Sanborn Map question?

[Worldcupkeeper]

Ive been looking through the sanborn maps online and I dont really know what the outhouse would be, I have an idea but I wanted your opinion. Are these little buildings the outhouses? Would it be worth digging?

 

[bottlenutboy]

i wouldnt think so....it looks like it has a road running through the middle of them

 

[Jim]

They could be privies or sheds. Privies were sometimes located at the back of the lot, along the alley like those small buildings are. Look for depressions and probe the site of them to see if they were privies. ~Jim

 

[RICKJJ59W]

Thats a alley running down the middle and should be privys to the back of the alley,thats a row house set up,what year was this sanborn? Rick

 

[Worldcupkeeper]

ORIGINAL: RICKJJ59W

what year was this sanborn?

1903

 

[RICKJJ59W]

bottle diggin will do that to ya. Rick

 

[CALDIGR2]

It appears that those little boxes are "double troubles", or back to back privies that are shared by two properties. Look at the location of the structures and you'll see that they sit right on the line between houses. 1903 is a bit late for outhouses in most communities, but not in some. Many smaller towns were't served by a modern sewer system 'til later in the second decade of the 20th C.

A quick probe at the location will tell you the situation. Get after it.

 

[logueb]

I've been thinking about this one for awhile, and I believe that they could be the back to back privies. I think that one of the frustrations of locating privies in the South is that they were shallow rather than the wood or brick lined ones up North. We used a privy when I was a kid. No joke, pure fact. We did not get "Indoor plumbing" until I was about 10 years old. They cleaned the privies down here on a regular basis. The town that I went to school in had a guy with a two wheeled cart pulled by a mule that he used to clean out the privies in town. You did not want to get behind that thing in the summer. Remember cars did not have air-conditioning and you rode with the windows down.
Anyway, if they were made to be cleaned on a regular basis the alley would make sense. You could clean both sides from the narrow alley. They may have done this due to the hot climate of the South and for sanitary means.

 

[epgorge]

Loqueb,
How far do these Sanborns go back? Would they have one for an old tavern (1880) in Carlisle Mass.? How about 1850 in little towns in Vermont? How would I get them?
Thanks!
Joel

 

[bottlenutboy]

www.sanborn.umi.com

see if they have what your looking for i think the earliest sanborns are 1860s 1880 should be easy to get if they have the town your looking for

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