Where is that? March 16, 2024

If you know, let us know. Send your responses to [email protected] or phone 631-275-1859.

Last week’s mystery photo (see bottom right) was no mystery to several people who called or emailed the desk here at What is that?

Marty Dempsey emailed that  the photo portrayed “the shed in the Manor’s garden at Sylvester Manor.” First on your block, Marty.

A few minutes later, Carolyn Denning phoned to be more specific: “It’s the loo, or the W.C. at Sylvester Manor. I love the shape of that little thing.

Roger McKeon emailed with the “official” name of the outhouse: “It’s the privy in the garden at Sylvester Manor.”

Martin Dering Einhorn of Readsboro, Vt. got in touch with an interesting and weirdly funny comment after ID-ing the privy: “Alice [Fiske] would  keep the Sylvester Manor guest signing book in the privy.”

Director of Operations for Sylvester Manor Tracy McCarthy sent along some excerpts about the privy from the National Register of Historic Places Registration: “Among the early buildings and structures of Sylvester Manor are two which are of apparent eighteenth-century age. The first of these, the hip-roofed privy in the garden, retains early fish-scale shingles on one elevation and has paneling on the interior … From the roof, which is wood shingled, rises a prominent weather vane … The interior retains wood paneling dating to its original construction, in addition to three adult seats and a child’s seat. 

“An 1828 sketch plan …also indicates a series of structures to the north of the house — among them a dairy, a winch house, and a hog pen — and the location of the garden with the privy in it, demonstrating something of the surrounding landscape at that time.”