Archaeology in Annapolis

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Start date: 2000Subject: search.filters.subject.Annapolis, Maryland

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    Phase Ill Investigations for the Banneker-Douglass Museum Expansion, The Courthouse Site (18AP63), 86-90 Franklin Street, , Annapolis, Maryland, 2001
    (2002) Larsen, Eric L.; Leone, Mark P.; Beadenkopf, Kris; Lev-Tov, Justin; Madsen, Andrew
    Phase III archaeological excavations for the Banneker-Douglass Museum Expansion Project were conducted over a six-week period in July and August of 2001. Archaeology in Annapolis undertook the project at the request of the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture and by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. The open lot on the north side of the Museum is part of the larger Courthouse Site (18AP63), a multi component site in the historic district of Annapolis. Previous archaeology for the Banneker-Douglass Project determined this area to be eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion D (archaeological significance). A new addition to the Banneker-Douglass Museum will impact all remaining cultural contexts. As no other alternatives are available, archaeology was planned to mitigate these losses. Known to have once held four separate dwellings built during the mid 19th century, the property was occupied until the structures were tom down in the 1970s. During the late 19th century, the area grew to become part of Annapolis' African-American community. Previous archaeology found intact cultural remains from this period including two different households' privies, a sheet midden, and other structural features. Current excavations pursued the retrieval and analyses of these contexts to increase the understanding of site formation processes and to provide additional information and insights into Annapolis' African-American community- its households, material culture, and adaptations. The development and everyday workings of African-American communities during the period of Jim Crow segregation have not been well documented. Examination of the built environment provides new insight into how and when this community developed. Ceramic, glass, and faunal analyses provide material comparable to other post Civil War African-American sites in Annapolis. This comparison allows the acknowledgment of the inevitable differences present within the African-American community-while also pursuing the nature of a common identity built around race and place.
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    Phase II Archaeological Testing on Schwar’s Row (18AP120), Annapolis, Maryland, 2012
    (2015) Deeley, Kathryn; Pruitt, Beth; Skolnik, Benjamin; Leone, Mark P.
    This report is a summary of excavations conducted by Archaeology in Annapolis between May 29 2012 and July 6 2012 on Cornhill Street, Annapolis, Maryland. The report is divided into the following sections: Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Context and Historical Background Chapter 3: Archaeology and Interpretations Chapter 4: Conclusions and Recommendations Chapter 1 of this report is an introduction to the Cornhill Street excavations in 2012 at two areas designated Schwar’s Row East and Schwar’s Row West. Included within in this chapter are the dates of fieldwork, laboratory processing and analyses, the identification of key project staff, as well as research design and methodology. Chapter 2 of this report details the context and historical background of the properties. Included within this chapter is a short history of the ownership of the structures and the research questions for this investigation. Chapter 3 of this report details the results of archaeological testing of a total of four units at Schwar’s Row East and Schwar’s Row West. Included within this chapter is an account of stratigraphic layers, features, and significant artifacts encountered within individual test units. Also included within this chapter are interpretations of layers, features, and artifacts. Chapter 4 of this report details the conclusions based on the data recovered from these excavations and recommendations for further investigations.
