Best guess at what this is? Privy, Food Storage, old? Many pictures included.

[bignadad]

Found this the other day and been trying to dig it out to see what we could find. My house that use to reside on the property (before the fire) was built in 1835 and was occupied by several families until it burned in 2007. My family bought it in 1980.

Anyways below i show many pictures. All the contents were found from within it. I dug the outside of it just to see how deep it would go. Still havent found out how deep yet.

We were originally thinking it was a privy, but im just not sure anymore. Many broken bottles, dishes, nails, charred wood, etc. Havent found any bottles complete yet. So far we have dug 4 or 5 foot inside and no sign of bottom. We did come across what looked to be culverts. That makes me think its not that old, but maybe culverts were made pre 1900's? I also took a makeshift probe that was about 3 feet long and still never hit bottom.

Its about 100 feet from the back door of where the house was, and about 5ft x 5ft.

The brick is not modern. it crumples very easily.

Is this worth continuing to dig?

 

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[NOLA_Ken]

It seems big for a privy, I'm not sure what it could be though. I'd keep digging, you never know what might be in there. Are you sifting the dirt as it comes out?

 

[surf]

Hello bignadad,

I'd keep digging, but dig out to the walls. Don't leave fill hanging above your head. Multiple families would explain a large privy. I don't know what you mean about "culverts."

All the glass shards you show are mid 20th Century. The good ones, if they are there, would be in the use layer at the bottom. Are you encountering ash?

Good luck.

​

 

[bignadad]

I have finding some burnt pieces of wood. but not much. just here and there

You can see the culverts in the first 2 pictures. They dont look too modern. They are what you would see under driveways to help water flow. they are concrete
Culvert - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Found it very odd they were in there.

I have a large backhoe and im very tempted to just dig a little deeper with it and break down one of the side walls. I wanted to keep the structure intact but the more i think about it, im going to have to cover this up when im done anyways so why not just use the backhoe. this is killing me trying to dig out by hand with shovels. I wouldnt go all the way down right off, just a little at a time. i would hate to damage anything that might be valuable.

 

[nova treasure]

I would think it's a water cistern with culverts channeling the water into it. probably filled in around the turn of the century to keep someone from falling in.

 

[Digger2]

My guess would be a water well also. People throw things in wells, you might find some 'wishing' coins as you dig deeper.

Roy

 

[49r Relics]

Where is it located with respect to the structure? Privys were always dug and built downwind from the prevailing winds for your part of the country. If not sure you can lookup the prevailing winds for your area on the NOAA website. Also a privy dug in 1835 would have filled completely within 50 - 100 years, sometimes much sooner depending on how many lived there or if it was ever a boarding house or way station. So, it would be highly unusual for anyone to dig a privy hole and then carefully line it with bricks in a square shape. I am just saying that it would be highly unusual. I am more inclined to agree that it was a water related feature, but once again, most wells were round. Is there any writing or marks visible on any of the bricks?

Looks like the level of glass is post-1930's so far. But with safety in mind, I would keep digging. Many of the privys I have dug that date to the 1850's did not produce period glass until we hit around 6' to 10' deep. Bottle diggers have died in holes that collapsed so if you are not trained in this, I would highly recommend you follow safety protocols for trench digging or get a hold of your local bottle club for some help.