office-house

plural office-houses · alternative officehouse

1. obsoleteA building or outhouse on a farm, estate, manor, palace, etc. used for household work, storage, housing servants, etc; the office of the steward or bailiff on a manor or estate; a house of office.

   This Pallace ... hath neither outward walles nor gates ... save onely some office houses without.

   1632, William Lithgow, The Totall Discourse of the Rare Adventures and Painefull Peregrinations of Long Nineteen Yeares Travayles, section 10.444

   1 more example

   That gloomy spot they spoke of lay aside from the hamlet. In a dell, begirt with firs, you might behold a hut, and various ruined office-houses.

   1827, Thomas Carlyle, Ludwig Tieck's "The Elves"