Button Identification?
I recently moved into a ~1900 rowhouse and found this oversized “button” near our old dumb waiter shaft. It extends through the wall to the other side. A friend who lives in a similar building has the same button, but it is not near any (extant) dumb waiter. Can someone help us to identify this?…
I recently moved into a ~1900 rowhouse and found this oversized “button” near our old dumb waiter shaft. It extends through the wall to the other side. A friend who lives in a similar building has the same button, but it is not near any (extant) dumb waiter.
Can someone help us to identify this? Is it a call button for the dumb waiter, or for a servant? It’s been painted over so many times at this point, it’s hard to identify. Originally I thought it was an old, sawed off post!
We have a speaking tube. It’s just across the hall (a few feet) from the dumbwaiter. It goes from a parlor floor bedroom/dining room to the kitchen below.
Dave still hollers.
Beulah! Beulah!! Peel me a grape.
I have seen servant call speaking tubes in some houses in Lefferts Manor (holler? really?).
And most of the help stayed below in the garden level, the level that shillstoner said is best for entertaining formally.
Thanks for the information! It is a rental, so I didn’t want to “investigate” too heavily. We also have what look to be some lovely brass knobs & hardware, painted over… if there is a simple and non-destructive method to remove the paint, I would be interested in hearing it.
A gas line for a light fixture would make a lot of sense, given its location. Slightly less exciting than calling it a servant button, but I’m glad to have cleared up the mystery.
I think if you wanted a servant in the old days in Brooklyn, you would holler. In Manhattan they had those velvet pulls near the fireplace. Or better yet the little button on the floor near the head of the table in the dining room.
You could have scraped the paint off a little to give us more of a clue.
And it’s capping off a “nipple.”
Discuss.
johnife is right.
Looks like the termination of an old gas line at the point of a no longer extant light fixture to me.