Backyard Reno Unveils Old Well in Fort Greene
This just in from a reader: We are in the midst of a renovation of our brownstone in Ft. Greene and made a fascinating discovery in our backyard. The contractors were digging a hole to pour the footings for an extension and new deck and they stumbled across the opening of an old well. The…
This just in from a reader:
We are in the midst of a renovation of our brownstone in Ft. Greene and made a fascinating discovery in our backyard. The contractors were digging a hole to pour the footings for an extension and new deck and they stumbled across the opening of an old well. The well was below what used to be a blue stone patio and the opening was under about 2 feet of dirt. The well is approximately 8 to 10 feet deep and is made of stone. I’d like to get readers’ opinions about the use of and history of wells in Brownstone Brooklyn. Also, I’d like to get readers’ suggestions about what I should do with it. I am sure my contractor will suggest that we fill it in and keep building, but I am interested in hearing ideas about preserving the well or maybe some creative way of incorporating it into our backyard or renovation. I’d hate to just cover it up because it’s a pretty cool discovery.
Cool indeed! Any ideas? Check out another close-up photo on the jump.
Click on photo for a larger view
No question – make a wine cellar: http://www.spiralcellars.com/us/description.htm
Well, if you call it “nightsoil”…what happens with the “daysoil”…? I guess if you save it overnight from the previous day you might be able to count it under “nightsoil”…
🙂
do you have children? could make a great ‘timeout’ pit…
Wine cellar – what a great idea!
This is so cool. I love the idea of lighting it and putting over a glass/plexiglass cover.
I’d use this as wine storage. If you put on a hinged top, you could easily store bottles down there. Would be amazing for an outdoor party, you could keep bottles of beer and water and soda in there and let folks pull them up.
BrooklnGreene – I like the euphemism “nightsoil” better.
Bob Marvin: you are correct, Brooklyn obtained its water from Long Island aquifers in the 19th century. it was not hooked up to the new Catskill water system until the 1910’s.
Do you have any idea when houses in the brownstone belt started getting city water? I assume by the 1880’s most middle class dwellings had running water. In Manhattan grand houses started having running water starting in the 1830’s or so.
Yes, it is a well…but a “dry well”…it is not a cistern to hold fresh water or a well for drawing off water. It’s like a septic tank where the water in it would slowly soak into the soil.
Before a City of Brooklyn set up a sewer system, houses had a backyard septic system/dry well for both gray water and rain runoff.
The pipes going into the dry well carried water from the kitchen sink and probably urine dumped out of urinals. Poop may have been collected by a poop cart that would come around in the morning. Chamber pots were emptied into the poop cart. Of course, poop may have made it into outhouse pits and other “home-based” systems when possible.
Also, without having a sewer system to carry off rain water, instead of having yards flooded, the downspout (leader) would run to a pipe or brick duct underground which brought the water to the dry well so it could handle heavy rains. The water would slowly percolate into the soil.
If the dry well is deeply buried, it is unlikely it would have things thown into it. I’m sure Cook or Mother or the maid, if the original dwellers had one, would have been on the alert to make sure nothing of value and nothing bulky that could get stuck (and stop up the pipe) would go down the drain in the kitchen sink.
You could also then, grill on top of it at grade level.