Ice house

Ice houses were buildings used to store ice throughout the year, prior to the development of the refrigerator. The most frequent designs involved underground chambers, usually man-made, which were built close to normal sources of chill ice such as freshwater lakes. During the winter, ice and snow would be taken into the ice home and packed with padding, often straw or sawdust. It would stay frozen for lots of months, often until the following winter, and could be used as a foundation of ice during summer months. This could be used simply to cool drinks, or allow ice-cream and sorbet desserts to be prepared.

Cottage

A cottage is a dwelling, typically in a country or semi-rural location. In the United Kingdom, the term hut tends to denote rurally located one and a half storey assets, where on the second one has to walk into the eaves in sort to look from side to side the windows, which are generally located in dormers. This sometimes means that the eave timbers intrude into the actual living space, and quite often, particularly in new renovation, the pertinent timbers can be exposed enhancing the cottage experience. However, in most other settings, the term "cottage" denotes a small, often cozy dwelling, and small size is integral to the description, but in other places such as Canada, the term exists with no suggestion of size at all. In Canada, the term "cottage" usually refers to a vacation home, often located near a body of water. However, this is more commonly called a "cabin" in Western Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador, a "chalet" in Quebec, and a camp in Northern Ontario, New Brunswick and the adjacent US states of Maine, Vermont, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Northern New York.

Beach house

A beach house is a house on or near a beach, generally used as vacations house for people who travel to the house on weekends or during vacation periods. A beach house is seen in some areas as a status symbol, for example many of Melbourne's wealthiest residents own beach houses in Port Sea, a coastal suburb in Victoria, Australia, including billionaire Lindsay Fox.The word "beach house" also refers to any real estate that is close to the beach. In the Scandinavian countries there is a long tradition of building summer houses. In Britain, Denmark and other North European countries a beach house can be a day house, usually beside a sandy bay in a seaside resort, designed for protection from inclement weather.

Beach houses are often associated with beach gardens which a particular nature, special planting and a particular type of free time use. One of the most famed twentieth century beach gardens was complete by Derek Jar man at Dungeness. It celebrated local materials, native plants and the directness of the site. Other beach gardens have tried to create an out-of-the-way microclimate. Swimming pools are popular in beach gardens.

President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home

Four presidents of the United States escaped the heat and humidity of summer in Washington, DC at The Old Soldiers' Home on a hill three miles from the White House. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln spent June to November, 1862-1864 in a 34-room Gothic Revival "cottage" there. He reportedly made his last visit to the house, on April 13, 1865, the day before his assassination. He found cool breezes and quiet, but he brought his wartime responsibilities with him. Lincoln was staying in this house when he wrote the final draft of the Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862. Frederick Douglass, the famous African American abolitionist and writer, called the proclamation “the immortal paper, making slavery forever impossible in the United States.