This photo from the HABS depicts the stirs in the boardinghouse, taken in the 1960's I think. One thing I can't make out in the photo what is that round or oval thing at the bottom of the stairs?

I have seen high res photos of this still cant make out what it is

The HABS photo was probably done much earlier, during the Depression when the government gave jobs to people with skills to record everything from historic buildings to slave narratives to artistic works.

Is the object that you are questioning the thing on the very bottom right? If so, it appears to be a spiral shelf to me. There is also something that appears to be a ball resting right against the stair riser. I have often thought how hard it must have been to climb that long flight of stairs multiple times each day. This, after the flight just to get in the front door.

No I'm referring to the ball looking object. Could be wood?

I blew up the image.....

It appears to be either a Lemon (was Stonewall Jackson there?!?) or a potato....

   

(03-04-2014 05:21 PM)BettyO Wrote:  I blew up the image.....

It appears to be either a Lemon (was Stonewall Jackson there?!?) or a potato....

Or some kind of Oriental fruit or melon?

Could be, Laurie! Some sort of fruit - or veggie!

To me it looks like a sweet pepino (solanum muricatum-as I'm not sure if the translation is correct), which is most likely a native of the Andes (of Colombia, Peru and Chile). To see if this could be possible, I checked the fruit's distribution "history" as it hadn't been cultivated in Europe before the end of the 20th century. But the US are much closer to the origin, and indeed in the US the fruit is known to have been grown in San Diego before 1889 and in Santa Barbara by 1897. Thus if the photo was taken in the 1960ies, I think it could be a sweet pepino. However, I second Laurie and Betty that it looks like something naturally grown.
   

I bet its rotten by now

It looks like a historic squash- I saw one on eBay.

Might be a gourd?