Definition of "springhouse"

The very suggestion of a springhouse calls up recollections of quaint, low eaved "homey" farmhouses; the simple life of old-time country homes, and the solidity and picturesque simplicity of ancestral estates. The charm of this home accessory, that was once considered a necessity from an economic standpoint—when it stood for more convenient handling and better prices for the milk and butter of the farm—has come to be an important factor in the home building of to-day. […] The useful springhouse of the farm dairy is adorned with flowering vines and converted into the most decorative feature of the homestead; and even country churches delight in this additional attraction to their church property, where the country members quench their thirst after their long "ride to meeting."

1908, Phebe Westcott Humphreys, “Springhouses old and new”, in American Homes and Gardens‎, volume 5, pages 401–403

At first light, around the time that the body of the kagan — a body that had already begun to manifest decidedly uncorpselike signs of movement — was being carried by an ill-assorted trio into a springhouse near a little-used gate of the Palace through which corpses and those who tended to them traditionally passed, the watch posted atop Qizl caught sight of a scattering of black seeds against the flickering gray of the southern horizon.

2007 April 29, Michael Chabon, “‘Gentlemen of the Road’”, in New York Times‎