City of Boston Archaeology

20h

So…you guys like plates? The overburden in our massive privy at the Dwight Primary School in the South End is yielding a nice variety of ceramics. (1/2)

20h

In addition to some sweet overglaze painted whiteware, we’ve got a maker’s mark on our transferprint! This pattern is called Doria and it was manufactured by John Ridgeway in the 1840s. Check back in later for more! (2/2) #Boston #archaeology #digBOS #digSouthEnd #digDwightPrivy

We’re back out excavating the Dwight Primary School privy in the South End today! We made lots of progress yesterday to uncover the top of eastern half of the privy structure. Today we’re focusing our efforts on clearing the disturbed overburden covering what we hope are intact fill deposits! (1/2)

Disturbed contexts can contain materials manufactured hundreds of years apart. Some of the hand sampled materials include 1850s pottery, faunal bone, and even a tiny dinosaur 🦖 (not our usual fare!) Check in later to see more progress! (2/2) #Boston #archaeology #digBOS #digSouthEnd #digDwightPrivy

We’re starting our dig at the 1851 Dwight Primary School privy in the South End & it didn’t take long to find some walls! We started on the eastern end of the site and quickly located a corner. (1/4)

Our theory is that the privy would be separated into a boys’ & girls’ side similar to the one in the documents for the New Dwight School down the street (see our previous posts for that). (3/4)

Now we’ll chase the walls westward to try & find out more about the structure’s layout. Stay tuned! (4/4) #Boston #archaeology #digBOS #digSouthEnd #digDwightPrivy

There’s an extra wall in between what we think would be a privacy fence & the front of the toilet block structure which we think may be part of a urinal. (2/4)

Did you snag a spot on next week’s dig? We’re heading back into the field next week to investigate the location of the c.1851 Dwight Primary School privy! Read on for the site’s 20th-century history. (1/11)

Charlie transferred the property to Fred’s wife & children. The 1st floor briefly housed a new non-profit, The Project Place, which operated a shelter for runaways & the 1st emergency drug abuse hotline in the U.S. The building’s new owner plans to expand the residences with a rear addition. (10/11)

Check back tomorrow to read about our excavation plans! (11/11) #Boston #archaeology #digBOS #digSouthEnd #digDwightPrivy

As Urban Renewal took off in Boston, the loss of small newsstands & corner stores began to impact Shibley’s ability to distribute his paper & it shuttered in 1966. In 1967, he began renting out the distribution operation at the school to the counterculture magazine The Avatar. (8/11)

Even more risqué than The Mid-Town Journal, The Avatar’s offices were raided by the FBI that same year, who confiscated copies of the publication, which had been flagged as obscene. After Fred Shibley’s death in 1970, printing operations at the school building ceased. (9/11)

He named his publication after the Midtown section of New York City where he had spent time during his life as an entertainer, working with the likes of Eddy Cantor & the Ziegfeld company after dropping out of school at 15. (6/11)

Eventually, Fred decided to put his sense of humor to use & started writing about everyday goings-on in the neighborhood, including a police blotter. The paper gained popularity as a “scandal sheet,” growing to a maximum circulation around 60,000 in stores as far as Providence in the 1950s. (7/11)

Charlie, Fred, Gladys, & George were the children of Lebanese immigrants, Moses Shibley & Emma (née Abraham), who came to the U.S. in the 1880s. The family first moved to Hudson Street in the Chinatown neighborhood, then known as “Syriatown." (4/11)

They moved to Union Park in the South End where Fred began publication of The Mid-Town Journal in 1938 from his parents’ home until moving to Rutland. Born in 1905, Fred Shibley was a colorful figure, having performed as an acrobatic dancer in vaudeville shows as Fred Hayes. (5/11)

In 1912, Dwight Primary was renamed the Frances E. Willard School & new curriculum adopted to serve children with special needs. It retained this function until 1945, when the City sold the property to Boston Disabled Veterans, Inc., a group formed for military vets returning from WWII. (2/11)

In 1948, Boston Disabled Veterans sold the building to Kalil “Charlie” Shibley. Charlie & his brother Fred (father of the last owners), established a distribution center in the school building for their publication, The Mid-Town Journal. (3/11)

Remember to subscribe to the Archaeology Update newsletter before 7PM TONIGHT to receive the volunteer sign-up for this excavation! It’s first come, first served & spots fill up within minutes, so get ready! (1/6)

“I inspected the Rutland-st. Primary [...]The vaults [privies] are in the yard, & were not offensive at the time[...] but teachers say there are times when the odor is quite offensive[...] A properly-constructed flushing-vault[...]would[...]entirely abate this nuisance.” (5/6)

So as of 1885, the school was still using a non-flushing vault privy, unlike some of the newer school buildings. The privy sticks around on the atlases until 1908, though it is unlikely that they were used for that entire period. (6/6) #Boston #archaeology #digBOS #digSouthEnd #digDwightPrivy

Until at least 1885 & likely into the 1900s, there was a long brick building directly behind the school. With no indoor plumbing at the time, we know that this was the school’s outhouse. (3/6)

At 90 ft long it could potentially seat up to 32 at once like its near-identical counterpart at the 1856 Dwight Grammar School, now the location of the Hurley School. Indoor plumbing reached Rutland as early as 1875, but not the primary school. An 1885 Board of Health report states: (4/6)

