Wells

Dipping water from well near Marshall, Texas. Courtesy of The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library Digital Collections.

Wells are features intended to collect water. Wells are excavated into the ground, and they draw water up deep into the ground. They can be circular or square, and made of wood or brick. Sometimes well floors are covered with wood, sand, or clay, to act as a water filter.

Well water was not intended for drinking water - it was not clean enough even to launder clothes! Instead, wells would be used for cooking and cleaning. Although wells were popular additions to houses, especially in the mid-nineteenth century, they fell out of fashion by late-nineteenth century. They were hard to clean and could become putrid. Once, an excavation of a well located the complete skeleton of a horse inside!

Wells would typically have a cover to protect items from falling in, and often have a structure above, or be positioned in a shed or outbuilding. Archaeologists often find caches of artifacts in well for when one household stopped using it for its water, and instead used it for trash or garbage. 

Plan of a lot of ground with the building thereon situated in Villere Street, between Bienville and Custom-House [sic] streets. Courtesy of Orleans Parish Civil Clerk of Courts.

This antebellum watercolor was a real-estate advertisement typical to the mid-nineteenth century. The detailed floor plan is to scale, and includes position of wells along the property that allow archaeologists to better locate their remains. 

Click between the different images of wellls, below- and above-ground. 

Well shafts excavated from archaeological sites

  • Brick-lined well with a wooden base from 316 Franklin Street. Courtesy of UNO ARC.

  • Brick-lined well at 322 North Franklin Street. The base of the well appears to be a cypress stump. Courtesy of ESI and UNO ARC.

  • Archaeologist excavating a square, wood-lined well at 322 (62) North Liberty Street. Courtesy of ESI and UNO ARC.

  • Barrel well with brick foundation from 219 Villere Street. Courtesy of ESI and UNO ARC.

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Historical Examples of Wells

  • Artistic rendering of a French Quarter courtyard with an old Spanish well in the bottom right corner by Morris Henry Hobbs. Courtesy of Historic New Orleans Collection, The L. Kemper and Leila Moore Williams Founders Collection, 1959.185.33.

  • Bird's eye view of the wishing well and patio area at the Court of Two Sisters, located at 613 Royal Street. Courtesy of The Charles L. Franck Studio Collection at The Historic New Orleans Collection, 1979.89.7397.

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Wells