Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library

Description of the Project Area

The project area is located within the City of Williamsburg, adjacent to Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area (Figure 1). The area is located on Block 23, Lots 32 Figure 1. Project area. 2 and 33, in Colonial Williamsburg's Merchants Square at the far west end of Duke of Gloucester Street. It is bounded to the north and east by the Merchants Square parking lot, to the south by Binn's of Williamsburg Department Store, and to the west by North Boundary Street.

Excavation was concentrated on the northeast section of the lot for a number of reasons. First, archaeological testing had already taken place in the southeastern section of the lot in February 1969. This testing found intact eighteenth-century stratigraphy and features before they were destroyed by the construction of a west addition to Binn's of Williamsburg (Department of Archaeological Research, February 1969), but as this area was covered at this time, no further archaeological testing is needed. Second, photographs of the church indicate that the building covered the west side of the block and extended up to the south and west sidewalks (Block and Building Files), and construction of the church undoubtedly destroyed any archaeological deposits in this part of the block. Archaeological monitoring of the destruction of the old Methodist Church in March 1981 confirmed the lack of any significant archaeological remains underneath the church (Department of Archaeological Research, March 1981). Therefore, the only remaining area in this lot that might contain intact archaeological remains was the northeast section.

Previous Archaeology

On February 24, 1969 rescue archaeology was conducted in a small area located between Binn's of Williamsburg and the Methodist Church building (Figure 2). The area had been graded by machinery in order to begin construction of a basement Figure 2. Archaeological features found during February 1969 excavation. 3 addition to the store. A series of round and rectangular pits, all containing ash, were found, as well as part of a cellar that had been filled before the 1730s. A large number of eighteenth-century artifacts were found, including tin-glazed earthenware cups, a delftware salt, cutlery, tobacco pipes, and fragments of bottles (Department of Archaeological Research, February 1969).

Additional archaeological monitoring was conducted several times at this site in March 1981 during the destruction of the Methodist Church building. Archaeologists looked for evidence of earlier buildings and artifacts that would pre-date the church. The earliest material culture found dated to the mid-nineteenth century, but no structural remains were discovered (Department of Archaeological Research, March 1981).

Methods

The testing consisted of excavating three 75 x 75 cm (2 ½ x 2 ½ foot) units and three 10-cm (4-inch) auger holes. These holes were placed across the testing area at five-meter intervals. A grid imposed upon the testing area determined the location of these units. The datum point for this coordinate system was located to the northwest of Binn's of Williamsburg.

All units were stratigraphically excavated by hand to a depth of 1.5 meters (5 feet) using a variety of tools including shovels, trowels and an auger. Coordinates and context numbers were assigned to each test unit so that soil layers could be systematically recorded. All measurements were metric, following standard recording practices for the department.

All soil was screened through ¼-inch hardwire mesh screen in order to consistently recover artifacts. These artifacts were sent to the laboratory for analysis and storage, with the exception of modern architectural material. A representative sample of this material was saved; the rest of it was noted in the site's context records. Appendix 2 gives a complete list of recovered artifacts.

European Settlement to Society (1607-1750)

The earliest known European settlement in the vicinity of the project area was during the third and forth decades of the seventeenth century. In 1632 the House of Burgesses passed the "Act for Seating of the Middle Plantation" (Hening 1969), which called for the building of a palisade between the James and York Rivers, across what is today the City of Williamsburg. Two sections of this palisade were found-one during a Phase I survey of the proposed Second Street extension (Hunter et al. 1985) and another during the survey of the Bruton Heights School property (Muraca et al. 1992).

During the subsequent decades of the seventeenth century, Middle Plantation grew in population and importance. By 1676 Middle Plantation was considered consequential enough for Nathaniel Bacon to launch his rebellion there (Goodwin 1959). By 1693 it was important enough to be selected as the location for Virginia's first college, the College of William & Mary. By the time the General Assembly was seriously considering moving the capital there, Middle Plantation contained "a church, an ordinary, several stores, two mills, a smith's shop, a grammar school, and above all the Colledge" (reprinted in Anonymous 1930: 323-337).

In 1699 Theodorick Bland was ordered by the General Assembly to survey and lay out the new town of Williamsburg at the existing settlement of Middle Plantation. The purpose of the survey was to establish the boundaries of a new capital city for Virginia. Along with the town, two ports were included in the plan, one at Archer's Hope Creek, later known as College Creek, connecting the new city to the James River, and another at Queen's Creek, connecting the city to the York River and to Yorktown, a deep water port town established in 1691 that became Williamsburg's seaport.

Although Williamsburg was firmly established as the capital of the Virginia Colony during the first half of the eighteenth century, it remained small, with a permanent population of about 1500. As the capital, it grew enormously, if temporarily, twice yearly, during "Publick Times" when the General Assembly was in session. In spite of the growth of Williamsburg and Yorktown as commercial and cultural centers, the majority of the population remained rural throughout this period.

