Digging up the past

The renovations at Marston Hall have become a history lesson of Iowa State University from a century ago.

Tearing up the floor, workers have found items such as English pottery, an inkwell, lab bottles and a perfume bottle.

On other levels of Marston, a five-gallon bucket for lard, an old light bulb and a cider barrel from the early 1900s with a cup from the late 1800s were found.

The lard bucket, dated to the mid 1930s, was brought up to the attic and left there.

Marston Hall is currently in the process of a complete renovation that is expected to be finished in spring 2016.

Most all of this was common or not unusual to find at Iowa State at the time, said Kerry Dixon, project manager of the Marston Hall renovation.

Dixon, who also oversaw renovations at Curtiss and Morrill Halls, said finding old artifacts from early campus days isnt uncommon, but this project has produced many more than usual.

And Im sure we will find more things as we continue, she said.

All of the pottery, which includes various kinds of plates, saucers and cups, are in bits and pieces and only two pieces have writings that identify their origins Staffordshire and Tunstall pottery.

The items under the floor were likely left there during early construction on Marston, originally called Engineering Hall, when they dug up the water line that is directly underneath the building, running from the now-Marston water tower to Olde Main, which has since been replaced by Beardshear, and other campus buildings.

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Digging up the past