I was enjoying a recent sightseeing tour of Dubuque, Iowa, when something remarkable caught my eye. And I thought readers of PRO might be interested.
The quaint, old city is built below and on top of bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. My family and I had just taken the historic Fenelon Place Elevator — called the world’s shortest, steepest scenic railway — a few hundred feet up a bluff to an interesting neighborhood of houses that look down on a beautiful river vista.
TIME WARP
A roundtrip ticket for the century-old tram is $2 for adults and $1 for kids, and provides a thrilling ride up and down the incline. But that’s a story to be reserved for a travel guide of Iowa spectacles, which includes the hometown of Meredith Wilson, who wrote The Music Man, as well as the Field of Dreams baseball diamond where the movie of the same title was filmed.
But let’s get back to the story that might interest portable restroom contractors …
In addition to the spectacular views, I was drawn to another sight at the top of the hill. Next to the elevator track, at a home remodeling project, sat a very old portable restroom. The light green unit was striking in its vintage look, and it was interesting to find a unit that old — I figured it could go back to the 1970s — still in use on a construction site.
So I shot some photos of the unit from all angles, much to my family’s embarrassment, and continued on my tour, vowing to find out more when I returned home. The next week, I put in a call to Clark Wolff, owner of Selco Inc., the Dubuque company that placed the unit at the top of the bluff.
Wolff told me who built the restroom that has faithfully served his business since the early- to mid-1980s. But I’m not going to tell you the name just yet. I want to see if you can identify the restroom pictured on this page. If you know its manufacturer, drop me a line at editor@promonthly.com. If anyone guesses correctly, I will congratulate them as a first-rate portable sanitation historian in a future editor’s column.
A FEW CLUES
But based on my conversation with Wolff, I’ll give you a few clues. First, Wolff, whose main business is supplying barricades for road construction projects, bought many of these restrooms over a few years, first in the green color, then in a dark blue. Oddly, the earlier green ones have survived better; the company still has 30 to 40 of its original 150 green models in service after years of being manhandled on construction sites.
Wolff explained that these were among the earlier rotomolded restrooms made of polyethylene material that is the industry standard today. He describes the one-piece shell design from the now-defunct maker as a garbage can turned upside down.
“We really like the units. They’re a great construction toilet and they’re virtually indestructible," he said. “But we’re phasing them out, and the only time we use them now is when inventory is running low. Or we sometimes use them in a high-risk area, too. If we’re going to lose (a restroom), I’d just as soon lose one of these."
In addition to proven durability, the old units were and remain easy to clean because of the rounded one-piece design with few crevices where dirt can build up. Despite their age, Selco doesn’t get complaints from construction sites where the old units are placed, according to Wolff.
MORE TRIVIA
Wolff’s company is the answer to another portable restroom trivia question. In the 1970s, when his company was new, Wolff started buying pop-riveted units made of ABS plastic from Aqua-Zyme Industries in Minneapolis.
“They were blue, huge and looked like an egg. They were bowed out on the top and very big by today’s standards. They were the Cadillac of the porta-pot business,’’ he explained. At a time when some companies were still placing homemade wooden units in the field, the Aqua-Zymes — which used the marketing phrase of “Sea Fresh, Sun Brite’’ — were quite advanced.
“The demise of these was that they were great until they got to be five years old, and the plastic dried out and got brittle, and they would break like a glass bottle,’’ he continued. More pliable polyethylene plastic came into use and the Aqua-Zyme unit would be no more. Wolff bought out the inventory and manufacturing molds from the company and tried to manufacture the Aqua-Zyme with poly plastics, but to no avail.
“We tried to make the doors and roofs out of poly, but it was a losing cause. Finally, one day, we hauled them all to the dump," he recalled.
WE’VE COME A LONG WAY
Do you remember the Aqua-Zyme unit? Is there another old model that brings back fond memories of the infancy of the portable sanitation industry? I’d love to hear your stories, and see photos of the oldest, longest-serving restroom in your inventory.
Early units that are still being used, like the one seen here, have provided amazing service. Wolff’s best recollection is that each of these green beauties cost $350 when new. Can you imagine how many times over this restroom has paid for itself? It might not look like much anymore, but the unit’s a pure profit-turner.
And definitely worth a stop on the tour of Dubuque’s historic places … Well, maybe that’s going a little too far.
