This old building in downtown Lexington, Virginia features a small set of doors on a side wall.
I thought the little doors were a local curiosity and my own curiosity prompted a small research project. Google is quick to respond so it didn’t take long.
The old doors were called a “milk chute”.
Evidently they open to a platform where the milkman (they used to have milkmen in the old days you know) could pick up empty milk bottles and replace them with full ones.
The homeowner would retrieve the delivery (not the man – the milk bottles) from inside the house.
And if something extra was needed (not the man) or something different (well, maybe the man) from the usual order, the owner could leave a note in the neck of one of the returning empty bottles (hmm…secret messages?). Actually, you could order vegetables or bread too. The chutes were multi purpose.
And if you locked yourself out of your house, a little kid could usually crawl through the chute to get inside and open the door for you.
Clever huh?
Although home deliveries of perishable products came to a halt by the late 1960’s, there are still many old buildings with milk chutes (unfortunately, not milk men).
But, discovering little doors like this made me yearn for the good old days of home deliveries, milkmen and mystery doors.
Great find! We used to have one of those doors in the house we lived in – in the late 60’s. It was too small of a person to get through, so Mom used to leave it slightly open and the cat came and went through it too!
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I’ve never seen little doors like that before. When I was a kid, our milk was delivered by a milk man and he deposited the glass bottles in an insulated milk box on our porch. When my parents passed away and we cleaned out their home, I got the box. I love that it reminds me of days gone by. We had an ‘egg lady’ too that delivered farm fresh eggs every week. Those were the days, huh?
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What a great find, Dor! The good ole days…thanks for the history lesson…very cool.
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This is so cool! I still remember our Pine State Milk truck, especially on days when mama had to turn around to get a cooler to sit on the front porch for the milk man…lol!
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Thanks Margie! Great fun to use your Mom’s milk chute for a cat door!
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We didn’t have home deliveries where I grew up in Florida. I suppose it was too hot to leave things like milk or eggs to the elements. Lucky you to have such memories. 🙂
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Thank you for posing the question and especially for answering it! Nice.
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Thanks Jill… those little doors were haunting me so had to find out what they were for.
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In Florida we didn’t have many deliveries because of the heat. I did look forward to the ice cream man though with his refrigerated popsicles.
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I wouldn’t imagine so. At least the ice cream man made his rounds! 🙂
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My first guess was a coal chute!
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Interesting!
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Good guess Suzicate!
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Well, maybe the man. Bahahaha :). You crack me up!
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I love it that you get my warped sense of humor Cindy! 🙂
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I loveee your sense of himour :).
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:):):):)
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I’m really not sure what “himour” is, but I meant humour. LOL 🙂
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That’s pretty neat, Dor. We had home deliveries of milk, bread, juice and ice cream when I was a kid. We had a big family and got the ice cream in 5 gal. tubs!
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What great memories you must have Eliza!
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Indeed! 🙂
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My first crush was on the milkman. I don’t think I’d started school yet.
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There is something magnetic about uniforms!
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