# URGENT privy question



## butchndad (Apr 3, 2021)

hello all
i will post about my first dig, part 2 separately but here is my urgent question:
i was poking around a site in downtown Jersey City NJ where a building had been torn down and the earth essentially flattened out.
i found some bottleshards that actually had the site address and i know that the business that was demolished was in business for more than one hundred years and it was not a business that would have made or used bottles so they had to be a hundred, and more years old -at least
my question (finally):  walking the site i found an exposed hole less than 2 feet in diameter, circular and lined with bricks.  There was nothing in it down about 2 feet and below that i couldn't reach.  WOULD A PRIVY BE THAT SMALL?  WOULD ANYONE WANT TO DIG THE SITE WITH ME?  I know enough to know i should not dig alone.  Would the best way to dig this be to dig down outside and along side the brick wall?  Based on the broken bottles found on site with this property address on it, i have to believe i may have stumbled on a "honey hole"  HELP!


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## planeguy2 (Apr 3, 2021)

Not sure that would be a privy. Almost sounds like it was a well that they filled in. Do you know if it went down deeper, or did it stop two feet down?


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## CanadianBottles (Apr 3, 2021)

Yeah that sounds way too thin for a privy.  How would the original diggers have even dug a privy that thin?  And it would have filled up way too quickly and been basically impossible to empty.  I'm thinking it's more likely some sort of abandoned water infrastructure, though I admit I've never come across something like that before so not sure exactly what it would be from.


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## hemihampton (Apr 3, 2021)

I'm thinking it's the top of a Cistern. A Cistern will have a smaller opening in the top but after a couple feet down it will widen out much wider. LEON.

Pic for example.


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## buriedtreasuretime (Apr 4, 2021)

hemihampton said:


> I'm thinking it's the top of a Cistern. A Cistern will have a smaller opening in the top but after a couple feet down it will widen out much wider. LEON.
> 
> Pic for example.
> View attachment 222691View attachment 222692View attachment 222693



Was that a cistern or a septic leach pit?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (Apr 5, 2021)

Any pictures of the hole? 
ROBBYBOBBY64.


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## butchndad (Apr 5, 2021)

ROBBYBOBBY64 said:


> Any pictures of the hole?
> ROBBYBOBBY64.


I want back again yesterday but forgot to take a photo. I did poke around with a trowel but could barely reach. I used a longer metal pole but all I could “stir up” was dirt and bits of brick or rock.  I wouldn’t think there would be a cistern in such a developed urban area, would there?


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## Bottle 2 Rocks (Apr 5, 2021)

butchndad said:


> I want back again yesterday but forgot to take a photo. I did poke around with a trowel but could barely reach. I used a longer metal pole but all I could “stir up” was dirt and bits of brick or rock.  I wouldn’t think there would be a cistern in such a developed urban area, would there?


Yes


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## hemihampton (Apr 5, 2021)

butchndad said:


> I want back again yesterday but forgot to take a photo. I did poke around with a trowel but could barely reach. I used a longer metal pole but all I could “stir up” was dirt and bits of brick or rock.  I wouldn’t think there would be a cistern in such a developed urban area, would there?



YES.


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## Huntindog (Apr 7, 2021)

If your site is over a hundred years old, than that could very well be a cistern.
It would have been of no use when they got a plumbed water supply and most were fill with garbage.
I've dug a few and some were a bust but others were great.
Take a bar and shovel and do some excavating...


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## American (Apr 7, 2021)

Looks like it has pipes leading to it like a cistern.  You need a spring steel probe.


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## hemihampton (Apr 7, 2021)

Huntindog said:


> If your site is over a hundred years old, than that could very well be a cistern.
> It would have been of no use when they got a plumbed water supply and most were fill with garbage.
> I've dug a few and some were a bust but others were great.
> Take a bar and shovel and do some excavating...




I still gotta finish mine & I'm hoping it's Great like you said? If not I know of 2 other Cisterns & a Well but hard to get my digging buddy to dig those, he only wants to dig Privy's.


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## Len (Apr 7, 2021)

I've come across one in my time, over 30 years ago.  It looked a lot like your 2nd and 3rd photos. Also filled with period toss outs at the h2o entrance. It connected with a well to do old colonial house in a developed part of a small town. One of the toss-aways was a porcelain mantle clock case, c. 1920 that was intact but without its works.  I happened to meet a descendant and gave it to her family. They actually restored it to working condition. Everyone was a winner. I hope you find a few bottles. The few I came across were smashed...


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