My father was raised in Allan's neighbourhood. His parents and his
grandparents all lived in 18th and 19th homes with massive cisterns.
The local limestone country provided great springs and spring houses
for keeping food cool, but they always supplemented with cistern
water during times of drought. As a kid I'd come down from our home
on the northern border and work on my relative's 360 acre (sheep,
cows, corn) farm. For a 5 or 6 period (at least) in the 1960s they
experienced drought so we used the Potomac River for bathing and for
collecting clothes washing water (this is the upper Potomac, not as
polluted as it was lower down). Most of the roofs were either metal
or slate, so made clean surfaces for rain water catchment.
-Tom
