A Surprisingly Authentic Bath

The replicated, late-Victorian master bathroom is in an 1892 brick manse in St. Louis, Missouri.

When Gerry and Shirley Fisher moved to St. Louis, they knew what they wanted: an old house that needed restoration but that had period details largely intact. When they found this 1892 house—its transitional architecture a blend of Victorian chateau and early Colonial Revival—it fit the bill.

While the previous owner had begun restoration work, plenty remained to be done. Rooms were lit by inexpensive, hardware-store overhead fixtures. Baths had been replumbed and fitted with cheap, modern fixtures. The front-porch ceiling had been lowered to hide the P-trap from an antique rib-cage shower upstairs.

The owners set about restoring and furnishing rooms to look as if a comfortably situated, 19th-century family still lived here.

That original rib-cage shower had been relocated to the master bath by previous owners. Now, complementary antique fixtures include a pillbox toilet and a marble and nickel-plated console sink.

1. BATHROOM CURIOSITY

Once all the rage in homes of the well-to-do, rib-cage showers sent needles of water from a circle of bars to strike ribs, kidneys, and spine, stimulating circulation.

2. A CLAWFOOT BATHTUB

A tub normally would have been the third fixture in a bathroom ca. 1890–1930, but having a separate shower and tub was not unheard of—joined perhaps by a sitz bath and a dental sink.

3. WALL PROPORTIONS

A picture rail creates a frieze at the top of the wall, in period fashion. Wallpaper in the bath would have been unusual in the 1890s.

4. GASLIGHT ERA TRANSITION

Electricity would have come to a city like St. Louis by the time this house was built; many fixtures, however, were made for both gas (shades up) and electricity (shades down), to cover unreliable service.