“Bathroom Area” Mitigation
There are a great number of changes occurring at Montpelier in 2008, including the Grand Opening of the Mansion on Constitution Day (Wednesday, September 17th). As a part of these changes, construction is soon to begin upon the public bathrooms that will be located behind and to the north of the mansion, thereby hiding them from direct view from the mansion. Before any construction can take place, however, archaeological excavations are required to ensure that no historic deposits are damaged and that we have as full an understanding of the sub-surface history of Montpelier as is possible.Previous, more limited, excavations were undertaken in this area before the installation of the trailers for the Architectural Research Department (ARD). These revealed a number of interesting features – a brick layer, what appeared to be some buried topsoils, and some plow scars – that we hoped would have more light shed upon them in the expanded excavations of this field season.
Excavation of a number of units rapidly revealed the presence of several distinct fill layers: one of compacted red clay; one that was full of architectural material such as brick and mortar; and what appeared to be at least two buried topsoils (indicating that they had not removed the topsoil before adding the subsequent landscaping fills). This sequence, seen in the photograph to the right, was repeated across the project area, and, based upon the brick recovered, appears to date to the early 19th century and the filling of the rear lawn during the 1808-1812 renovations. The presence of low-fired brick rubble within these fill layers suggests the filling of the rear lawn occurred at the same time that Hugh Chisolm (the Madison’s mason) underpinned the 1765 portion of the mansion. During this underpinning, the low-fired “salmon” brick that was below grade was replaced with a higher-fired brick. The result was piles of brick rubble needing disposal and the landscape changes for the rear lawn potentially served as an advantageous locale for this rubble. Similar salmon brick was located in the excavations of clay fill at the bunker site (bunker being the underground vault in the rear lawn.
Perhaps more intriguing were the plow scars identified under the layer of architectural material and what appeared to be a buried topsoil. These linear striations appear to be linked to the overlying fill layers and actually may have been formed at the same time. Mark Wenger, architectural historian on the Montpelier restoration project, hypothesized that a plow may have been used to break up the highly compact soil present in the project area, while alternatively they may represent hitherto unknown horticultural activities. Could this area have been a garden used by the James Madison, Sr. household, later covered by James Madison, Jr. and his landscapes? Of perhaps it was exclusively a part of the massive alterations to the landscape that James Madison, Jr. authored in the early 19th century?
What do you think? Registered members of the ‘blog may leave comments by clicking the small army-green “pill-box” underneath this ‘blog entry. Let us know what you think these plow scars might represent.
Excavation will continue in the Bathroom Area for the next two weeks, after which we will be moving into the South Yard project area in preparation for the James Madison University Field School in mid-May.
