civil war-era circular pine wood privy vault unearthed from backyard of a chicago cottage

once again i took the time to carefully extract, thoroughly clean, and reassemble the floor boards of an 1860's-era chicago cottage privy vault. the sanitary pit was covered over long ago, as indoor plumbing was becoming more readily available during the late 19th century. the house's original plumbing fittings confirm this development, being manufactured by l. wolff of chicago in the early 1890's.

pine wood floor boards, and in some cases interconnected staves (and riveted joint wrought iron hoops), are frequently found, but little remains to be recovered in terms of structural components, which were once used in the construction of sanitary privy "systems." prior to the widespread use of indoor plumbing, these were a common "fixture," especially prevalent in the back lots of workers cottages across the city.

when i first happened across a privy pit structure, i was taken aback by the lack of urban archaeological data pertaining to their existence. databases for identifying privy vault floors, and virtually any underground substructures in chicago, were virtually nonexistent - based on my experience exhaustively researching the subject matter. interestingly, when i discovered and posted my findings on a circular-shaped privy pit wood floor in 2014, while excavating the john kent russell house (1855), i then began receiving fragmentary information from local bottle collectors, suggesting the existence of other structural components -  square or triangular-shaped walls where bottles and other refuse were removed (the unbroken bottles often cleaned and collected). with the exception of some engaging stories over certain "discoveries" found in and around the chicago river during major foundation work, no further details emerged relating to the "architecture" of privy pits, since the great majority of these individuals were focused on extracting bottles for their collections.

the discovery and extraction of the john kent russell privy pit in the fall of 2014, was a remarkable find. i distinctly recall the wood floor emerge when the "sludge" was cleared away. after additional digging, a completely intact, structurally sound, and perfectly round tongue and groove two inch thick privy vault floor was fully exposed for further analysis.

in addition, several wood staves were discovered interlocked around the outer edges of the floor. the staves were held tightly together by riveted joint wrought iron hoops (akin to a barrel in appearance and construction) that were amazingly intact. upon sharing these findings with a few diggers that i befriended, it was made clear that this assemblage was a very unusual, one of a kind discovery. in hindsight, i'm convinced these structures flew under the radar because no one was actually "looking" for such structures in the past.

since that initial discovery two years ago, i've come across several more circular and square-shaped floors, but none have demonstrated the level of craftsmanship (i.e., tongue and groove joinery and/or surrounding staves with riveted hoops) seen in the john kent russell privy (and a similarly-constructed cistern found under the house's 1860's addition).

the fact that no other privy vault "system" bearing these characteristics has emerged may be attributed to the age (1855) of the russell privy vault (the oldest i've yet to unearth), when methods and materials were likely still crude and/or experimental. in addition, russell owned and operated a large saw mill nearby, was a highly skilled carpenter and contractor who built several "pioneer era" cottages - including his own, and very likely the cistern and privy vault which were unearthed on his house's lot. since the privy pit was sealed tight, and suffered less exposure to the elements, the "system" has been an ideal candidate for study. in other such privies, the wood has simply rotted away. more data is badly needed - meaning more vaults need to be discovered and documented - to further compare and contrast materials and methodologies of these subterranean structures, built from the time chicago was incorporated, to the era both city ordinances and indoor plumbing made them a thing of the past.