I would bet that block was tarred with a waterproof mastic coating before the ground was backfilled around it. 

I've been looking into Mastic and Shirley area but your current about Long Island, tough to get starting in. 

@Eric Telese not bad at all I just got an offer accepted for a property out in mastic beach going to probably do a live in flip.. fha 203k

By profession, I am a dentist specialized in Periodontics.

There was also that black mastic cutback that has asbestos, but the mastic was untouched and not chipping, nor was it sanded or removed.Nothing was done to reasonably create airborne asbestos.Tenants ordered their own asbestos test; inspector came out and sampled a bunch of stuff that contained asbestos, which are intact and not illegal to have.

A cute tile backsplash between the uppers and lowers can run you about $50 between material, mastic and grout and you end up with what appears like a professional kitchen.

Then used fluted trim and blocks as a picture frame to trim the window using mastic to attache the trim.

The hallway and the kitchen both had this black mastic stuff covering the hardwood (from the linoleum in the kitchen and old carpet that was in the hallway), but the guys did an excellent job in refinishing it and you couldn't even tell it was there before once they were done. 

If it matters, the tile we're dealing with was laid in the 70's (meaning it was secured with the infamous black mastic glue.

I've read several (confusing) things - asphalt mastic (ok...makes sense), "Construction" adhesive (sounds vague - what's that?)