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    Preliminary Report on Phase I/II Archaeological Testing at 12 Fleet Street, 40 Fleet Street (18AP110), 30 Cornhill Street (18AP114), and 41 Cornhill Street (18AP115), Anne Arundel County, Annapolis, Maryland, 2008-2010
    (2015) Knauf, Jocelyn; Leone, Mark P.; Tang, Amanda; Uehlein, Justin
    In June 2008, June 2009, and June 2010, undergraduate and graduate students under the supervision of staff from the Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), Archaeology in Annapolis Project, conducted archaeological testing in privately owned backyards at 40 Fleet Street (18AP110), 12 Fleet Street, 30 Cornhill Street (18AP114), and 41 Cornhill Street (18AP115). These sites are all located in the historic district of Annapolis, Maryland, in Anne Arundel County. This project was an intellectual extension of previous testing that was conducted along the public right-of-ways at 26 Market Space (18AP109) and on Fleet Street (18AP111) and Cornhill Street (18AP112) during the spring of 2008. A total of eleven test units were excavated in the backyards on Fleet and Cornhill Streets during the summers of 2008, 2009, and 2010. The Fleet and Cornhill Street project area falls within the Council for Maryland Archaeology’s Maryland Archaeological Research Units, Coastal Plain Province, Research Unit 7, Gunpowder-Middle-Back-Patapsco-Magothy-Severn-South-Rhode-West Drainages. The project area is bounded on the east side by the Annapolis Historic District Market Space and on the west side by State Circle. The previously excavated streetscape units helped to address many of the research questions related to the development of Fleet and Cornhill Streets, and the ways in which the streetscape changed between the seventeenth and the twenty-first centuries. The backyard units provided the opportunity to further address research questions related to the archaeology of a working class neighborhood, providing the opportunity to compare different work and living spaces within the neighborhood. The test units excavated during the course of the project provided evidence of the use of backyard spaces during the historical development of the neighborhood. Historic features uncovered during the excavations included a late 19th and early 20th century privy at 40 Fleet Street, a 19th century cistern at 30 Cornhill Street, and evidence that the early 20th century owners of 41 Cornhill Street may have had indoor plumbing privately installed in their home. Excavated levels and features also revealed evidence of changing usage of backyard spaces through features associated with outbuildings that are no longer extant, as well as artifacts related to domestic and work related activities. This site report is an addendum to the 2008 site report, which details the archaeological findings from the test units that were placed along the streetscape of Fleet and Cornhill Streets, and the Market Space. The test excavations at 40 Fleet Street (18AP110), 12 Fleet Street, 30 Cornhill Street (18AP114) and 41 Cornhill Street (18AP115) indicate that the archaeological resources in the back yard spaces of Fleet and Cornhill Street generally have a high degree of archaeological integrity and are historically significant. The units excavated at the sites of 40 Fleet Street, 30 Cornhill Street, and 41 Cornhill Street provide supporting evidence that these sites meet National Register Criterion D for potential inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, although 41 Cornhill Street showed more disturbance than the other sites. These sites have revealed important information about the historical development of Fleet and Cornhill Streets, and the historic district of Annapolis, over the past two hundred and fifty years, and future work at the sites should be monitored.
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    Phase II Archaeological Testing at 49 Pinkney Street (18AP119), Annapolis, Maryland, 2011
    (2011) Deeley, Kathryn H.; Leone, Mark P.
    Archaeological excavations at 49 Pinkney Street began in June 2011 intensive excavations began as part of the University of Maryland Field School in Urban Archaeology. Two large, deep units, one five feet by four feet and one five feet by five feet, were excavated in the backyard of 49 Pinkney Street and produced thousands of artifacts, including broken dishes, bottles, corroded metal objects, including nails, and a large number of food bones. These artifacts were processed, cataloged and analyzed in the Archaeology in Annapolis Laboratory at the University of Maryland, College Park. The data from the excavations are being written up by Kathryn Deeley,a PhD student at the University of Maryland, Department of Anthropology. These many thousands of artifacts will identify the items that were consumed and discarded by predominantly African American working families. The connections between these families are examined, and the materials recovered are studied to determine if the various different communities that lived at this site, including white, black, and Filipino, are visible archaeologically.
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    Archaeological Investigations at the Adams-Kilty House (18AP107) 131 Charles Street, City of Annapolis Anne Arundel County, Maryland 21401
    (2006) Jones, Alexandra; Chisholm, Amelia G.; Leone, Mark P.
    The Adams-Kilty House (18AP107) was built in the late 18th century and historical documents revealed that the property has undergone a great deal of change to its landscape and architecture over the course of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Renovations continue on the house and even were taking place during the archaeological excavations. The basement level was where African Americans lived and worked. This area was the focus of the archaeological investigations. The deposits in the home were disturbed by renovations which had been conducted in earlier times, mainly the installation of utility pipes. There were bundles of artifacts associated with West African spirit practices (nails, shards of glass, and an insulator) found in two locations within the basement, which were disturbed by a utility pipe eruption. No further investigations are recommended for this site.
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    Archaeological Investigations at the James Brice House (18AP38): A National Historic Site, 42 East Street, City of Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, Maryland
    (2000) Harmon, James M.; Neuwirth, Jessica L.
