into their bed for the rest of the day. Kept entirely apart from the other children, but close at hand to the parents almost the entire day and night. Makes sense to me.