# Spring house

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Spring_house
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Spring_house.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_house
> Source revision: 1353059097
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

Small building constructed over a spring

This article is about the structure. For other uses, see [Spring House (disambiguation)](/source/Spring_House_(disambiguation)).

A **spring house**, or **springhouse**, is a small building, usually of a single room, constructed over a [spring](/source/Spring_(hydrosphere)). While the original purpose of a springhouse was to keep the spring water clean by excluding fallen leaves, animals, etc., the enclosing structure was also used for [refrigeration](/source/Refrigeration) before the advent of ice delivery and, later, electric refrigeration. The water of the spring maintains a constant cool temperature inside the spring house throughout the year. Food that would otherwise spoil, such as meat, fruit, or [dairy products](/source/Dairy_product), could be kept there, safe from animal depredations as well. Springhouses thus often also served as [pumphouses](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pumphouse), [milkhouses](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/milkhouse) and [root cellars](/source/Root_cellar).

The [Tomahawk Spring](/source/Tomahawk_Spring) spring house at [Tomahawk, West Virginia](/source/Tomahawk%2C_West_Virginia), was listed on the [National Register of Historic Places](/source/National_Register_of_Historic_Places) in 1994.[1]

## Gallery

		- A small spring house near [Collegeville](/source/Collegeville%2C_Pennsylvania), [Pennsylvania](/source/Pennsylvania).

		- Stone spring house at [Indian Springs State Park](/source/Indian_Springs_State_Park).

		- The Brewery Spring springhouse in [Silver Plume](/source/Silver_Plume%2C_Colorado), [Colorado](/source/Colorado).

		- Photo of the interior of the [John Barker Spring House](/source/John_Barker_Spring_House) in [Canton](/source/Canton%2C_Ohio), [Ohio](/source/Ohio).

## See also

- [Ice house (building)](/source/Ice_house_(building))

- [Smokehouse](/source/Smokehouse)

- [Windcatcher](/source/Windcatcher)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-nris_1-0)** ["National Register Information System"](https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP). *[National Register of Historic Places](/source/National_Register_of_Historic_Places)*. [National Park Service](/source/National_Park_Service). March 13, 2009.

## External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to [Spring houses](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Spring_houses).

Look up ***[springhouse](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/springhouse)*** in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

- ["The Spring Cellar"](http://www.oldhouseweb.com/how-to-advice/the-spring-cellar.shtml). Retrieved 2007-05-13.

This article about a building or structure type is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information.

- [v](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Struct-type-stub)
- [t](/source/Template_talk%3AStruct-type-stub)
- [e](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Struct-type-stub)

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Spring house](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_house) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_house?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.