The Dwight School on Rutland Street was built in 1851 for the newly forming South End neighborhood. The school taught local children aged 4-8, & had about 60 students each year. In addition to writing & math, boys learned woodworking & girls learned sewing & crafting. (2/6)

Have you heard? We’re starting a new dig next week in the South End at the site of the Dwight Primary School! Read on for an early history of the site. (1/5)

Development was slow, with larger public & community operations arriving first. Boston Schools built the Dwight School in 1851. Many residences on the street today were built later. Stay tuned for more on the Dwight School & read our previous posts on the site’s history to get caught up! (4/5)

Volunteers will want to subscribe to the Archaeology Update newsletter before 7PM this Weds. 10/21 (TOMORROW!) to get the sign-up for this excavation! It is first come, first served & spots fill up within minutes, so get ready! (5/5) #Boston #archaeology #digBOS #digSouthEnd #digDwightPrivy

Have you heard? We’re starting a new dig next week in the South End at the site of the Dwight Primary School! Read on for an early history of the site. (1/5)

Pre-1630, Rutland St. was part of the traditional homelands of the Massachusett Tribe. After the glacier receded c. 15,000 years ago, the South End was dry land due to lower sea levels. C. 5,000 years ago, the shoreline reached Boston Harbor, forming the Charles River estuary & Back Bay (2/5)

Boston was a tiny town in the 1630s & quickly ran out of room. The narrow neck of land between Roxbury & Chinatown expanded through filling in the 1700s &early 1800s. The marshy land under Rutland St. was filled in the first quarter of the 1800s, & the street was laid out in 1826. (3/5)

The City Archaeology team is heading back into the field next week to investigate the 1851 Dwight Primary School privy. Atlases show a 90-ft (27.5-m) long brick structure along the rear property line until 1895, when the Boston School Committee voted to phase out outdoor privies. (1/4)

Read more about the school & the building’s later life as a WWII veterans’ club, distribution center for The Mid-Town Journal & The Avatar, home to the Shibley family, & a youth shelter: tinyurl.com/DwightSchool (3/4)

Volunteers will want to subscribe to the Archaeology Update newsletter before 7PM this Weds. 10/21 to receive the volunteer sign-up for this excavation! It is first come, first served & spots fill up within minutes! tinyurl.com/ArchaeoSignUps (4/4) #Boston #archaeology #digBOS #digSouthEnd

The Dwight Primary School taught children aged 4-8, girls & boys, & maintained an average enrollment of 50-60 students. The curriculum included writing & arithmetic, as well as woodworking for boys & sewing/crafting for girls. (2/4)

October is Archaeology Month! ⌛⛏️ One of the most exciting parts of archaeology is connecting individual experiences to the broader historical context in which people lived. Sometimes, even the smallest artifact can tell a much bigger story!

This is one of the things that makes archaeology so exciting: even the smallest artifacts can tell us something about the people who lived here, the products they enjoyed, and the pastimes they engaged in.

Want to discover more of Boston’s history? As part of Archaeology Month (and all year round!), the public is welcome to visit our exhibits at our lab in West Roxbury: 201 Rivermoor St., Boston, MA 02132. Stay tuned for more announcements throughout the month! 👀🎉

Swipe to photo 3 to see a much cleaner, intact example from an online collector’s listing!

And just like that, a dirty piece of plastic became a link between Boston’s brewing industry, local businesses, and the city’s baseball teams.

Associated with Alley’s and Pfaff’s Beer, these double-sided schedules featured rotating dials showing game information for two Boston teams: the Boston Americans and the Boston Braves.

The team names refer to the Boston Braves, an MLB team that plated in Boston for the National League from 1871 to 1952. The other team, the Boston Americans, refers to the original name of the Boston Red Sox, who adopted the latter name prior to the 1908 season and moved to Fenway Park in 1912.

But there was still a mystery: we couldn’t find a matching label. Then, another fragment of text caught our attention: “ial base b.” Initially interpreted to refer to the base of the bottle or a serial number, we were delighted to find that it actually referred to “official base ball” instead.

A little more research revealed that our artifact was part of a celluloid baseball schedule and score counter produced as a promotional item in the 1910s, before Prohibition.

The text “East Ind Ale” led us to John R. Alley, an Irish-American brewer who founded Eblana Brewery in Roxbury/Mission Hill’s Stony Brook Valley in 1885-1886. The brewery produced several ales, including East India Stock Ale, and continued operating until 1918 (photo 2 is an image of the brewery).

The building is currently for sale, has a long standing Raze or Repair order from ISD and has been through Article 85. Currently, the demolition delay for this property has expired.

At first glance, this artifact (recovered from our recent dig at Breed’s Hill!) looks like little more than a dirty piece of plastic. But with a little archaeological detective work, we were able to uncover a really cool history! 🔎🕵️

We bought a house! Well, a timber house frame. We’ve been waiting to share this huge news with you all! We are finally the proud owners of the frame of the c. 1675 Capen House, originally built in Dorchester. (1/3)

We have been actively assembling a team of experts who will spend the next 3 years studying the building, making plans for its reconstruction in Boston, and raising the funds necessary to complete the project ahead of the city’s 400th anniversary in 2030. (2/3)