Features and Feature Complexes

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A total of 106 features were encountered as a result of excavation and construction monitoring. The first 15 features were encountered during the Phase II effort while the remaining features were products of the Phase III and construction monitoring efforts. While a large number of features were identified during excavation, this section highlights those that had the greatest bearing on the overall interpretation of the site. Groupings of related features are referred to as complexes and are composed of a primary feature (for which the complex is named) and a number of associated secondary features that inform the interpretation of the primary feature. Feature 6 Complex ﷯ A plan view map showing the location of the features that comprise the Feature 6 complex and their relationship relative to both Feature 6 and the later Kendle period farmstead. The Feature 6 complex consisted of a building foundation located on the southern side of the existing house, an internal ephemeral stone wall, a hewn-log staircase (Feature 104) leading into the basement of the later brick house, a floor surface (Feature 10), and two post holes along the exterior of the foundation (Features 12 and 13) that were likely related to a porch. The physical structure of the Feature 6 foundation consisted of two courses of loosely mortared stone approximately 0.43 m wide. The western wall of the structure, while in poor condition, was still notably present. This western wall of Feature 6 ran north-south in alignment with the western wall of the brick structure’s rear ell. Fully exposed, the interior of the Feature 6 structure was divided into three chambers. The east-west wall, located just south of the brick house’s southern porch, extended the length of the structure and created a full-width chamber on the north side of the building. The north-south wall divided the southern chamber into two smaller chambers. The full-width, east-west wall contained a 1.8-m wide footer, possibly for a hearth, situated in what would have been the middle of the north wall of the eastern chamber. The two southern chambers measured 4.2 x 4.6 m (east) and 2.6 x 4.6 m (west), while the northern chamber measured 2.6 × 7.3 m. Feature Gallery
Feature 34 Complex ﷯ A plan view map showing the location of the features that comprise the Feature 34 complex. This complex was located in the cornfield to the west of the farmhouse. The Feature 34 complex consisted of a foundation and associated structural and non-structural features to the west of the main house. The main element (Feature 34) was a stone foundation that measured approximately 3.8 × 7.6 m and was divided into two roughly equal chambers by a narrow stone wall of the same construction. On the east end of the foundation was Feature 66, a brick pad or porch (78 cm × 2.19 m) that formed the eastern entrance to the structure and was directly associated with a stone threshold built into the eastern wall of Feature 34. On the south side of Feature 34 was Feature 35, a linear brick footing that likely supported a south-facing entrance and/or porch. Features 36 and 37 were short stone walls located at the southwest corner of Feature 34, but whose function is unknown. Features 68 and 78 were two post holes located to the east of Feature 34 and were likely part of a porch or overhang for the eastern end of the structure. Feature 48 was a shallow trench along the southern edge of Feature 34 that may have been a planting bed. Three historic posts, Features 82, 85, and 86 were found within the western chamber of Feature 34 and were likely related to internal features of the structure. Feature 34 was also associated with a pit midden deposit, Feature 70, located about 2.5 m to the west of the Feature 34 foundation. Feature Gallery
Feature 16 ﷯ A plan view map of Strip Block A showing the location of Feature 16. The Feature 16 cistern was located to the south of the house and just to the southeast of the southeast corner of the Feature 6 foundation (top left). Feature 16 was a large circular brick-lined shaft on the south side of the house. The shaft was approximately 3.4 m in diameter, with an interior diameter of 3.05 m. The walls of the shaft were made of a dual course of mortared brick, and the interior surface had been parged with mortar. The cut for the shaft was hacked into the natural bedrock down to a depth of 2.3 m. The space between the brick structure and the bedrock cut had been infilled with large fragments of angular rock debris, likely spoil left over from the process of quarrying out the hole for the shaft. The interior of the shaft contained several strata, all of which appeared to be late twentieth-century in origin. Two pipes, one iron, and one PVC entered the brick shaft near the top. These pipes fed into a modern concrete box septic tank that had been installed inside the shaft. This box had been inserted in the shaft, and a mass of large stone rubble had been used to fill around it. The box and the surrounding stone fill were littered with bits of yellow caution tape that was still largely legible, suggesting that it was installed in the not-too-distant past. Underneath the rock rubble and concrete tank was a deposit of brick rubble. The brick rubble was clearly a portion of the upper structure of the shaft that had been pushed into the shaft, presumably around the time the concrete septic box was installed. Much of the brick that constituted the deposit was still articulated in a partially circular arc and was still parged in the inside, thus identifying it as a portion of the shaft structure. Beneath this deposit of brick rubble, there was a deposit of wooden planks that were cut to fit the interior of the shaft. When reassembled, it became evident that the planks probably served as a lid set on a lip in the brickwork at the top of the original shaft. These planks were approximately 1–1.5 inches thick and were made of what appears to have been solid oak. No artifacts were recovered from the base of the Feature 16 excavation. The shaft had clearly been repurposed to house a septic system in the twentieth century, but its original function was likely as a cistern. Feature Gallery
