residential privy pit with discarded remnants unearthed from a 19th century west town workers cottage
This entry was posted on January 23 2017 by Eric
earlier this week a 19th century residential privy pit or "vault" was discovered during the excavation of a west town neighborhood lot, where a single story framed-wood cottage once stood. just one year ago that residence succumbed to the wrecking ball. the demolition is sharp in my memory, but i temporarily abandoned the site after learning excavation of the lot would not happen anytime soon. finally, after several months, i was able to return to the site to document what, if anything, was waiting to be discovered underground.
when the excavator reached the area located behind the house and began to dig, i immediately noticed scattered chunks of coal, animal bones and pottery. from there i worked closely with the excavator to methodically document and remove all artifacts within the limited window of time i was given (after a handsome compensation in return i might add). it became increasingly evident as digging continued that this was indeed a privy pit (as opposed to the more common and sporadic backyard burn pits) with many more intact bottles (e.g., medicinal, soda water, utility, etc.), leather shoes, heavily corroded horse shoes and other such refuse resting above a circular-shaped tongue and groove pine wood floor. the trash at the bottom-most strata of the pit dates to the early 1880's, which is around the same time the cottage was constructed.
after a few hours documenting the pit's discovery, and collecting all available bottles and fragments, i carefully extracted the wooden privy pit floor to be cleaned and reassembled back at the shop. the bottles and fragments will be cleaned and photographed as well.
once cleaned and organized, i may further examine the privy pit contents to assemble a more cohesive narrative regarding the day-to-day lives of the occupants. photodocumentation of the cottage and its subsequent death dating to a year prior will round out the saga of a building's life, which begins with the cottage itself and ends in the last remnants of residents' material, uncovered post-demolition.
john a. lomax, chicago's 19th century bottling giant:
john a. lomax entered the bottling operations in 1854, distributing soda water located at 38 w. lake street in chicago. in 1859, the plant was destroyed by fire and operations were moved to a two-story frame building located at 16 charles place. as business grew, john and his son george erected a large masonry building in 1871, which was consumed by the great chicago fire the same year. shortly after, lomax rebuilt an even larger four-story facility that was advertised as being the "largest bottling house in the world.” during their peak production years, lomax serviced more than five thousand of the approximately seven thousand saloons across the city of chicago. their bottling works furnished soda-waters, ginger ale, mineral and spring water, ales and other drinks. the company ceased operations in 1885.
This entry was posted in , Miscellaneous, Salvages, Bldg. 51, New Products, Events & Announcements, New Acquisitions, Featured Posts & Bldg. 51 Feed on January 23 2017 by Eric
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