public archaeology

a very public privy

The Shady Spruce Hostel, Missoula, Montana

Built as a boarding house by Tennie Greenough in 1887 (pictured below on the right), the Shady Spruce Hostel still serves as a rooming house today. Excavations of the former outhouse now located to the north of the neighboring structure (left) brought to light tokens from the old Missoula streetcar system, some of the first dog licences issued in the state of Montana, beer bottles imported from St. Louis, and numerous patent medicine bottles. Friends and neighbors conducted the excavation along a public thoroughfare on St. Patrick’s Day, allowing passersby to see the project and learn about the history of the neighborhood.