can someone give me some info on this ..

[cb0023]

this is an outhouse that i was poking around today. i believe it is from the early 1900's. it is in the philadelphia area. the pipe in the middle is still hooked up as i could here the water when it was flushed in the house.im not quite sure when plumbing would have been installed in this part of the city. as i stepped in the hole i went down 4 feet to the dirt. then i dug down about another 3 feet but nothing. do you guys think this outhouse was ever used without the plumbing? i angle probed and the brick lining seemed to end at about 6 feet below the ground level.
also there seems to have been a structure connected to it. the line of sealer is still present.was there anything that was commonly attached to an outhouse or maybe this was the original outhouse then when plumbing came along they just built another next to it?

 

[cb0023]

the bottom 1

 

[cb0023]

other side lol it was only about 4 feet wide if that.

 

[cb0023]

rear view

 

[cb0023]

inside

 

[Danoh]

I think it is way to close to the house to have been used as an outhouse. I also think that they would not use the same structure that they were using as the bathroom, because where would they go during installment? Also, it is closer to the house because they did not have to worry about the stich so close to the house. Let me know what you think. It is just a guess. Dan

 

[cb0023]

i thought that too. but it is defenitely a waste pipe. i could hear the water and smell the gas in it. but it is kinda close to the house. im thinking the house might have been added on to?

 

[Bluegrass]

Hell! That's pretty whacky! If the walls carry on down to the six feet level, I would say it was certainly once an outhouse that sat outside of the house. I've seen early outhouses that incorporated some crude form of plumbing sit right outside the back door of a house. I was at a house this summer that still had the original first flushing toilet sitting in an outhouse right outside the back door. There was a hole under it as well. I believe these must have been built during the transitional period between "out" and "in" for those who could afford them. Some of them had pipes that went to a sewer in the street and these pipes were still used once the toilet made it indoors (sounds like yours is still hooked up to the sewer in the same original way). That's only an educated guess.

John.

 

[baltbottles]

Well if the brick lining ends i would say its just some kind of footer or septic type tank. however you should check the two back corners of the yard as the privy was probably located there. Also shared privies are very commen in large cities. So only half the outhouse pit mite be in the yard your digging in. I have found privies closer up to the house usually 2/3rds of the way back on the property line but these are usually in older parts of town.

Chris

 

[S.C. Warner]

Hi, I was just wondering if a 'sniffer' would tell you anything. Like the kind the gas companies use to detect gases like Methane? Or would it be to many years past that now? Interesting structure. I hope you post what you find. I would think from probing you could pass from a harder layer (if filled in) to softer?
(The reason I ask is I think I located an old privy near our place that used to be Pony Express (Illinois) just brick remnants left on ground now. But historical maps show station was there. Ground is to frozen for rod though.)
Great pictures, Thanks.
I hope they leave the structure as is. Looks Historical. Do you think it could have housed a pump, for the well?

sc

I'll edit here. Seeing the brush on ground I thought the other was bucket. Now I see what you mean by "pipe" Hey, they don't make em like that out here. I think John has a good idea about the house. Maybe that is where they get the old saying...
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