Farm families kept their milk from spoiling by setting crocks or jars in water-filled channels in the springhouse floor. Some springhouses had waist-high troughs to ease the burden of stooping to lift heavy containers.
Springhouses were made with stone or brick walls and floors because the constant dampness quickly rotted wood. The construction was hard and time-consuming but the finished product was durable. The shell of an old springhouse might be the only remaining structure of an old farm.
Many springhouses were two-story affairs with an upper floor that included windows, a fireplace, and a separate door. Early settlers lived in them until they could build more substantial houses. The springhouse was then turned over to the women of the farm, and the second story was used for butter making.
Early butter churns were constructed like barrels with iron hoops to hold them together, and a number of churns were operated by treadmills powered by dogs or sheep.
Built either over a spring outlet or hard by it, the spring house took advantage of the cooling waters flowing from deep under the ground. Even on the hottest summer day, the spring's waters remained around fifty degrees.
