Johnstown discovery can't be bottled up

By ANGELA CAVE- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

The custodian at Holy Trinity parish in Johnstown predicts that the excavation excitement his community experienced last winter will catch on at other parishes: "You'll probably have people crawling under steeples now."

The parish had sent a crew of workers to install pipes for a new bathroom in the 143-year-old building. When the workers drilled through the stone foundation, they unearthed a previously sealed-off, 10-square-foot pit filled with broken glass and about 100 intact bottles - mostly bourbon, beer, wine and other types of liquor.

"I can still see the son of the contractor saying, 'You've got to see what's under there!'" Mr. Quinn recalled.

Church leaders concluded that the 19th-century workers who built the church must have used the hole as a trash receptacle - after drinking on the job.

"It was kind of a startling discovery," Mr. Quinn said. "Nowadays, you find Stewart's coffee cups" on job sites.

"It's a little snapshot in time," he continued. "This was their liquid refreshment while they worked, and I'm sure they worked hard" for little money and with no assistance from modern machinery.

Wearing gloves and knee pads, the custodian carefully entered the crawlspace to pick up the pieces and the artifacts. His favorite discovery is a gallon jug made of pottery, inscribed with the name "Thomas Behan Wholesale Liquors" - a company owned from 1857-88 by Thomas Behan, an Irish Catholic immigrant to Albany, according to www.schenectadyhistory.org.

Other finds include a wine bottle labeled "Sauterne" and a glass flask with the words "Traveler's Companion," likely manufactured by the Ohio-based Ravenna Glass Company in the 1800s.

"It's a little piece of history," Mr. Quinn said of the loot.

After The Leader-Herald newspaper wrote about the discovery in February, the parish received calls from bottle collectors for a few days. One appraised most of the bottles at about $20 apiece, but said a few are worth more. A glass flask depicting sheaves of wheat might be worth up to $500.

The parish decided to place most of the collection behind glass and to dole out some of the more inexpensive ones to interested parishioners - "like a keepsake from church," Mr. Quinn noted. They don't plan on selling the rest.[[In-content Ad]]