Archaeology in Annapolis

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    Cultural Resource Survey of the United States Naval Academy Annapolis, Maryland
    (1993-09) Bodor, Thomas W.; Anroman, Gilda M.; Russo, Jean B.; Jopling, Hannah; Etherton, Kevin M.; Leone, Mark P.
    This report presents the results of the Legacy Resource Management Program, Cultural Resource Management survey as it relates to the United States Naval Academy (USNA) in Annapolis, Maryland. Sponsored by the United States Department of Defense and managed through the Naval Facilities (CHESDIV), a multi-faceted project was initiated by Archaeology In Annapolis, an on-going research project jointly sponsored by Historic Annapolis Foundation, and the University of Maryland, College Park. The project was comprised of an archaeological survey conducted over a 2 month period, title searches on properties now occupied by the USNA, oral history interviews conducted with residents of a former neighborhood purchased by the Academy, and the use of the AutoCAD computer mapping program to assist with the archaeological survey and to potentially generate a predictive model of where historic or prehistoric cultural resources may exist on USNA property. Conclusions drawn from this study highlight the rich amount of cultural resources which exist in the form of artifacts dating from the late-1700's, deeds information that shows changing economic and social patterns throughout the 290 year history of the ground occupied by the Academy, memories of individuals who lived through the expansion of the Academy into their homes, and a series of maps which can be used to indicate the likelihood of further cultural resources.
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    Test Excavations at Gott's Court, Annapolis, Maryland
    (1992) Leone, Mark P.; Little, Barbara J.; Warner, Mark S.
    In the summer of 1989 Archaeology in Annapolis undertook three weeks of archaeological testing in a parking lot in the Historic District of Annapolis located to the immediate west of Church Circle. The property was scheduled to be destroyed by the construction of a below-ground parking garage. Historical research on the area had indicated that property to have been occupied since the mid 18th-century. The primary purpose of test excavations was to determine the integrity of the archaeological remains below the modern asphalt surface. Results of the excavations indicated that significant archaeological deposits remained from Gott's Court, the early 20th century occupation of the property by working-class African Americans. There was also strong evidence to suggest substantial deposits from earlier occupations of the area. Unfortunately, constraints upon the archaeologists' access to the property did not allow for a more thorough study of that aspect of the site's occupation.
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    Legacy Resource Management Program Archaeological Reconnaissance Survey, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD.
    (1994) Seidel, John L.; Cox, Jane; Leone, Mark P.
    The Archaeological Reconnaissance Survey of United States Naval Academy will provide the Navy with a rich understanding of the history of this property. A National Register of Historic Places District, such as the Academy, deserves a thorough analysis of its past, in order to preserve what exists and to plan for the future. The goal of this project is to investigate the history of the Academy through traditional historic research, innovative computer analysis of historic maps, oral history interviews, and tract histories. This information has been synthesized to provide the Navy with a planning tool for Public Works, a concise look at the cartographic history of the Academy, and reference manual of the vast amounts of information which have been gathered during the course of this project. This information can serve as a reference tool to help the Public Works department comply with Section 106 regulations of the Historic Sites Preservation Act, with regard to construction. It can also serve as a source of cartographic history for those interested in the Academy's physical development, and as a way of preserving the culture of residents in Annapolis. This program and archaeological survey will ultimately serve to add to the rich history of the United States Naval Academy while preserving an important part of our nation's heritage.
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    Phase I-II Archaeological Investigations on the Courthouse Site (18AP63): An Historic African-American Neighborhood in Annapolis, Maryland
    (1993) Warner, Mark S.; Mullins, Paul R.; Leone, Mark P.; Little, Barbara J.
