Patch Blog: Excitement on Wilson Avenue, Circa. 1930

Sometime in the 1930’s when I was at Huntington School in San Marino, we were awakened by an enormous thumping and grinding noise that rattled our windows. We had no idea what was going on. Was it an earthquake or perhaps a plane crash?

As it turned out, it was neither. I walked out to the street and saw that a giant trenching machine was digging a ditch in the middle of Wilson Avenue. The trench was for our new city sewer line. We didn’t appreciate all that noise and fuss at the time, but this new construction meant that we could get rid of our cesspool.

Back then, every house had a cesspool in the backyard. It was about 4 feet in diameter and dug down through the surface dirt into decomposed granite. There, it was lined with bricks alternating with spaces to let the sewage seep into the earth. 

As expected, from time to time, the cesspool would overflow and gurgle up into the back lawn. This would make an interesting puddle of liquid human waste. In fact, we always knew the spot because the lawn was so much greener there! It would be worse today because of the daily use of showers and automatic laundries. Back then overflow was rare because we didn’t take daily showers, only occasional baths.

I am reminded about this because recently, all the San Marino city sewer pipes were cleaned. Crews came and removed adjacent manhole covers, then ran a jet or cleaning drill through segments of the main sewer pipe. Just like back then with our new pipes, these clean pipes take all our sewage nicely away with every flush.

What’s more interesting is that other upscale communities don’t have sewers yet. Seventy-five years after San Marino got sewer lines, Malibu still has cesspools. Just think of all the stuff that goes into their cesspools: shower water, laundry water, detergents, TP, dishwasher water, and kitchen waste from the garbage disposal.

Many of these residences are on the sides of hills with nice views of the oceans, but an unfortunate odor from their neighbor’s yard. The property uphill sends seeping sewage down into the lower property. It’s a bit of third world living for a wealthy community.

Dig a hole, dump it in, close your eyes, and hold your nose!