Urban Archaeology on Pierrepont Street
This is pretty awesome. Pardon Me for Asking has a cool post up on an archeological dig in the yard of a 1852 Pierrpont Street townhouse. While the home is under renovation urban archeologists Scott Jordan and Jack Fortmeyer are being allowed to explore the outhouse pit, where common household objects were thrown in to…
This is pretty awesome. Pardon Me for Asking has a cool post up on an archeological dig in the yard of a 1852 Pierrpont Street townhouse. While the home is under renovation urban archeologists Scott Jordan and Jack Fortmeyer are being allowed to explore the outhouse pit, where common household objects were thrown in to close the pits. This practice lasted until the 1860s, when Brooklyn got sewer infrastructure. After digging a hole 15 feet deep, they pulled up broken cups and plates, pickle jars, chamber pots, pieces of glass, bottles, a pair of legs from a doll, and some glass figurines. They also uncovered an old cistern. Have any readers had an urban dig in their backyard?
Photo via PMFA
Scott dug up the privy in our place. He couldn’t have been nicer and it was interesting to see his findings. We found a msuket ball, but have not dated it.
I read about these guys some years ago and became curious about the history of sanitary plumbing, but never managed to determine when new houses started including sewer drainage. My house is circa 1897, and would gladly dig in the garden if I had reasonable certainty there was a pit privy.
“there was an entire marble mantle; all of them broken into pieces.”
This is forgot! Yes, I found a huge amount of broken marble pieces, more the hearths than the actual mantles, from the fireplaces that had been removed from the house. (Fortunately, most of the fireplaces were left intact.)
My house dates from the 1890’s, but some years ago I dug-up 50% of the backyard to install drainage. I was surprised at what I found. Besides the usual items that would have been thrown out, were the things lost; coins, ceramic dolls, marbles and other toys. The yard was a dump site for old renovations. Besides marble sink surrounds and the old soapstone sink from the kitchen, there was an entire marble mantle; all of them broken into pieces. The oddest was a pile of stained glass fragments. It seemed when the stained glass windows were taken from the house they must have been smashed to salvage the lead. It certainly solved a few mysteries about the house. A simple drain project turned into a 2-month archeological dig, with neighbors coming over to check on progress and see recent finds. Of all of my restoration projects it was far and away the most fun!
I’ve gone down 8 feet in most of my garden & haven’t found anything except one kid’s marble.
When I first bought my PLG house in 1974 I was told that some people had found musket balls from the 1776 Battle of Brooklyn. I never saw one and don’t quite believe it, but the area is on the eastern edge of that battlefield, so I guess it’s not impossible.
OSHA!
***Bid half off peak comps***
For years, I unearthed artificts when I worked in the garden of my house in Carroll Gardens. I found an intact medicine bottle, a lot of pottery crock shards, porcelain shards, a piece of a porcelain doll’s face, and glass marbles. The bulk of my finds were also from the rear corner of my garden.
You can learn a lot about a society from their trash. This is cool.
My house isn’t old enough for a pit, either. But I did have a dig in my backyard, due to the fact that the people who “renovated” the top two apartments threw everything; from original bathroom tiles to Coke bottles to toys out back to rot. Underneath the rotting carpet we found all kinds of 1970’s “artifacts”. Thanks sooooo much.