Outhouses of America Tour

See all the pictures in the full article

Yes, it’s a bathroom, a public toilet, a roadside rest stop. But it happens to be an unusually stylish roadside loo, on one of the world’s greatest roads. This month, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration opened Ureddplassen, a $2 million installation near the town of Gildeskål along the Norwegian Scenic Route Helgelandskysten.

This spectacularly restful rest area features a few simple block benches of “Norwegian Rose” marble from the town of Fauske—the same stone used in New York’s United Nations building—and a lovely viewing platform of amphitheater-style steps facing the small beach and the open sea, ideal for gazing at the aurora borealis during the winter or the midnight sun in the summertime. Ureddplassen’s remarkable frosted-glass toilet building, designed by Oslo-based architects Marit Justine Haugen and Dan Zohar, has been created to evoke “a sense of poetic solitude as it complements the natural landscape of Norway.” Perfect.

 

It isn’t too often that an Outhouse can be saved from being scrapped but Hope found this Outhouse laying on its side and ready to be cut up by the owner. She convinced the owner to give it to her and here are her own words describing the find.

Hi,  I recently found an old 3 seater outhouse laying on its side in the back of someones house.  My husband and I thought it would be great for our back yard as a tool shed.  Our house is 117 years old so this is a perfect fit.  We have dressed it up quite a bit, but left the interior original.  I absolutely love this building.   Hope

The picture of it laying on it’s side is how I found it.  The fella was going to chop it up.  We painted the outside, but left the interior all original.

If you look at the inside shot, you can see a lower smaller hole. That one was used by the children. They being shorter needed a lower hole. In our Outhouse, we had a smaller diameter hole for the children and built a step out of wood for them to climb up onto the platform.

Pictures used by permission of Hope Moore who took the pictures.