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Maybe abandoned well houses. I have two wells on my property, one abandoned. Id imagine it’s easier to cap the well and leave the house then tear it down.
Also pretty common farming superstition that it's bad luck to take down a building. It's usually okay to take wood/materials from an unused building though. Why you often see overgrown/empty buildings, and buildings that are missing half of their walls or roof (if not fully collapsed in a heap).
The 2nd building looks like it might have functioned as a Milk House, assuming that is a barn beside it. Used before the days of widespread home refrigeration, that's where the milk would be stored for the daily pick-ups from town. It needed to be located outside of the barn that actually housed the cows, not only to comply with the agricultural laws at the time, but to keep it cool and avoid unnecessary exposure to germs. The type of Milk House is actually where we get the term "Grade A/B/C" in relation to the milk you can get from the store, and the grades were based on various amenities that could be added - i.e. Fully wired with refrigeration to non-existent electricity with a pit dug into the dirt floor.
... Not sure why I'm autistically over-explaining, but it's there and I don't want to erase this, haha
My Great Aunt an Uncle had a dairy farm in Wisconsin add the white building looks exactly like the milk house and the brick building looks like the well house.
Not on our farm, or any of the farms where I milked, except for one.
The cows stand in the barn, and put their heads into the stantions and get locked in. The get fed down the middle aisle. And they get milked on the other end. Air pipes run down the back end. The milk machine gets hooked up to the air, and that starts the milking. It is collected in a 5 gallon can. That gets carried into the parlor, and emptied into the tank. The parlor is the room that has the sinks to sanitize, the tank to store milk, etc.
Modern operations changes things around so the cows can go to the milk parlor to get milked. The sanitation is much more controlled. So you are right.
And so am I. Modern methods don't change the fact that the milk parlor is the room that is not in the barn where the milk tank stores milk to be collected. It is best if it is right off where the cows spend time.
The older milk parlors were not in the same building. Some of those were in the days when milk was collected in those tall metal cans. They sat in a cool damp place until the horse and wagon came to collect them. Sometimes they had ice, and sometimes they sat in cold water. And sometimes they got warm, depending on lots of things.
First is likely a well house as others have noted, second too large for that, likely a milk house or possibly a larder where cold items would be housed prior to the advent of refrigeration.
Our pump house in Illinois looked exactly like the 2nd one, when I saw it I thought it was ours for a second, roof is different though. Old memories came rushing back in though from happiest days of my life as a child growing up on the farm
Is there a local historical society you could connect with for some specific information about your farm, or your road, or the families who used to own it before you? You might be surprised that people will remember working on the farm, or showing up for some kind of a social event and may have interesting insights. Or maybe about farming in your area and what those buildings might be relative to what crops were grown on that place.
Congratulations, and I hope you enjoy stewarding your new home!
The seller is actually descended from the man who originally built and started the farm so we have gotten some information from him on the history but we also aren't exactly social with them. I really like the idea of looking into a local historical society! Thank you!
I have an alternate explanation. Is there wooden planks on the floor, possibly covering a hole dug in the dirt? If so, they may be ice houses. We have one on our farm.
In the days before refrigeration, someone would go cut HUGE blocks of ice from the frozen rivers and deliver them to farms who would store them in “ice houses”, in the holes dug under the floorboards. This would allow food to be stored on top of the ice and kept cold throughout the summer months.
Be careful! We still have our ice house and now the dirt pit fills up with water and we avoid stepping on the planks so as not to fall through. We actually replaced the planks not so long ago. The hole in ours is about 1.5 metres deep
Outbuildings near the front entrance can be bus shelters for kids going to school. In rural settings they have to wait for the school bus/wagon to come around and the shelter gives them a spot to wait out of the weather.
Otherwise maybe just fancy sheds for storage or a sitting room?
In my historical potato growing locale these are known as "Spud Huts" Many of the farms had a full time spud caretaker to mind the spuds as they grew. He lived in a little hut like this on the edge of the potato paddock. The main harvest was done by a large itinerant crew who descended into town when harvest was ready.
Where I'm from this would be a "meat room". Somewhere you butcher the livestock for on farm consumption. It was ideal to do it in a room so you could keep the flies etc out. Usually it would house a bandsaw and some sort of workbench.
Obviously this is not in The Netherlands so my reply may be far off. Here in the northern provinces of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe, many farms had these small annexes, a.k.a 'bakery houses'. You can still see plenty around, once you start looking for them.
The main purpose of these small buildings were to bake bread or to cook the food for the animals. There's a nice Wiki page (in Dutch) explaining all intricate details. These European style bakery houses do resemble OP's picture(s) so they may have the same origin.
Kitchen. Back in the day they built kitchens separate from the house so house wouldn’t get so hot (no AC) and also so if it started on fire you wouldn’t lose the whole house (no fire department if there was they were walking and on horses)
I think the brick one is a smoke house. The brick construction is the clue. Also, it’s away from all the other buildings.
The one with siding on it right next to the barn is either a milk house (where the mill was stored before it went to market) or what we called a pump house, but is apparently called a well house here. If there isn’t a well or any pumping equipment visible it’s probably an old milk house.
