Before sewers, Albany residents cast their waste in streets, yards, and streams. By the late 18th century, the city and its water supply were polluted. In response, the city prohibited casting waste anywhere but in the Hudson River prompting a shift toward the use of privies.
           
A typical privy consisted of a wood, brick, or stone lined hole. This was covered by a small shed with one or more seats. Privies varied in size and construction. Most on the Sheridan Hollow site were equipped with drains connected to a creek.

Residents depended on cisterns and public wells for water. By the 1870s, they had municipal water from underground mains. At the turn of the 20th century, site occupants still used public well water, even though the city wells had been condemned by the Board of Health as unfit for use.

Constructed c. 1908, privies 1 and 2 were later converted into water closets c. 1921, sealing off an earlier cistern (3) installed when the home was built c. 1840.

This cistern was 3.5 feet deep and held rainwater collected from the roof and used for drinking, cooking and washing. Visble at the bottom is a wooden bucket.