From the bowels of the Historical Society: an unexpected treasure

FALLS VILLAGE — An interesting artifact, unearthed from the bowels of the South Canaan meeting house, is now at the Falls Village-Canaan Historical Society.

It is a child’s potty seat, fashioned from a wooden crate used to ship liquids to the E.W. Spurr hardware store in the late 19th century. According to Judy Jacobs of the Historical Society, the hardware store was located where Toymakers Café is today.

The seat was discovered two years ago by Chuck Lewis, who along with Bill Beebe was checking out the crawl space of the meeting house prior to writing a grant proposal for renovation and repair.

Beneath the bathroom, they discovered the potty seat.

Lewis said it was possibly designed for small children who might find the standard adult-sized outhouse arrangement intimidating, if not perilous.

A knothole in the wood is utilized within the circular opening, making the potty seat appropriate for all users and, in light of recent pronouncements from the federal government about bathrooms, way ahead of its time.

Dating the device proved to be a simple matter. The lettering on the side states that the crate, designed for the “safe transporting and easy handling of liquids,” was patented on Oct. 16, 1877, and March 5, 1878.

Lewis said he tried to look up the patents but could not find anything. “It was some kind of hanging system for liquids.”

The potty seat was covered in whitewash, which Lewis removed without difficulty.

“It comes off easily, with water. I just scrubbed it.”

He was unsure if the potty seat was used with an outhouse, and stored in the crawl space when the bathroom was first installed, or if it was deployed in conjunction with a toilet.

— Patrick L. Sullivan