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thousands of artifacts unearthed behind an 1860's-era building once housing a saloon

i recently detailed the partial demolition of a pre-fire, multi-story brick structure once occupied by nicholas eckhardt, whose family lived in the building while operating a saloon on the street level during the post-civil war era and on. after the wreckers had torn down the rear section, an excavation began which has proven to be overwhelmingly fruitful. the demolition effected a 1930's addition which, when it was built, caused a slab of concrete to cover over the existing privy pits. when this concrete was broken up and hauled away, i first encountered piles of animal bones, no doubt detritus from meals at the saloon.

with the very first scoop of earth, the crunching of glass could be heard, as the soil was filled with fragments and bottles of every variety that had long been sealed into the ground. thus far, a total of three privy pits have been uncovered and with each movement of mud more bottles are unearthed, mostly dating to the late 1860's or early 1870's. two of the privies had been filled in before being concealed by the concrete, but the earliest privy was discovered at the back corner of the lot. on consulting an 1886 map of the area, it becomes clear the lot once contained a wood frame stable behind the brick saloon. c. 1886

a notable find was a pair of badly corroded but partially legible rectangular porcelain enameled signs. the first, a deep cobalt blue with fanciful white lettering appears to read "the traders," while a light blue porcelain sign reads "breakfast on / ward's / white oat." though they remain cryptic, the signs are an interesting artifact in and of themselves.

among the first bottles pulled from the fecal-infested sludge was an impressive square-shaped light green gothic or cathedral style pepper sauce bottle with a crude applied double ring. the vibrant bottle has a smooth base with a central indentation, and contains beveled corners. interestingly, it is near identical to a bottle excavated from the shipwreck of the ss republic, a sidewheel steamship that sank during a hurricane in 1865 while en route from new york to new orleans. just as the shipwreck created a time capsule of civil war life and commerce, the privy from which this pepper sauce bottle was dug provides a self-contained portrait of an early chicago saloon, providing a glimpse of the soda, ale and hangover remedies used by eckhardt and his patrons.

 

aside from the pottery jars, cobalt bromo seltzer bottles, and miscellaneous glassware, a number of intact soda bottles were recovered, fabricated variously for the lang bros., george lomax, william henry hutchinson, and joss & hartmann. these include several variations in color and mold for a single bottler's product, representing, for instance, a "w.h.h." with a distinctive overlapping crossed-bar "w" embossment, and a chicago style quart soda bottle manufactured for the lang brothers in pittsburgh by alexander and david h. chambers.

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in addition to soda and ale bottles, which are to be expected from the site of a saloon, there have been several medical bottles of interest, that either point to nearby druggists and apothecaries, or give insight into what substances were in use during the late nineteenth century. a damaged bottle of "burnett's cocoaine" was one such substance. joseph burnett (of southborough, massachusetts) named his product in 1856, perhaps riffing on the use of coconut oil, along with the attraction to cocaine-laced medicines. burnett's "cocoaine" was said to restore or prevent hair loss, using "pharmaceutical science" to stimulate hair growth. burnett was one of the few proprietors to have been a fully qualified pharmacist, and eventually opened his own apothecary in boston. burnett's company sold remedies for asthma, cologne water, flavoring extract, a freckle remover and more, but the cocoaine was the most popular, becoming one of the best selling hair preparations for over 45 years.

two nearby apothecaries are indicated by 1880's bottles from "geo. zoeller" and "h. schroeder." the first was a druggist located very nearby at 1557 w. chicago, according to record -at the corner of chicago and ashland. the latter, henry schroeder, had an apothecary at 453 milwaukee avenue.

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there will no doubt continue to be fragments and artifacts dug that deserve to be researched. as the date of construction was fairly well-recorded in this instance, the excavation was free to be approached more as a means for providing contextual clues. city directories and public record are useful for painting details of a building and the life within it -- eckhardt's occupations for instance, as a saloon proprietor, and alderman of the 15th ward during his lifetime. still, the tactile artifacts that count as trash to some are crucial for reviving the 19th century history that lays dormant in and around the building.

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