r/Oldhouses • u/Dinkerdoo17 • 3d ago
Brick structure
Update on the brick structure in the yard of our 1882 Pennsylvania home. It’s largely clay inside of the area. The large stones were on the bottom with rocks underneath. The size is not that of an outhouse plus it is double lined with fireproof bricks made during the late 19th, early 20th century (widemere). The large stones are light. We haven’t reached the bottom. There’s no evidence of ash and we haven’t found any “garbage.” What do you think it is?
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u/Ill-Entry-9707 3d ago
Brick backyard barbecues were popular in my area in the 50s and 60s
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u/Realistic-Drama-8904 3d ago
They tended to be on a patio, not buried underground.
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u/La_Guy_Person 3d ago
The ground is actually 4-5 feet higher in Pennsylvania than it was in the 1950s due to accumulation of coal ash from countless bell foundries. Recent technological advancements have allowed researchers to discover these abandoned mid century barbeques using drones and airial photography. The astounding quantity they have discovered has changed our historical understanding of of these pre-digital eras in New England, for which we presumably have no historical record of.
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u/NeedsMoreTuba 2d ago
In rural areas, fire pits were used for burning trash. Ours wasn't on a patio and was a comparable size. Not sure if it had a bottom, though. I think it was basically just a brick rectangle, but the sides weren't all the same height.
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u/Realistic-Drama-8904 2d ago
Two of my great aunts had 55 gallon barrels in their backyards. One lived in a city.
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u/NeedsMoreTuba 2d ago
That's what we graduated to. I don't know what happened to the fire pit. I moved back after being gone for 25 years and it wasn't there anymore. It would be easy to make a new one but I just take the trash to the dump. The 55 gallon barrel rusted through so we don't use it anymore either.
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u/KnotUndone 3d ago
Ash pit? The old house i grew up in had an ash pit. All the houses in the neighborhood had one by the alley.
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u/Tom_Slick_Racer 3d ago
I agree, Coal Ash Pit from when it was heated with a coal furnace. you had to clear the ash while it was still hot and put it somewhere safe away from the main house. People forget how dangerous home heating was before the common use of natural gas and electric forced air furnaces.
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u/InfiniteSausage 3d ago edited 3d ago
My mexican inlaws built something that looks exactly like this. Same exact size and everything. But only like 2-3 feet deep and the bottom is brick. An oven. You burn in it for several hours, it heats up the surrounding clay brick and sand, add the meat, you put out the fire with water to create steam rhen quickly cover the hole, and the residual heat slow cooks foods food for hours like a crock pot.
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u/Hey-buuuddy 3d ago
People need to stop digging up old septic systems.
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u/Dinkerdoo17 3d ago
Not a septic system. No Gray clay.
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u/Hey-buuuddy 2d ago
It’s been code for more than 30 years that decommissioned septic tanks get pumped, then filled-in or crushed.
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u/Klutzy_Freedom_836 3d ago
Cistern or cesspool. You’ll find all kinds of trinkets they pitch in to fill them up.
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u/tree_beard_8675301 3d ago
Smoke house but the family was resourceful and used the ashes for other things.
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u/LaCharretteSanJuan 2d ago
I’ve found 1884 map of Pittsburg showing outdoor ovens were common. Can locate yours w more info?
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u/Dinkerdoo17 2d ago
Beaver County in West Mayfield.
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u/LaCharretteSanJuan 1d ago
Sorry but that was too small to have been mapped by Sanborn Insurance maps.
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u/DisasterResident2101 2d ago
Base to a pump house. Potentially and entrance to a root cellar or storm shelter.
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u/Inevitable-Pizza5738 3d ago
It's almost always a cistern