Final Report for National Endowment for the Humanities Grant No. RO-20600-83: Salvaging the Calvert House Site

Abstract

The work funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities during the period February - July 1983 enabled emergency archaeology at the Calvert Site to be carried close to completion. The research contributed significantly to an understanding of the development of Annapolis in the colonial era. In fact, work at Calvert has proved critical to the humanistic objectives of the Annapolis Archaeology Project: understanding and assessing the impact of social and economic rank on the material remains of a colonial southern, urban center. The research was also influential in establishing an archaeologically, historically, and architecturally based preservation program. The work at Calvert helped awaken the Annapolis community to the potential that archaeological research possesses and increased the community's awareness of the many changes that the city has undergone through time. Research at Calvert was also successful in attracting private and public donations for further archaeological work in the city and, in fact, as one result of the emergency grant, Historic Annapolis has been given $27,500 in City funds to be used in preparing a city-wide plan for the preservation of below-ground historic resources. City ordinances with the same objective are also being developed. The developer, Historic Inns of Annapolis, plans construction at four additional sites in the city during the next 12-24 months and has incorporated plans to find and to preserve fragile archaeological resources into these four projects as well. Finally, the educational impact of the Calvert archaeology project on the public was immense and general public interest in the work and its findings was widespread .