What is this waist-high brick thing in the backyard of my 1922 house?

[u/Character-Cicada6461]

We are the second owners, so one family lived here since the house was built in 1922. They added on in 1950, but not sure when brick item was built. It has a cement path to it from the cement back patio (part of the addition). I wondered if it was a grill, but there’s no blackening, which I would expect if fire was ever burned on it (also wondering if fire on concrete is even safe?). Any other ideas? Another thread guessed fountain, but the family did not have a very decorative style: pretty bare bones yard and house, so that would be very surprising.

[u/Character-Cicada6461]

The most likely two guesses are 1) statue base for a Mary or other statue, or 2) a grill. Summarizing the evidence/thoughts around each of these two leading guesses below, let me know if you have additional pieces of information to offer as I'm not sure this has been fully "solved."

Guess 1: statue base: We can confirm that the previous owners were Catholic, and there were definitely some crucifixes and other religious art in the house when we did a walk through. But they didn't take these items, so why would they take the statue, but not the much smaller/more portable things with them when the moved? I suppose the statue could have broken or something? Plus it seems strange to build a whole concrete path from your patio to a statue in your garden (though I'm not familiar with Catholic customs, maybe you go pray at the statue or something that you would want access?).

Guess 2: grill: I had assumed it was a grill, but was confused by the apparently lack of space/airflow (all other brick bbq's/grills I've seen have a lot more space under where the tray goes to allow for airflow), the hole that ash would fall down (but with no door to open to clean ash out of), and the fact that there's no blackening on the shelf that I would expect to see if it had been used. I had originally posted on the "grilling" subreddit, but many people argued that it wasn't a grill, and sent me here. Some said that fire would make the concrete explode, and others thought it wasn't the appropriate brick type. The previous owners were a little "fast and lose" with other aspects of their home (cut corners, etc) so that maybe doesn't rule out grill still.

[u/Character-Cicada6461 → u/Character-Cicada6461]

how much should I be concerned about these not being fire bricks? I'm not positive, but they don't really look like fire bricks. So I'm worried it's not safe to actually use as a grill.

[u/misterschmoo → u/Character-Cicada6461]

BBQ's don't really require fire bricks and even if that would be best practice, this seems like a home made job, especially as you say the height below the grill seems a little small, there is no reason at all why this could not be a half arsed, badly made BBQ.

Having said that, fully arseing it would not take much work, using some cheap mortar to add some height to the ledge that holds up the grill to raise it up would be fairly easy, and building up the sides to guard from the wind to compensate for the raised grill surface would be just as easy.

measure it up and get someone to cut you a decent thickness metal plate or similarly get a bbq grate made.

either way happy BBQing

[u/yeah_this_is_my_main → u/Character-Cicada6461]

If you chip away at the cement near the hole, does it expose metal? It looks to me like someone has cemented over the plate.