We are located in California, and as best we can tell there were never any
closet taxes here.  I understand that someone had found evidence of a
closet tax in one county in Maryland, (but haven’t seen the evidence so it
is just another rumor.)

In our case our house had a couple of small closets when it was built in
1856, one tucked under the stairs, and the other off the top of the stairs.
There were no closets in the bedrooms.

When they reworked and enlarged the house in 1889, the new bedrooms
included closets.

By 1915 they had added closets to the original, 1856 bedrooms.

In our house we interpret the addition of closets as a sign of growing
prosperity and materialism.  In 1856 a man typically had three sets of
clothing, a woman 3-5 dresses.  By 1900 people have more clothing, and need
a place to put it.

One of our 1889 closets still has its original drawers and cabinets, there
are four hooks on one wall.  Clearly the clothing stored in that closet was
folded.

Randy Hees
Patterson House at Ardenwood Farm
http://fremont.gov/Recreation/ArdenwoodPark/default.htm

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