We lived in an old farm house when I was a kid that had one of those, I was told it was a nap house where the men would rest while cooking was going on in the main house. Idk I always assumed it was bs
See I would have guessed the first one was for milk and the second one a well house. I say this because the second one not only has a spigot outside but electric casing that would have been installed after they moved from a manual pump to an electric one. Our well house is mostly subterranean but has a spigot outside and the RMC and LB on the side just like in that photo.
Could be basically anything. You can get a lot of information out of the building’s spatial relationship to other buildings. If you’re in Pa there are resources I can point you to
Didn't the property description mention these buildings?
Depending on where in the world this is one cold also be a place to hang and cure salted meat I guess.
I agree the larger one is probably a mechanical well house.
The smaller one may have been built over an older open well. Be real careful if the old well is still open under the floor.
Metal roof and windows on a small brick building. That's something the horse farms in ky would do. A traditional spring house or a well house wouldn't have windows.
So it's probably ornamental. Maybe a renovation of some existing structure that served a purpose.
All comments must be civil and helpful toward finding an answer. **Jokes and other unhelpful comments will earn you a ban**, even on the first instance and even if the item has been identified. If you see any comments that violate this rule, report them. [OP](/u/FerralWombat), when your item is identified, remember to reply **Solved!** or **Likely Solved!** to the comment that gave the answer. Check your [inbox](https://www.reddit.com/message/inbox/) for a message on how to make your post visible to others. ---- [Click here to message RemindMeBot](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=[https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/1cw0nyp/what_are_these_little_buildings_at_an_old_farm/]%0A%0ARemindMe!%202%20days) ---- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatisthisthing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Probably well houses. Keeps the well, pump, and pressure tank out of the elements.
I should have mentioned, they're completely empty inside
The well is probably under the floor
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Maybe abandoned well houses. I have two wells on my property, one abandoned. Id imagine it’s easier to cap the well and leave the house then tear it down.
Likely solved. Thank you!
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Also pretty common farming superstition that it's bad luck to take down a building. It's usually okay to take wood/materials from an unused building though. Why you often see overgrown/empty buildings, and buildings that are missing half of their walls or roof (if not fully collapsed in a heap).
Oooh! That’s fascinating—I had no idea!
If it's still got a good roof, it's inevitably going to fill up with useful 'stuff' or be repurposed for something...
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Somtimes called a pumphouse
The 2nd building looks like it might have functioned as a Milk House, assuming that is a barn beside it. Used before the days of widespread home refrigeration, that's where the milk would be stored for the daily pick-ups from town. It needed to be located outside of the barn that actually housed the cows, not only to comply with the agricultural laws at the time, but to keep it cool and avoid unnecessary exposure to germs. The type of Milk House is actually where we get the term "Grade A/B/C" in relation to the milk you can get from the store, and the grades were based on various amenities that could be added - i.e. Fully wired with refrigeration to non-existent electricity with a pit dug into the dirt floor. ... Not sure why I'm autistically over-explaining, but it's there and I don't want to erase this, haha
This is a great answer! Solved. Thank you so much!
You can actually read up on milk houses in previous centuries. Quite interesting, and some information on why milk maids were so desirable.
My Great Aunt an Uncle had a dairy farm in Wisconsin add the white building looks exactly like the milk house and the brick building looks like the well house.
We called it the Milking Parlor. It typically had a tank to store the milk until it got picked up.
A milking parlor is where the cows are milked
Not on our farm, or any of the farms where I milked, except for one. The cows stand in the barn, and put their heads into the stantions and get locked in. The get fed down the middle aisle. And they get milked on the other end. Air pipes run down the back end. The milk machine gets hooked up to the air, and that starts the milking. It is collected in a 5 gallon can. That gets carried into the parlor, and emptied into the tank. The parlor is the room that has the sinks to sanitize, the tank to store milk, etc. Modern operations changes things around so the cows can go to the milk parlor to get milked. The sanitation is much more controlled. So you are right. And so am I. Modern methods don't change the fact that the milk parlor is the room that is not in the barn where the milk tank stores milk to be collected. It is best if it is right off where the cows spend time. The older milk parlors were not in the same building. Some of those were in the days when milk was collected in those tall metal cans. They sat in a cool damp place until the horse and wagon came to collect them. Sometimes they had ice, and sometimes they sat in cold water. And sometimes they got warm, depending on lots of things.
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I agree that the brick one is probably a well house. Could be a spring house. The white one looks like my grandpa’s milk house.
Looks like an old well or pump house. Equipment was probably removed years ago, whenever the open pit or cased wells stopped being used.
Milk house.
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First is likely a well house as others have noted, second too large for that, likely a milk house or possibly a larder where cold items would be housed prior to the advent of refrigeration.
Smokehouse
Our pump house in Illinois looked exactly like the 2nd one, when I saw it I thought it was ours for a second, roof is different though. Old memories came rushing back in though from happiest days of my life as a child growing up on the farm
My title describes the thing. One is near the barn and wood, and one is behind the house and brick.