Colony to Nation (1750-1789)

By the mid-eighteenth century, the capital of Virginia, the largest and most prosperous English American colony, had established itself as a viable and diverse community and cultural center, although it never came to rival New York, Boston, or Philadelphia because of the rural nature of Virginia's economy. During this period, Williamsburg had a continuously operating theatre, a college, the colonies' first asylum for the insane, a host of craft industries, and taverns. The population of the town remained small, except during the great influx of people during the "Publick Times." Leaders in the move toward revolution (such as Peyton Randolph, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington) were members of the General Assembly, lived in Williamsburg, or frequently had reason to be there, making this period the most influential and exciting in Williamsburg's history.

Early National Period (1789-1830)

The effects of moving the capital from Williamsburg to Richmond in 1780 became evident in the years following the revolution. Williamsburg, and the Tidewater in general, fell into economic decline as the population and influence centers moved westward. The surrounding counties continued their agrarian orientation and the rotation of wheat and corn crops (Rochefaucauld 1799). The short-lived boom of wheat production declined sharply after the war in and with Europe came to an end. This was helped along by insect ravages and the poor quality of soil in the over-farmed Tidewater (Brown et al. 1986).

Antebellum Period (1830-1860)

During this period, agriculture continued to be the predominant economic activity in the area. Some improvement in the soil's ability to grow crops was initiated by Edmund Ruffin. Ruffin discovered that marl, a naturally-occurring outcrop of Miocene fossil shell, could be mixed with soil to mitigate its innate acidity, allowing better growing potential. Marl was an inexpensive and readily available commodity throughout the area. By 1840, wheat and corn production was up some 200% (Bruce 1932).

Industry in the mid-nineteenth century Williamsburg area included five dry goods stores, eight lumber yards, one tannery, two grist mills, a carriage manufactory, and a furniture shop. By 1860 there were fourteen mills in the area, eleven in James City and three in York County (Brown et al. 1986).

Williamsburg in 1835 consisted of 200 houses in addition to a new market house, sixteen stores, a manufactory, four mills, three tanyards, and a saddler's shop. In 1855 a new courthouse and two Baptist churches were under construction in the city (Carson 1961).

During the early nineteenth century several free black communities were established in the Williamsburg area. The most notable was Centerville, located in James City County, several miles northwest of the city. By 1850 nearly 400 free African Americans lived around Centerville, gainfully employed in agriculture and craft-related industries.

By the outbreak of the Civil War, the Williamsburg area was recovering from the economic set-backs of the late eighteenth century, both agriculturally and industrially, becoming a viable entity in Tidewater Virginia once again.

Civil War (1861-1865)

Williamsburg again became a center of activity during the first half of the Civil War as an enemy-occupied town during the Peninsula Campaign. Although no known fortifications existed within a kilometer of the project area, Fort Magruder and associated earthworks are located about three kilometers (1.8 miles) to the south.

Reconstruction and Growth (1865-1917)

The James City, York County, Williamsburg area recovered slowly from the effects of the Civil War. Agriculture was still the basis of the economy, but the lack of slave labor change farming practices. A large population of free blacks remained in the area, serving again as laborers on farms. While other parts of the country were experiencing a rise in industrialization, this area remained strongly agrarian. Large plantations were broken up into smaller farms, some owned by the slaves that once attended them (Brown et al. 1986).

The advent of the railroad in 1881 as an efficient method of transporting both people and commodities began to help the area out of its economic slumber, but not until well into the twentieth century. Unfortunately, highways fell into disrepair, probably into a worse state than they were in during the first part of the eighteenth century. The steamship also saw its rise in this period with regular stops in West Point, Williamsburg, Newport News, and Norfolk.

It should also be noted that the early preservation movement (which was to become so important to the Williamsburg area in the next period) began with activities centered around the tercentenary of the establishment of Jamestown. The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities was founded in 1889, the College of William & Mary was re-opened in 1888, President Roosevelt called national attention to Jamestown in 1907, and the Reverend W.A.R. Goodwin restored Bruton Parish Church in 1907.

World War I to Present (1917-1996)

The Williamsburg area remained largely dependent economically on farming well into the twentieth century. In the late 1920s new industries were established that would forever change the economic landscape of the Williamsburg area, historic preservation and tourism. The restoration of Virginia's second capital through the efforts of W.A.R. Goodwin and John D. Rockefeller succeeded in bringing the area out of its economic rut, causing a great deal of growth in a relatively short time. Within the last 30 years, the small farm has all but disappeared from the landscape, being replaced by shopping centers, outlet malls, and housing developments. Tourism has become the major source of income in the area. Other industries in the Williamsburg area include beer manufacturing, glass making, fibers, and a winery.

Site Specific Historical Overview

Introduction

After the original Phase II archaeological study was completed, the design of the College Corner Building changed, with the new plan calling for construction outside the area originally tested. In order to assess this expanded area of construction addition Phase II study was undertaken.

