I'm partial to real linoleum in places like mudrooms - easier to clean than tile floor (no grout lines), warmer on cold feet that are being de-snow-booted, and appropriate for the period -- at least I think so -- didn't lino come out around the 1860's?

Also appropriate might be a nice cement encaustic tile? Not sure marble would have been used for flooring rather than just door thresholds, esp. for a utilitarian room.

Quarry tile! Nice, simple red quarry tile. My sun room has the original quarry tile from the 20's and I know it was around even earlier. You can't get the really red stuff unless you spend $$$ at an antique tile reproduction place, but the more earthy colors are available. We went with American Orleans lava red. It is very similar to the original tile and was obtained for two to three dollars a square foot. Look in a post office or old McDonald's, if you see a reddish tile floor, it's probably quarry tile. Just make sure you seal it well before and after you grout it. This was our first tile job ever and it came put great.

Why would you think that 1860s houses always had detached kitchens and no interior kitchen? Many had summer kitchens as well, but in temperate climates, you can be assured they also cooked inside their homes. My 1820s house has/had a kitchen and the hearth in that room speaks to it since it's enormous compared to the hearths in the other rooms. It also had a crane in the fireplace to hold the pots. The old brick cistern under one kitchen window where water is piped down by gravity from the springhouse also speaks to the probability that there was a pump inside the kitchen for many years, especially since I found the old iron pipes leading into the house under that window. Then the hole cut into the brick of the hearth speaks to moving a wood or coal burning cookstove into that room. The original floors in my kitchen were wood plank. I found old bottles under that flooring when we were obliged to tear it up to replace the logs what served as floor joists and I dated them to that era. In those days, the wood plank floors were scrubbed with a brush and bucket, they were utilitarian in rooms like kitchens and there may have been canvas floor cloths underfoot where there was a lot of foot traffic. I still have all the plank floors intact in my old house, but I don't think modern 'hardwood' floors would in anyway take the abuse the old wood floors would, even compared to the wood floors of my youth.

Slate might work well

Thank you all for your words of advise!

I always forget to give more back info. Our pre-civil war house was 2 rooms and 2 stories. In 1887 it went through an addition that doubled its square footage. The entire roof was redone in slate and Victorian details were added to the Georgian floor plan.

Wow Calliope it sounds like you have wonderful details and a great house! We have found nothing that would indicate a large hearth in the walls or the crawl space. We also have a spring for water by the railroad. I am sorry to say, but I do not think we had a pump until the people living in the house had to carry it themselves.

We are very fortunate we had a first hand source for information.
I'm pretty sure we had a detached kitchen- we are in VA- and we have some pictures that show where Caroline worked. Ms. Ethel remembers her from her youth- she was over 100 when we spoke to her about the pictures (20 years ago). That puts us around the turn of the century. Ms Ethel even told us about the man who added the front portion and completely redid the roof. When the house was a 2 room 2 story building, it may have had a small cooking hearth- smaller than the average fireplace measuring 3' on the outside of the brick....so clear until the 40's most if not all cooking seems to have been done in the out building not far from the house but detached. The water pump was also located only in there. No pump in house until they put in plumbing. This of course is word of mouth;but, we also can't find any evidence on the grounds except for where the detached kitchen was.
I came up with the slate- a throwback to the roof- Buckingham slate is local to us. The bathrooms of the later era used the marble tile and I thought that would be easy to clean...I did think of brick Maryinthefalls, but thought how would I ever clean it? I had no idea about quarry tile- that is a better option!

I hope this makes you giggle Circuspeanut: I am an art teacher and you would think this is all second nature to me; but, Marmoleum simply gave me too many choices!!! Patterns, Bright yummy colors. I was simply overwhelmed! By the time I picked colors and a pattern hubby asked if the cotton candy on the floor was edible? :^)

Thank you again for all the help! I'll try to narrow down the options, check the brick and try again with the linoleum.
Heather

If you live in Virginia, it would not surprise me to have a detached kitchen. One would have to trudge through a lot of snow in winter here. I have visited family with a pump outside nearby the kitchen door and had a couple spinster aunts who were so proud of their 'indoor plumbing' and that was a pitcher pump like I have in my kitchen. LOL You have a great resource in being able to ask questions of an elderly person who lived in your house. We did as well and many other people whose family had at one time live in this house generations before and even have seen pictures of its exterior taken during the civil war and one over our fireplace taken before the turn of the twentieth century. I had a slate floor in a new home many years ago. I loved it, but it had 'slipperiness' issues when it was wet. No worse than tile, however.

I'm in VA in a townhouse from the 1850's and the original kitchen was a separate bldg. with no indication that there was an interior kitchen in the English basement; some same-era houses in the community had kitchens in both places & some didn't & some with a large servant wing attached that to the main house & incorporated the kitchen.

My first choice would be brick laid in a herringbone pattern but if you're close to Buckingham, grey slate would be gorgeous. My outside kitchen was torn down in the 30's so I don't know what kind of floor it had but it was probably wood - that's what was in my basement although I wouldn't choose it for a mudroom/utility floor.

heatheron40, slate, used local brick, linoleum, or plank treated with tung oil or the like would all be in keeping with the time period. Since slate is already used on your roof it sounds like that really would be a good fit. Keep us posted on your decision and before and after pictures would be great!

Heather -

Ha! I know what you mean about the linoleum. Well, the Victorians DID have more garish color taste than we now realize ...

Yes: pictures! We'll give you advice for miles as long as you post photos, we're suckers for old house porn.