The history of the bread box goes back pretty far. Using it would keep it away from vermin such as mice. Also, the wooden box would keep the bread fresher than a tin because air would move around it. Keeping the moisture locked in with the bread, actually just increases the chances of it growing moldy more quickly, as happens with closed plastic bags.
Like a pie safe. I see them at estate auctions, but rarely. I don’t know if that’s because family hangs on to them or if there just aren’t many left.
Exactly so.
We do keep our (sliced, sandwich-) bread in the fridge after the first few days, but we also toast almost every slice before eating it, so we don’t notice the difference in freshness. Freshly-baked, crusty bread doesn’t go in the fridge, but it also doesn’t usually last long enough for mold to even think about growing.
I tried this, and it works, but now my toaster is…toast. 
I think in the past (before the prevalence of supermarkets) people shopped more frequently and bought smaller amounts anyway. The bread in your breadbox wouldn’t be much older than one or two days. (People also ate more bread in general, too.) And they didn’t have such huge refrigerators, but rather small iceboxes, and so had much more limited cold storage.
Fridge bread and freezer bread tastes yucky IMO
My bread stays in a breadbox because it looks neater and there’s no room in the pantry. Plus it keeps vermin at bay (we have mouse plagues from time to time in the area)
It never goes moldy, but I only make a loaf big enough to last us two days, because fresh bread is the bomb 
Loved the whole “dark panty”. Loved that bit where he said naked bread too. Don’t worry, I ain’t in to Food Porn, I just thought it was really funny.
I’m just surprised nobody mentioned a seedy batch 
I left a package of hotdog buns in the oven of our rv MONTHS later I am out there and open the oven and the buns didnt have a speck of mold on them.
Yum! Preservatives!
I bake all my bread, but not hotdog/hamburger buns. It’s almost scary how long they’ll last. When my bread gets stale I either feed it to the birds or the dogs as treats.
ETA: I buy plastic bags to keep my bread in, then usually stick them in the microwave to keep them away from the counter-surfer dog.
StG
So your bread box has a clock on it?
We’ve had a breadbox for years. Mainly to keep the bread from getting mushed up yet providing easy access. (We have no loaf accommodating drawers like the house I grew up in.)
Actually, the microwave is a pretty good, relatively air-tight place to keep bread. And it has a clock on it.