    Beginning in the summer of 1998, Archaeology In Annapolis performed a multi-phased archaeological investigation in and around the James Brice House, a National Historic Landmark with associated archaeological deposits (18AP38), located at 42 East Street in the historic District of the city of Annapolis, Maryland. The work was done under a series of contracts to the International Masonry Institute, owners of the structure. Funding for the project was provided by the IMI and the Maryland Historical Trust. A total of twenty-eight units were excavated during the initial portion of the project, and another four were excavated in support of a secondary project designed to rehabilitate the retaining wall located at the southern edge of the South Yard. In addition, several trenches excavated during construction at the site were profiled, and the lowering of the grade in the South Yard was monitored by Archaeology in Annapolis staff. Testing in the South Yard revealed evidence of a number of filling and landform modification episodes dating from the periods following construction of the Brice House up to the beginning of the twentieth century. Further evidence of twentieth century modification to the yard space was revealed in the form of a number of utility trenches and related features. Features related to no-longer extant stairs including brick piers and postholes were discovered in a number of areas. Finally, an oyster shell drainage feature and associated evidence of African-American religious practices were recovered from a trench and excavation unit at the western edge of the yard space. Excavation in the interior of the West Wing revealed the presence of three major stratigraphic units with a large number of associated structural and depositional features. The first of these depositional units consisted of twentieth century deposits associated with modification of the interior of the Wing, and the majority of this material had been recently disturbed. The second stratigraphic unit consisted of material associated with the construction of the Brice House between 1767 and 1773. The final stratigraphic unit in the West Wing consisted of structural features and a floor deposit dating to the early 18th century. This material is potentially related to a store owned by Captain John Brice and his son John Brice II. Excavations in the East Wing and Hyphen also revealed a number of stratigraphic units related to the initial construction and subsequent modification of the Brice House structure. In addition, a large deposit of late nineteenth and early twentieth century material associated with the religious practices of African-American occupants of the house was discovered beneath remnants of a brick floor in the interior of the East Wing.
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    Archaeological Investigation at Slayton House, 18AP74, Annapolis, Maryland
    (2000-05) Jones, Lynn Diekman; Leone, Mark P.
    Archaeological investigation at the Slayton House site in Annapolis revealed evidence of occupation of the lot since the early 18th century. The intact late 18th century ground surfaces on which John Ridout built the row houses, and subsequent changes in the landscape and use of the yard as work space in the 19th century were discovered. There was ample visible evidence of the early 20th century landscape and use of the yard as a pleasure garden when excavation was started. Deposits inside the house were quite disturbed, but there was evidence of the work done by the African Americans who lived there. A number of artifacts were found which may indicate the slaves and free African Americans were practicing African-related folk beliefs. No further investigations are recommended for the site. However, if severe or deep ground-disturbing activities were to take place on the property, they should be monitored by a qualified archaeologist.
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    Phase I, II and III Investigations of Wye Hall (18QU977), Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources
    (2008) Babiarz, Jennifer J.; Chisholm, Amelia; Leone, Mark P.
    This report describes a three years of investigations to further define the archaeological resources of the privately owned Wye Hall plantation (18QU977), late 18th century home of William Paca, Maryland governor and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Wye Hall is located on Wye Island on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in Queen Anne‟s County. Past archaeological work at Wye Hall, from 2000 through 2002, revealed extensive information about the design and usage of the original mansion and gardens from William Paca‟s time. The fieldwork documented in this report was centered on investigation of the area to the east of the main mansion, which is believed to be an area of enslaved habitation during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This represents the first recognized Phase III investigation of a slave quarter in Queen Anne‟s County. Therefore, the results are very important for augmenting Maryland‟s Eastern Shore narratives of the past, particularly in relation to the voice and space given to African and African American histories.
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    Phase I/II Archaeological Testing on Fleet Street (18AP111), Cornhill Street (18AP112), and 26 Market Space (18AP109), for the Proposed Fleet and Cornhill Streets Reconstruction Project, Annapolis, Maryland, 2008
    (2008) Cochran, Matthew David; Palus, Matthew M.; Duensing, Stephanie N.; Blair, John E.; Knauf, Jocelyn E.; Mundt, Jessica Leigh; Leone, Mark P.
