This Was Hiding in Our Yard for Centuries
June 4, 2025
Source: FB / Anna Lappala
I was out in the yard too, working on a patch of grass that never looks the way I want it to. We live in this old house — it was built in 1799. It was once a tavern and a doctor’s office. A whiskey and leeches one-stop shop.
I grabbed a shovel and began to dig and hit on something hard. Another scoop and I saw the edge of brick or stone. Then I saw a granite post poking upward like it had stood there for all eternity.
First Thought? Grave. Second Thought? Hitching Post.
At first I wondered if it was a grave marker. But the post had a hole — looked as if it once held a ring. Classic 1790s hitching post.
When he moved into a former 17th-century tavern, it clicked. It’s mostly likely where an owner of horses would have tethered the animals before going in. ” Must be a drainage basin,” I thought as I cleared more and saw the stone pattern of a circle around the post – sort of a shallow pit or basin.
Water trough.
Horses Gotta Drink, Too
If this place was a tavern stop, the horses would require water while their riders took rest. They used the post for the bit, and they had water in the trough.
I imagined a man in breeches dismounting and tying off a horse, brushing it down before discussing with the local doctor some ache or old wound. That post was just an everyday thing back then. And now I was mowing grass around it.
What’s Under There?
I discovered rusty metal bits — perhaps ring hardware, or old trough supports. Contrary to my expectation I found under them bricks and well-packed stone, which I concluded was the original base. It was built to last.
I continued to scoop, being gentle with what I uncovered. The entire structure is solid, as if it has been waiting all these years to be rediscovered.
Why I’m Keeping It
We’re preserving it. No conversion to the utilitarian birdbath, no garden statue. It’s not going anywhere. I’m going to clean it up, put in a path, perhaps a little plaque.
Image Most people find beer-bottle caps or old broken pipes in their backyards. I discovered a hitching post and water trough from the 1790s. A real piece of history, just sitting in the grass this whole time.