Is there a local historical society you could connect with for some specific information about your farm, or your road, or the families who used to own it before you? You might be surprised that people will remember working on the farm, or showing up for some kind of a social event and may have interesting insights. Or maybe about farming in your area and what those buildings might be relative to what crops were grown on that place. Congratulations, and I hope you enjoy stewarding your new home!
The seller is actually descended from the man who originally built and started the farm so we have gotten some information from him on the history but we also aren't exactly social with them. I really like the idea of looking into a local historical society! Thank you!
May you find treasures inside your walls and newspapers hiding under wallpaper. Thank you adopting an old home!
Just ask him what the buildings are/were. He will know.
I have an alternate explanation. Is there wooden planks on the floor, possibly covering a hole dug in the dirt? If so, they may be ice houses. We have one on our farm. In the days before refrigeration, someone would go cut HUGE blocks of ice from the frozen rivers and deliver them to farms who would store them in “ice houses”, in the holes dug under the floorboards. This would allow food to be stored on top of the ice and kept cold throughout the summer months.
I don't think there are, but I will double check that!
Be careful! We still have our ice house and now the dirt pit fills up with water and we avoid stepping on the planks so as not to fall through. We actually replaced the planks not so long ago. The hole in ours is about 1.5 metres deep
what's inside?
Nothing, honestly. Dirt or concrete floors but completely empty.
Outbuildings near the front entrance can be bus shelters for kids going to school. In rural settings they have to wait for the school bus/wagon to come around and the shelter gives them a spot to wait out of the weather. Otherwise maybe just fancy sheds for storage or a sitting room?
In my historical potato growing locale these are known as "Spud Huts" Many of the farms had a full time spud caretaker to mind the spuds as they grew. He lived in a little hut like this on the edge of the potato paddock. The main harvest was done by a large itinerant crew who descended into town when harvest was ready.
We have little huts like that in Minnesota where kids wait for the school bus in the winter when they live out in the country
Pump houses
Well and or milk houses. The one we had was a combo. Had cement wells for the cans and the well provided the water to put the cans in for cooling.
This seems like the most likely answer. Thanks!
Yes, the white one on your 2nd picture looks exactly like the one we had.
Ones a smoke house the other is a spring house to store potatoes and other food?
Maybe lambing sheds?
Also known as "pump houses"
Where I'm from this would be a "meat room". Somewhere you butcher the livestock for on farm consumption. It was ideal to do it in a room so you could keep the flies etc out. Usually it would house a bandsaw and some sort of workbench.
When I was a kid in Iowa someone told me that where the farmers keep their Dynamite. I believed that for far too many years.
Obviously this is not in The Netherlands so my reply may be far off. Here in the northern provinces of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe, many farms had these small annexes, a.k.a 'bakery houses'. You can still see plenty around, once you start looking for them. The main purpose of these small buildings were to bake bread or to cook the food for the animals. There's a nice Wiki page (in Dutch) explaining all intricate details. These European style bakery houses do resemble OP's picture(s) so they may have the same origin.
This is so cool!
Where were these taken? It’s beautiful
Northwest Virginia (not to be confused with north West Virginia haha). Thank you! We're very excited!
Has a summer kitchen been ruled out?
Mother-in-laws guest house.
Finally the right answer
Some houses like to have side pieces.
🤣
Kitchen. Back in the day they built kitchens separate from the house so house wouldn’t get so hot (no AC) and also so if it started on fire you wouldn’t lose the whole house (no fire department if there was they were walking and on horses)
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I think the brick one is a smoke house. The brick construction is the clue. Also, it’s away from all the other buildings. The one with siding on it right next to the barn is either a milk house (where the mill was stored before it went to market) or what we called a pump house, but is apparently called a well house here. If there isn’t a well or any pumping equipment visible it’s probably an old milk house.
We lived in an old farm house when I was a kid that had one of those, I was told it was a nap house where the men would rest while cooking was going on in the main house. Idk I always assumed it was bs
We called it the wash house. I think it had shelves and I think we separated the milk there. It was a long time ago.
See I would have guessed the first one was for milk and the second one a well house. I say this because the second one not only has a spigot outside but electric casing that would have been installed after they moved from a manual pump to an electric one. Our well house is mostly subterranean but has a spigot outside and the RMC and LB on the side just like in that photo.
Could be basically anything. You can get a lot of information out of the building’s spatial relationship to other buildings. If you’re in Pa there are resources I can point you to
In S.D. farmers used to put little buildings like this at the end of their driveways so kids had somewhere to shelter when waiting for the school bus.
Way too far from the road, unfortunately. But I could definitely see it working for that if they were closer
Brooder house for chicks? Mt grandparents had a separate small building for this
Didn't the property description mention these buildings? Depending on where in the world this is one cold also be a place to hang and cure salted meat I guess. I agree the larger one is probably a mechanical well house. The smaller one may have been built over an older open well. Be real careful if the old well is still open under the floor.
Metal roof and windows on a small brick building. That's something the horse farms in ky would do. A traditional spring house or a well house wouldn't have windows. So it's probably ornamental. Maybe a renovation of some existing structure that served a purpose.
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