Need help finding old privy

[Red Dirt Relics]

I'm new to this forum. I need help finding an old privy for my circa 1900 one room schoolhouse property. I've gotten my hands on a soil probe as of yesterday, and looked hard, even dug a test hole and still couldn't find it. Got any ideas or tips? I've never dug a privy before so I need guidance if anyone has some wisdom to share!

 

[Ghostown]

Type in search bar on this site. How to find an Outhouse Site. There is a thread on such topic. May help you.

 

[markinmichigan]

Just detect the entire property, chances are it's behind the building. Smarter minds will chime in

 

[Red Dirt Relics]

I gridded the back real good with the probe and dug a test hole in a spot where it sank almost down to the handle (4 footer). I didn't find anything though and sweated for an hour test digging. After about 70 feet it goes to woods and brush so I'm assuming it's back there which is no fun especially during poison ivy and tick season. There's a 3 foot wide foundation with a pipe going down in the center of the floor back there so I'm assuming it might've been a newer privy added later on? I'm looking for the original turn of the century privy though but it may be close to the potential newer privy I'm seeing back there.

 

[Red Dirt Relics]

I'm assuming organizations like the WPA made cleaner and better outhouses for rural one room schools so that may be what I'm seeing back there but it also could be something entirely different.

 

[Iggyks]

I heard they were usually downwind from the house, or school in this case.

 

[Red Dirt Relics]

I heard they were usually downwind from the house, or school in this case.

Yeah the area I was talking about with the concrete foundation is downwind 100 feet behind the schoolhouse like northeast but, that concrete foundation didn't have anything to do with the original 1900s outhouse but, it could be nearby.

 

[FocusSpeed]

This might help you. https://focusspeed.com/finding-privy-tips/
Dennis, who wrote the article, has helped me narrow down really hard privies to find.

 

[ringsandthings]

Old Sanborn fire maps,located through Google ,will show them.

 

[Red Dirt Relics]

Old Sanborn fire maps,located through Google ,will show them.

I'm 7 miles from town, this is a rural schoolhouse, so fire insurance maps won't show it because they only show populated areas.

 

[Red Dirt Relics]

I'm pretty sure it's in the wooded area with poison ivy and that nature has taken it over, so I'll have to maybe go back there in the winter time

 

[ringsandthings]

I'm pretty sure it's in the wooded area with poison ivy and that nature has taken it over, so I'll have to maybe go back there in the winter time

If the privy was brick lined im sure there won't be a huge tree there now due to growing restraints. That's all I got lol

 

[TheFrood]

From Gemini: (Note: I wasn't invested in this enough to see if the citation was a real book or a hallucination)
** NOTE NOTE ** Okay, after seeing the title of some of those I had to google the citation and sure enough
the one I Googled came up.

Fact vs. Interpretation:

• Fact: Primary historical sources from the late 19th and early 20th centuries—such as municipal board reports, historical school surveys, and early public health records—confirm that rural outhouses and school-sinks were placed on the school property, often featuring separate facilities for boys and girls and isolated from water sources (Allensworth, n.d.).
• Interpretation: Exact distances given in the previous analysis (e.g., "50 to 100 feet") reflect historical architectural summaries and public health standards (such as Henry Barnard's School Architecture guidelines and mid-to-late 19th-century state school manuals) rather than a single unified dataset, as nationwide regulatory standards did not exist at the time.
• Confidence Level: High regarding the general layout, gender segregation practices, and spatial considerations; Low regarding precise universal distance metrics across all regions before the early 1900s due to lack of centralized record-keeping.

Sources and Historical Context​

1. School Sanitation and Architecture Guidelines:
   • Source: Barnard, H. (1854). School Architecture: Or, Contributions to the Improvement of School-Houses in the United States. Charles B. Norton.
   • Relevance: Henry Barnard’s foundational texts on school design established the early standards for rural public schools in the U.S. His architectural plans explicitly advocated for locating privies at a distance from the main schoolhouse, establishing separate screened enclosures for boys and girls, and preventing drainage toward the school well.
2. Early Public Health and School Hygiene:
   • Source: Shattuck, L. (1850). Report of the Sanitary Commission of Massachusetts. Sanitary Commission of Massachusetts. (Referenced in modern reviews of school health origins; see Allensworth, n.d.).
   • Relevance: Lemuel Shattuck’s report initiated the modern public health movement in American schools, identifying school privy vaults as primary vectors for disease and recommending strict distance controls between waste sites and school drinking water sources.
3. Evolution of School Health Infrastructure:
   • Source: Allensworth, D. (n.d.). Evolution of School Health Programs. National Academy of Sciences / NCBI.
   • Relevance: Outlines the development of statutory school health regulations starting in Massachusetts in 1850 and accelerating nationwide through 1906, which standardized the inspection and physical placement of sanitation facilities on public school grounds.

Key Assumptions​

• The sources referenced reflect 19th- and early 20th-century U.S. public education and public health developments.
• Formal academic peer-reviewed studies detailing specific foot-by-foot outhouse measurements for 19th-century rural schools are limited; historical data relies on contemporary state board reports, architectural manuals, and public health surveys.

References

Allensworth, D. (n.d.). Evolution of school health programs. In Ensuring Safe Foods From Production to Consumption. National Academies Press (US). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK232693/

 

[Red Dirt Relics]

Recently found out the area I suspect is the location of the privy (in the thick brush area I was talking about) is downwind where I live in the spring, summer, and fall, so I think the privy is most likely back there. Any tips on getting those weeds and brush cleared with all that poison ivy though?

 

[Iggyks]

Recently found out the area I suspect is the location of the privy (in the thick brush area I was talking about) is downwind where I live in the spring, summer, and fall, so I think the privy is most likely back there. Any tips on getting those weeds and brush cleared with all that poison ivy though?

I dealt with minor poison ivy in my yard and took every precaution i could think of but didn't rubberband the cuffs of my longsleeve shirt so my wrists got poison ivy'd pretty good. If waiting till it dies down is an option i would

 

[Brent1986]

I’ve heard a good indicator may be an old lilac bush near where the privy was.