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The Gibson House offers a rare opportunity to see the service spaces of a Victorian row house in a virtually unchanged state. These include the kitchen and pantry, the laundry room and the rear shed.

The kitchen was the center of the servants' activities. Dominated by a cast-iron stove built into the west wall chimney, it was both the place of all food preparation and where all servant meals were taken. Food was delivered to the dining room, directly above, via a dumbwaiter in the pantry.

Servants were summoned to answer family needs by way of a mechanical call bell system, operated by wires and pulleys from the first- through fourth-floor rooms. This was replaced by an electrical system early in the twentieth century.

The shed is of particular interest in understanding domestic life in Victorian times. At one time, most of the houses of the Back Bay had sheds. Today, only a handful remain. The large coal bin, located at the end of the shed, had a door in the alley side which allowed delivery of coal for the furnace. Another coal bin held smaller pieces of coal for use in the stove and the fireplaces. A sheet of tin on the shed floor just outside the kitchen door marks the place where the original icebox was located. It drained through a hole in the floor onto the ground below the shed.

The Gibson House is also of note for its intact mechanical systems. Although the original furnace was replaced sometime in the late nineteenth century, much of the 1859 sheet-metal ductwork remains. The original furnace was coal-fired. Upstairs, you will note the the air/light shaft that connects the second-floor hall to the roof. One of its functions was to assist the convection of warm air to the upper floors of the house.