During the first week of April 2001, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's Department of Archaeological Research (D.A.R.) conducted a Phase II archaeological assessment of a 10 x 20 meter section of parking lot located within Colonial Williamsburg's Merchant's Square. An archaeological investigation was conducted in anticipation of a proposed expansion of the Merchant's Square retail space. The archaeological assessment consisted of the hand excavation, by stratigraphic layer, of six 1 x 1 meter test units in the southwest corner of the Merchant's Square parking lot. The test units were strategically placed in order to test for the presence or absence of historic deposits or features that would be destroyed by the expansion of the Merchant's Square retail space. The Phase II investigation discovered intact stratigraphy in only one of the six test units. The absence of intact stratigraphic layers in the remaining five test units is due to the presence of modern intrusions that are most likely associated with the construction of the parking lot.

Project Area and Previous Archaeology

The project area lies within a small parcel of land at the convergence of Duke of Gloucester and North Boundary streets on Block 23 of the Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area. The block is currently home to Colonial Williamsburg's Merchant's Square, a retail complex consisting of shops and restaurants catering primarily to college students and visitors to the Historic Area. The project area encompasses a 10 x 20 meter plot in the southwest corner of the Merchant's Square parking lot, bordering retailers to the north and south and adjacent to the Old Methodist Church lot on the east. The area to be investigated appears to fall primarily within colonial lot 33, but may extend to the east and west into adjacent lots 32 and 34 as well.

D.A.R. archaeologists conducted a Phase II archaeological assessment of the Old Methodist Church lot during the winter of 2000 and concluded that the surviving stratigraphic deposits were most likely either associated with the destruction of the Methodist Church in 1981 or with other modern activity on Block 23 (see the main body of this report). No pre-destruction deposits were identified and therefore no further archaeological investigations were recommended.

Research Design and Methods

Prior to the arrival of the archaeological field crew, six 1.5-meter-square sections of asphalt paving were removed from the southwest corner of the Merchant's Square parking lot to facilitate archaeological testing of the property. A metric grid was then established and six 1 x 1 meter test units were strategically placed in two parallel north-south transects of three each at five to six meter intervals (Figure 9). All test units were stratigraphically excavated by shovel and trowel to sterile subsoil. Each soil layer was assigned a unique context number and detailed descriptions of each stratigraphic component were systematically recorded. Excavated soils were passed through ¼-inch mesh screen and recovered cultural and faunal materials were retained for laboratory analysis. All artifacts were washed, inventoried, and catalogued and are currently housed at the D.A.R. laboratory facility.

2001 Phase II Assessment Results

Of the six test units excavated during the Phase II assessment, Test Unit 1 yielded the only intact stratigraphic sequence containing evidence of colonial occupation. Figure 9. Location of additional Phase II testing. 19 Once the asphalt paving was removed, a related stratum of parking lot fill, consisting basically of crushed asphalt and sand, was removed by shovel to expose a layer of olive brown silty loam. Test Unit 1 contained two modern linear trenches that intruded into the olive brown silty loam (Figure 10). The first contained a fill of mottled dark grayish brown sandy loam with several small concentrations of marl. Trench 1, 30 centimeters in width, was cored with a small auger to a depth of approximately 25 centimeters, at which point subsoil was not reached. The second trench, 15-20 centimeters in width, cut through Trench 1 as well as the layer of olive brown silty loam and contained a fill of mottled yellow and gray clays. Trench 2 was cored as well and the fill continued below a depth of 25 centimeters. A section of olive brown silty loam not impacted by Trenches 1 and 2 was excavated and found to rest atop sterile subsoil at a depth of 16 centimeters. The layer contained a number of artifacts dating from the mid to late eighteenth century, including refined ceramics, glass, iron nails, and clay smoking pipe fragments. Trenches 1 and 2 were not excavated as they continued below the level of subsoil exposed beneath the layer of olive brown silty loam.

Test Units 2, 4, 5, and 6 each contained a layer of loose asphalt and gravel in a matrix of sandy loam that lay above sterile subsoil. The fill is most likely related to the twentieth century construction of the parking lot. At the eastern edge of Test Unit 4, excavation revealed evidence of an earlier concrete parking lot with embedded cut stone cobbles. It appears as if the area west of the earlier parking lot may have been graded and covered with fill in order to create a level paving surface, and in so doing, any pre-existing stratigraphic sequences were ultimately destroyed.

Figure 10. Features found in Test Unit 1 during additional testing.

Figure 11. Profile of Test Unit 1.

Archaeologists exposed a large circular modern feature in Test Unit 3 that cut through a section of fill similar to the layer of loose asphalt and gravel discovered in Test Units 2, 4, 5, and 6. The asphalt fill was excavated to subsoil at a depth of 15 centimeters. A section of the modern disturbance was excavated and cored with a small auger and found to continue to at least a depth of 45 centimeters.

Conclusions

Positive evidence of colonial-period occupation was discovered in only one of six test units excavated in the project area during the Phase II assessment. The absence of intact stratigraphic layers in the remaining five test units is most likely due to the twentieth-century parking lot construction and expansion campaigns in the Merchant's Square retail complex. Based upon the findings of the 2001 Phase II archaeological assessment, no further archaeological investigation within the impact area is recommended.