    During the Summer and Fall of 1990, Archaeology in Annapolis conducted archaeological excavations at the Courthouse Site (18AP63), a multi-component historic site in Annapolis, Maryland. The testing area, which is now a parking lot, is a roughly triangular block bounded by Franklin, Cathedral, and South Streets in Annapolis' Historic District. A limited number of units restricted to three areas of the lot were permitted for this phase of the investigation. Excavations analyzed the archaeological integrity of the site and evaluated the age and diversity of archaeological deposits in the test areas. It is expected that the phase of excavations analyzed here will precede Phase III investigations in the areas of the lot which contain rich deposits. The excavation area's use during the colonial period is unknown, but undisturbed strata containing a light deposit of eighteenth-century artifacts were identified in the southeast corner of the testing area. The lot gradually became an African-American neighborhood after about 1850, and a large and diverse assemblage of nineteenth- and twentieth-century artifacts was recovered throughout the test area. Testing in the southwest corner of the block revealed filled basements and grading disturbance dating to the circa 1960s dismantling of the neighborhood. In some units, this disturbance mixed eighteenth- and nineteenth-century artifacts with modern refuse. A partially disturbed barrel privy dating to the late-nineteenth century was identified in this area of the site in the back of the home which was numbered 38 Doctor Street in 1903 (renumbered 68 Franklin Street circa 1910). The feature contained a small assemblage of 13 glass vessels, including an unusually high number of glass table vessels (ten). A unit placed in the back yard of 80 Franklin Street identified a circa 1921 dog burial. Testing revealed several areas worthy of rigorous excavation and indicated that artifacts have been discarded into the lot since about the mid-eighteenth century. The identification of several features associated with the African- American occupation of the block indicates that the site contains significant intact African-American deposits. These will provide a particularly important archaeological opportunity to examine the African-American material world between about 1850 and 1950. This report provides analyses of the site's stratigraphy and artifact assemblages and suggests promising strategies for subsequent archaeology of the site.
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    1991 Archaeological Excavations at the Charles Carroll House in Annapolis, Maryland, 18AP45
    (1992) Logan, George C.; Bodor, Thomas W.; Jones, Lynn D.; Creveling, Marian C.; Leone, Mark P.
    This report provides a detailed summary of archaeological excavations that were conducted by Archaeology in Annapolis inside the ground story of the Charles Carroll House in Annapolis (18AP45) during the summer and fall of 1991. This project was initiated by Charles Carroll House of Annapolis, Inc. (CCHA), and was made possible through an agreement between CCHA and Historic Annapolis Foundation. It was designed as an initial phase of a larger project to restore the Carroll House to its late 18th-century appearance, while at the same time adding modern facilities to accomodate receptions, conferences, and other adaptive uses. These excavations were conducted between June and mid October of 1991, prior to interior house restoration, with monitoring of site restoration activities continuing well into 1992. Archaeologists, working with fieldschool students, and volunteers, tested all identified rooms in the house's ground story and then expanded excavations as deemed necessary and as time permitted. In designing the project and in preparing this final report, the staff followed the "Guidelines for Archaeological Investigations in Maryland" (McNarnara 1981). The report includes several levels of summaries (from descriptive summaries of soil levels excavated from the individual units (Appendix A), to interpretive room summaries) in an effort to make the data easily accessible and understandable to archaeologists and others interested in this site.
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    Archaeological Excavations at 18AP44: 193 Main Street, Annapolis, Maryland, 1985-1987
    (1994) O'Reilly, Carey; Shackel, Paul A.; Leone, Mark P.; Beavan, Michele; Fernandez, Robert; Graminski, John; Gryder, Dennis; Jastrab, Marcey; Lev-Tov, Justin; Mullins, Paul R.
    193 Main Street (18AP44) is located between Main Street and Duke of Gloucester Street. The property was used ass a yard related to residential and commercial buildings during the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 1930's a movie theatre and parking lot were built on the property. That structure was torn down in the 1980's and a three-story commercial building was constructed. Archaeological excavations were conducted on the property from 1985-1987. A preliminary report was written in 1986 by Paul A. Shackel. This report is the final report on the archaeological investigations at 193 Main Street.
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    Archaeological Excavations at the Sands House (18AP47)
    (1994) O'Reilly, Carey
    The Sands House (18AP47) is located at 130 Prince George Street in Annapolis, Maryland. Historical documentation notes that a house stood on the property at least by 1706 (Liber W.T. 2, 1706: 402). Archaeological evidence indicates that an earthfast structure was built in about 1700. This building has been modified and renovated extensively. In the 1720's a fieldstone foundation was put under the house and in the late 18th century an addition was made to the west side of the house. In 1904 an addition was put on the rear of the house and the entire structure was raised. Archaeological excavations were conducted inside and outside the Sands House in 1988 by Archaeology in Annapolis. This work was sponsored by Historic Annapolis Foundation and the University of Maryland, College Park. This volume is the final site report for the archaeological investigations at the Sands House.
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    Final Archaeological Investigations at the Maynard-Burgess House (18AP64): An 1850-1980 African-American Household in Annapolis, Maryland
    (1995) Leone, Mark P.; Warner, Mark S.
