01.01.70
"It's no more than not conducive for anybody to ever see the bathroom," Holyoak said.
To get the fixtures, including a 400-hammer zinc-lined cistern, down from the third floor and attic, construction crews had to increase a specially designed ramp. For now, the disassembled bathroom is in storage, but the Nationwide Park Service plans to reinstall them in the nearby estate of Melrose, another filthy rich home from the same era. Historians know that Melrose had some sort of washroom in the 1850s, but they aren't solid whether it was as elaborate as the Dunleith one.
"There's some indication that they had had some sort of indoor plumbing system, but it was removed rightist after the turn of the century," Mansell said. "So we don't know what it looked like."
Willingly, however, visitors will be able to see with their own eyes the private perks of pre- Civil War opulence.
"Most people, when they think of the mid-19th century, they don't think of this kind of technology existing," Mansell said. "Even as refined as Natchez was, with people here with a lot of money, you didn't find a lot of indoor plumbing.
Source: msnbc.com