What is this? Anyone?

[Joseph Hagarty, CMI]

Located at the rear wall of the Kitchen.

[Michael R. Boyett]

If it was boxed in with another door on the outside then I would suspect a milk jug drop off locker. Was it an older home?

[Patrick Bolliger]

Hi Joe,

Think you found a "dairy door"...
Back in them days when the Bordens (sp?) delivery man brought the milk..

I had one here not too long ago.. painted shut .

[Dale Duffy]

Looks big enough for the Milkman to get through it also.....

[Andrew MacDonald]

I think it may be an ice door where the "ice man" would deliver blocks of ice for the "ice box". Just a thought.

[rrichards2]

If there is a corresponding door on the outside I would say it is a milk drop off cabinet. My parents first house had one of these. 1950's

[rrichards2]

Originally Posted by dduffy

Looks big enough for the Milkman to get through it also.....

This may explain why a few kids on the street had a striking resemblance to the Milkman.

[Patrick Bolliger]

Originally Posted by amacdonald

I think it may be an ice door where the "ice man" would deliver blocks of ice for the "ice box". Just a thought.

Andrew, I like your answer ..

That's make more sense then my Milkman delivery "portal".
Come to think about it the building where I saw this was an old 20's hotel building converted to condos. Each unit had one of these "hatches"..
Sooo it must be an "Ice Box" for an "Ice box"..

[dgagneur]

I believe it was for the milkman to make dropoffs. My grandfolks place downstate MI had one and that is what it was used for.

Of course when I was a kid we used it to hold anything from live specimans (you know how kids are with snakes and frogs and such) to crawling thru it pretending we were discovering something. Don't you miss those days where all you had to worry about was what adventure was next.

[lewens]

I'm going with the milk door. Lots of them in Montreal and Toronto. Of course that was when you used to be able to get service.
Larry

[Carl A. Brown]

Now it is just a conversation peice!

[dhelm]

When I was a kid in Ohio (40's and 50's), the milkman dropped off milk in a dedicated box on the front porch (house built in late 30's). Most common site on all neighborhood house porches was the milk box. My vote is for ice delivery.

[rrichards2]

Originally Posted by dhelm

When I was a kid in Ohio (40's and 50's), the milkman dropped off milk in a dedicated box on the front porch (house built in late 30's). Most common site on all neighborhood house porches was the milk box. My vote is for ice delivery.

I don't think the ice blocks would fit inside that little cabinet. Also, where would all the water from the melting ice go?

[psiposs]

Where do you think the phrase 'must have been the milk man' came from. When he came for a visit sometimes the wife was home and the husband wasn't! Kids look different from the father? There you go.

[Andrew MacDonald]

Originally Posted by rrichards2

I don't think the ice blocks would fit inside that little cabinet. Also, where would all the water from the melting ice go?

Roy,Back Then the ice blocks were fairly small. (remember the Three Stooges episode when Curly takes the ice block from the street up a flight of about a hundred stairs and by the time he gets up there it's melted?) anyway, the blocks were about an 18in by 18in square and the door slot was just a pass through so the homeowner could then put it in the ice box. I have no flipping idea what it is! Who asked that question anyway!!!