    The Maynard-Burgess House was excavated by Archaeology in Annapolis from Fall, 1990 to Summer, 1992. The still-standing house is located at 163 Duke of Gloucester Street in Annapolis' Historic District and is today being restored by Port of Annapolis, Incorporated. Archaeological testing and excavation of the site was developed alongside architectural analyses and archival research as the initial phase of the home's restoration. The Maynard-Burgess House was continuously occupied by two African-American families, the Maynards and the Burgesses, from the 1850s until the late 1980s. The main block of the house was built between 1850 and 1858 by the household of John T. Maynard, a free African American born in 1810,and his wife Maria Spencer Maynard. Maynard descendants lived in the home until it was foreclosed in 1908 and subsequently sold to the family of Willis and Mary Burgess in 1915. Willis had been a boarder in the home in 1880, and his sister Martha Ready had married John and Maria's son John Henry. Burgess descendants lived at the home until its sale in 1990.
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    Three Hundred Years in Annapolis: Phase III Archaeological Investigations of the Anne Arundel County Courthouse Site (18AP63), Annapolis, Maryland
    (1995) Aiello, Elizabeth A.; Seidel, John L.; Leone, Mark P.
    During the summer of 1994, Archaeology in Annapolis conducted archaeological investigations of the city block bounded by Franklin, South and Cathedral Streets in the city of Annapolis. This Phase III excavation was conducted as a means to identify subsurface cultural resources in the impact area associated with the proposed construction of the Anne Arundel County Courthouse addition. This impact area included both the upper and lower parking lots used by Courthouse employees. Investigations were conducted in the form of mechanical trenching and hand excavated units. Excavations in the upper lot area yielded significant information concerning the interior area of the block. Known as Bellis Court, this series of rowhouses was constructed in the late nineteenth century and was used as rental properties by African-Americans. The dwellings remained until the middle of the twentieth century when they were demolished in preparation for the construction of a Courthouse addition. Portions of the foundation of a house owned by William H. Bellis in the 1870s were also exposed in this area. Construction of this house was begun by William Nicholson around 1730 and completed by Daniel Dulany in 1732/33. It was demolished in 1896 by James Munroe, a Trustee for Bellis. Excavations in the upper lot also revealed the remains of a late seventeenth/early eighteenth century wood-lined cellar, believed to be part of the earliest known structure on Lot 58. After an initially rapid deposition of fill around 1828, this cellar was gradually covered with soil throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century. The fill deposit in the cellar feature yielded a mixed assemblage of artifacts that included sherds of early materials such as North Devon gravel-tempered earthenware, North Devon sgraffito and Northem Italian slipware, along with creamware, pearlware and whiteware. In the lower parking lot, numerous artifacts were recovered from yard scatter associated with the houses that at one time fronted along Cathedral Street and were occupied by African- Americans. An assemblage of late seventeenth century/early eighteenth century materials and several slag deposits from an early forge were recovered from this second area of study. The materials associated with the forge, including portions of a crucible, provided evidence of some of the earliest industry in Annapolis. Investigations in both the upper and lower parking lots added to the knowledge of the changing landscape within the project area, including a prevalence of open space in early periods, a surprising survival of impermanent structures, and a gradual regrading and filling of the block with houses and interior courts. Excavations at the Anne Arundel County Courthouse proved this to be a multi-component site, rich in cultural resources from Annapolis' Early Settlement Period through its Modern Period (as specified by Maryland's Comprehensive Historic Preservation Plan (Weissman 1986)). This report provides detailed interpretations of the archaeological findings of these Phase III investigations.
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    Archaeological Investigation of the State Circle Public Well, 18AP61, #40 and #42 State Circle, Annapolis, Maryland
    (1990) Stabler, Jennifer A.; Little, Barbara J.
    The State Circle well, discovered during the larger State Circle archaeological investigatons, is believed to be a late 18th-century public well. The moist environment of a well preserves ceramic, glass, metal, and organic material. It was hoped that intact 18th and 19th centuiy domestic deposits were preserved in the well shaft. Because of time constraints, a three-inch diameter core was extracted from the well shaft, which extended thirty-five feet below surface. The results of the coring process enabled archaeologists to make a final decision not to excavate the well shaft. Historical documentation showed that the well was covered and had a pump and was still in use around 1900. The well had been filled in early in the 20th century with soil brought in from elsewhere.