Ooh interesting! My best guess would be a spring house -- a lot of the spring houses around here are partially/mostly underground for natural air conditioning from the cave effect (plus you've gotta dig down to get to the spring anyway in some cases)
Spring houses meant for refrigeration! You’d find a natural spring on your property, dig out space around it, and then lay down a stone floor/walls and put on a roof. Since the water is coming from underground, it’ll stay cool and so now you’ve got a spot to stick the dairy where it wont spoil in the august heat
They’re a similar concept to a root cellar, which just depends on being underground to keep things cool, but spring houses were more common here, or at least less likely to be torn down after the advent of electricity, so I’m used to seeing spring houses dotted all over the landscape
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branchandroot
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Date: 2020-05-30 08:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-06-01 03:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-06-01 04:19 pm (UTC)They’re a similar concept to a root cellar, which just depends on being underground to keep things cool, but spring houses were more common here, or at least less likely to be torn down after the advent of electricity, so I’m used to seeing spring houses dotted all over the landscape
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Date: 2020-06-01 04:35 pm (UTC)