EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: 19th Century Stoneware from Portland, Maine Discovered on the Property of the Old North Church in Boston

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

19th Century Stoneware from Portland, Maine Discovered on the Property of the Old North Church in Boston

There is currently an ongoing archaeology dig happening at the Old North Church in Boston, which began earlier this summer, and it is scheduled to continue into the fall. The dig is taking place on a nineteenth-century site on the church's property, where two tenement foundations, two privies and a cistern have been discovered. The circa 1830-1880 privies have yielded a large collection of mid-nineteenth-century transfer-decorated ceramics from England, a variety of utilitarian glass bottles and many other artifacts.

An aspect of the dig that I have found interesting is the discovery of an intact late-nineteenth-century sewer or drain tile system, and much of which was made at the Portland Stone Ware Company in Portland, Maine. The Portland Stone Ware Company is also one of the few nineteenth-century utilitarian potter's businesses in New England, which still operates today.

According to the company's website, "Portland Stone Ware Co., Inc. has been a family owned and operated business dating back to its inception in 1847. There have been two families at the helm, the Winslow family (1847) and now the Schuler family (1970).

Portland Stone Ware was founded by J.T. Winslow, who started out making pottery, clay jugs and pots for food storage. Under the direction of his son, Edward B. Winslow, Portland Stone Ware developed into one of the largest manufacturers of vitrified salt-glazed sewer pipe and firebrick on the east coast.

Edward B. Winslow

Photo Courtesy: Portland Stone Ware Company

The once large factory was located at the salt marsh in Back Cove, Deering Point on 253 Forest Avenue, Portland, Maine. It had excellent facilities for shipping and receiving via the shipping channel through Back Cove.

At high tide, sailing vessels of 1,500 tons could easily come up to the large wharf delivering raw goods and transporting finished goods. It also had two rails connecting it to Boston and Maine.

A sales office was located at 42 Oliver Street, Boston in early 1900, eventually moving to 177 Pemberton Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1959.

The Federal government took the property in Portland by eminent domain in 1970 for the purpose of constructing Interstate 295, which closed the Portland facility."

Interestingly, the Essex County, Massachusetts red earthenware potter, Charles A. Lawrence also acted as a wholesale dealer in sewer pipe for the Portland Stone Ware Company in Beverly, Massachusetts in the 1890's and early-twentieth-century. It has been reported that the C.A. Lawrence Pottery became a successful commercial enterprise after 1887, which was likely indicative for how the Industrial Revolution had influenced Lawrence, and his business, which began as a small red earthenware company in the mid-1860's.

An advertisement from the 1890's describes this relationship, "...ALSO AGENT FOR THE / Portland Sewer Pipe and Fire Brick, / acknowledged by all, and proved by actual test, to be the best / pipe in the market."

It is not clear if the Old North Church's pipe came from a retail dealer in Boston (and whether that dealer could have acquired their material as a wholesale order in Beverly) or somewhere else, but it appears that there may have been two different sewer or drain tile company's products used to lay the pipe system in the late-1800's.

There is a connecting pipe that clearly displays the "PORTLAND STONE WARE" mark; however, there is another illegible mark that may also have been used in Portland, but it may have been from another New England company, as well.

Old North Church Archaeology Dig

Archaeology Dig at the Old North Church in Boston

Sewer Tile at the Old North Church in Boston

Late-19th Century Sewer Tile or Drain Pipe on the Property of the Old North Church in Boston

Marked 'Portland Stone Ware'

Another Maker's Mark on the Sewer Tile or Drain Pipe at the Old North Church in Boston

This Mark Appears Illegible

Late-19th Century Sewer Tile or Drain Pipe on the Property of the Old North Church in Boston

Charles A. Lawrence Pottery Advertising

C.A. Lawrence Pottery Advertising Portland Sewer Pipe in the 1890's

Photo Courtesy: North Shore of Massachusetts Bay, Hill & Nevins, 2008

Another View of the 1890's Advertisment

Photo Courtesy: North Shore of Massachusetts Bay, Hill & Nevins, 2008

C.A. Lawrence Pottery Advertising "Sewer Pipe" in 1903

Photo Courtesy: 1903 Beverly, Mass. City Directory

Workers at the Portland Stone Ware Company were also known to have used some of the connecting sewer tile pipes, and converted them into umbrella stands. Afterwards, the stands were often hand painted. This was also done by nineteenth and twentieth-century sewer tile workers at companies in western Pennsylvania, Ohio, the Midwest and in the south.

The following two stands are examples of umbrella stands that were made in Portland; the first example is an umbrella stand, which is owned by my parents, and the second example is owned by the Maine State Museum in Augusta, Maine.

Portland Stone Ware Company Umbrella Stands