Circular Foundation - Attached to Cellar Hole

[Vermonter]

I should have taken a better picture showing the cellar hole itself, but almost touching it on one side was this shallow old stone-walled pit. It's not a well. I thought cistern maybe, but it doesn't look like it would hold water for long, and again it doesn't look like it had any depth. There's no rock pile or anything suggesting the stone extended above ground level. Any ideas?

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[nsdq]

Looks to be the foundation of a grain silo , base was stone rest was of wood and may have been open screened for air drying , still see some the Pa area on Amish farms

 

[digging440yrs]

I agree with nsdq , but I have found a couple pre-silo that I think may of held hogs---stone circle near barn foundation, but no nails were found with met detector . Just a guess--ive been wrong before - ha-

 

[BagLady]

Could have been a root cellar or even a smoke house. Very cool.

 

[Vermonter]

That might be, thanks. I haven't seen anything like it before around here. Come to think of it, the almost attached foundation which I neglected to photograph didn't have a center chimney pile or any chimney debris. Maybe it wasn't a house but a storehouse or small barn.

 

[Crappies-n-Coins]

I should have taken a better picture showing the cellar hole itself, but almost touching it on one side was this shallow old stone-walled pit. It's not a well. I thought cistern maybe, but it doesn't look like it would hold water for long, and again it doesn't look like it had any depth. There's no rock pile or anything suggesting the stone extended above ground level. Any ideas?

I'd go with your 1st instincts. Water (cistern) would have been close to the house. As far as the height (rocks), if it was even built-up, people take rocks all the time for landscaping and fill. The depth would also change over the years, plus who knows how deep it was to begin with?

 

[Sullivan]

Dinsdale?