    From 3/31/08 to 5/30/08 staff from the Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), Archaeology in Annapolis Project, conducted archaeological testing on city-owned public right-of-ways at 26 Market Space (18AP109), on Fleet Street (18AP111), and on Cornhill Street (18AP112) prior to the upcoming undergrounding and replacement of city-owned utilities along and beneath these streets. In addition, from 06/02/08 to 06/20/08, undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the University of Maryland, Field School in Urban Archaeology conducted further testing of city-owned public right-of-ways on Cornhill Street (18AP112). This Phase II investigation has been conducted at the request of the City of Annapolis, Department of Public Works (DPW) as part of the Fleet and Cornhill Streets Reconstruction Project. The project area comprises the streetscapes of what is referred to as the Fleet-Cornhill neighborhood. Eleven test units were used to evaluate archaeological integrity and significance of these sites and to evaluate the potential effects of planned construction on archaeological resources. Background research shows that the Fleet Street neighborhood was initially developed in the late 17th and early 18th century. Throughout the later 18th, 19th and 20th centuries the area became known as an ethnically diverse working class neighborhood in the heart of the city. Historical residents of the project area have included in the early 20th century native people of European, African descent, and a community of Russian Ashkenazi Jews in the early 20th century. Previous archaeological investigations found evidence of intact archaeological resources within the project area dating from the 18th to 20th centuries. In addition to providing evidence of patterns of Annapolis’ historical urbanization, several features excavated in the course of this project have shed light on the development of public space within this working class neighborhood. These features include a corduroy or log road dating to the first quarter of the 18th century; what is believed to be a Yoruba ritual bundle dating to the first quarter of the 18th century; and a series of city improvements (i.e. curbs, sidewalks, and a public well) dating from the 18th through 20th centuries. A high degree of archaeological integrity at all three sites has the potential to add considerable knowledge concerning both Annapolis city development, and an ethnically diverse working class community. All three sites are eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion D. Because of the integrity and uniqueness of the archaeological record within the project area, it is recommended that further archaeological research be done. Included within this recommendation is the need to process flotation and macrobotanical samples recovered in the field
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    Report on Archaeological Investigations Conducted at the St. Mary's Site (18AP45), 107 Duke of Gloucester Street, Annapolis, Maryland, 1987-1990
    (2002) Leone, Mark P.; Palus, Matthew M.; Kryder-Reid, Elizabeth B.; Bailey-Goldschmidt, Janice; Mullins, Paul R.; Warner, Mark; Worden, Robert L.
    In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Archaeology in Annapolis was invited to excavate the Carroll House and garden on 107 Duke of Gloucester Street in Annapolis, Maryland. The site, named the St. Mary's Site (18AP45) for the Catholic church on the property, is currently owned by the Redemptorists, a Roman Catholic congregation of priests and brothers who have occupied the site since 1852. Prior to the Redemptorists' tenure, the site was owned by the Carroll family from 1701-1852 and is perhaps best known as the home of Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737-1832), signer of the Declaration of Independence. Excavations at the site were conducted during four consecutive summer seasons from 1987-1990. The investigation focused on three research questions. The first line of inquiry were questions surrounding the dating, architectural configuration, and artifact deposits of the "frame house," a structure adjoining the west wall of the brick Carroll House via a "passage" and later a three story addition. The frame house was partially demolished in the mid-nineteenth century but the construction was thought to pre-date the brick portion of the house. The second research question was spurred by documentary research which indicated that the property might have been the location of Proctor's Tavern, a late 17th-century tavern which served as the meeting place of the Maryland Provincial Assembly. Archaeological testing hoped to determine its location and, if found, investigate Annapolis' early Euro-American occupation. The third research question focused on the landscape of the site as it was shaped by its occupants over the past three hundred years. The research questions included investigating the stratigraphy, geometry, and architectural and planting features of Charles Carroll of Carrollton's terraced garden built during the 1770s, and investigating the changes to the landscape made by the Redemptorists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While no structural evidence associated with Proctor’s Tavern was uncovered during limited excavations along Spa Creek, the historic shore of Spa Creek was identified, buried beneath deep fill deposits laid down during construction of the Carroll Garden. Features and deposits associated with this period likely remain intact in a waterlogged environment along the southeastern sea wall at the St. Mary’s Site. Evidence of extensive earth moving by Carroll is present in the garden and was identified during excavation and coring. This strongly suggests that the garden landscape visible at the St. Mary’s Site is the intact Carroll Garden, which survives beneath contemporary and late nineteenth century strata. The extant surviving garden should be considered highly sensitive to ground-disturbing activities, and is also highly significant considering demonstrable associations with the Carroll family. Other garden-related features were also discovered, including planting holes, and a brick pavilion or parapet located along Spa Creek to the south of the site. The Duke of Gloucester Street wall was shown to be associated with the Carroll occupation of the site. Finally, intensive archaeological research was directed at the vicinity of a frame house constructed and occupied by the Carrolls to the east of the existing brick house, which was replaced by the Redemptorists in the nineteenth century with a greenhouse. These superimposed buildings were documented in detail and remain highly significant features at the St. Mary’s Site.