Like myself, if you have ever traveled in the Topsfield, Massachusetts area, then you have probably driven past this giant late nineteenth or twentieth century piece of sewer pipe located on the side of Route 97 next to a gas station. I have never given it much thought, but I stopped at this gas station a few weeks ago, and I decided to take a closer look. Furthermore, this piece of sewer pipe is massive, whereas I could certainly stand inside of it; for example, that is a pine tree growing from the center of it.
Nevertheless, I suspect it was made at the Portland Stone Ware Company in Maine. This was a major manufacturer and distributor, where their pipe was also sold through the Charles A. Lawrence Pottery in Beverly, Massachusetts in the late 1800s. They also had a sales office in Boston. In fact, I was at an archaeology dig a few years back with Boston City Archaeologist Joe Bagley on property owned by the Old North Church in Boston, and the archaeologists working on this project uncovered a grouping of sewer pipe that was all marked "Portland Stone Ware Co."
For more information about this type of production - see my latest book, From One Town Came Many: The Red Earthenware Industry of Ancient North Yarmouth, Maine.
Link to buy the book: https://historicbeverly.net/product/94597/
Note: I have always wondered if there were any whimsical or "lunch time" or "end-of-the-day" type objects made in Portland, such as other examples that were made at sewer tile factories in Rochester, New York, Ohio, Kentucky, in the Midwest and elsewhere in America. But the only type of production that is documented today is that some of the Portland workers converted some of the smaller sewer pipe into umbrella stands, which they then often painted.
A Massive Example of Sewer Pipe Located in Topsfield, Mass.
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
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