Pathway and Cobbled Surfaces ﷯ A plan view map of Strip Block F showing the network of path features in the north yard. The bottom left corner of the map is the location of the northeast corner of the Kendle period farmstead. The middle right of frame, north of Trench 5 is the site of the well. Feature 74 heads north toward the barn, Features 75 and 81 both head toward the well, and Feature 101 runs east toward the meadow/orchard. Excavation revealed an extensive cobbled path and flagstone walkway network that once dominated the northeast and south yards of the dwelling house. This network was composed of Features 74, 75, 101, 81, and 95, likely built in the early nineteenth century. Soils from beneath the cobblestones of Features 74 and 95 indicated the presence of a soil horizon dating to the eighteenth century, as evidenced by the presence of mid-eighteenth century artifacts such as a piece of eight and early pipe bowls. The soil deposits on top of and amongst the stones of the pathways, by contrast, typically dated to the mid- to late-nineteenth century, indicating that these structures were in use by then. Features 74 and 95 formed a large cobbled surface on the east (possibly front) and north sides of the dwelling. Feature 74 was linear and suggested a trajectory toward the barn, while Feature 95 was more of a work yard pad. Both of these features had an approximately 6-inch wide channel running along their eastern edges, suggesting that these cobbled pathways and yards had a built-in drainage system. This drainage system, in conjunction with the network of cobbled pathways and work yard surfaces, suggests a highly engineered and functional landscape. Later flagstone pathways, such as Feature 81 and 101, cut through the cobblestone pathways leading to other destinations such as the well or the orchard. Feature Gallery
Feature 84 Feature 84 was the remnants of a barrel privy—that is, the hole left in the ground after the privy was abandoned and the wooden barrel staves decomposed. The hole, which was located between the building foundations of Feature 6 and Feature 34, was approximately 57 cm in diameter and 43 cm deep and was filled with a loose dark brown silty loam that contained a variety of historical cultural material and substantial inclusions of whitewashed wall plaster. Near the base of the feature, an iron barrel hoop with a 0.6-m (2-ft.) diameter was encountered. Based on the size of this hoop and the base width of the barrel, the original barrel would have likely stood about 1 m (3 ft.) tall and been capable of holding about 53 gallons. The interior fill of this feature contained a high volume of broken wall plaster, two leather shoe heels, a gutta-percha woman's hairbrush, several medicine vials, fabric, and sundry ceramics. Based on the diagnostic medicine bottles, the feature fill appeared to date to the second half of the nineteenth century. Feature Gallery
Features and Feature Complexes
A total of 106 features were encountered as a result of excavation and construction monitoring. The first 15 features were encountered during the Phase II effort while the remaining features were products of the Phase III and construction monitoring efforts. While a large number of features were identified during excavation, this section highlights those that had the greatest bearing on the overall interpretation of the site. Groupings of related features are referred to as complexes and are composed of a primary feature (for which the complex is named) and a number of associated secondary features that inform the interpretation of the primary feature. Feature 6 Complex ﷯ A plan view map showing the location of the features that comprise the Feature 6 complex and their relationship relative to both Feature 6 and the later Kendle period farmstead. The Feature 6 complex consisted of a building foundation located on the southern side of the existing house, an internal ephemeral stone wall, a hewn-log staircase (Feature 104) leading into the basement of the later brick house, a floor surface (Feature 10), and two post holes along the exterior of the foundation (Features 12 and 13) that were likely related to a porch. The physical structure of the Feature 6 foundation consisted of two courses of loosely mortared stone approximately 0.43 m wide. The western wall of the structure, while in poor condition, was still notably present. This western wall of Feature 6 ran north-south in alignment with the western wall of the brick structure’s rear ell. Fully exposed, the interior of the Feature 6 structure was divided into three chambers. The east-west wall, located just south of the brick house’s southern porch, extended the length of the structure and created a full-width chamber on the north side of the building. The north-south wall divided the southern chamber into two smaller chambers. The full-width, east-west wall contained a 1.8-m wide footer, possibly for a hearth, situated in what would have been the middle of the north wall of the eastern chamber. The two southern chambers measured 4.2 x 4.6 m (east) and 2.6 x 4.6 m (west), while the northern chamber measured 2.6 × 7.3 m. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of Feature 6, partially exposed (north is at the top of the image). The north wall of the feature, which cannot be seen in this view because it is beneath the brick structure at the top of the photograph, was uncovered during demolition monitoring, confirming a building dimension of 9 m east-west × 8.3 m north-south. The north wall of Feature 6 abutted the south wall of the brick house’s rear ell and given that the two foundations were aligned it is likely that what became the rear ell was originally built as an addition to Feature 6. Two foundations abutting one another. On the left is the foundation of the brick house’s rear ell, and on the right is the northernmost end of Feature 6, beneath the brick wall of the later house. This portion of Feature 6 was incorporated into the newer house and formed part of the foundation for the rear ell. Feature 104 was uncovered beneath the concrete porch on the south side of the rear ell of the house during construction monitoring. The feature consisted of a wooden staircase made of hand-hewn timber treads descending into the basement of the house’s rear ell. These treads were fixed in place not only by the sidewalls but by a thick deposit of lime mortar. The staircase was roughly 1 m wide and was lined on both sides by mortared limestone walls that appeared in some places to have been whitewashed. The wooden stairway terminated at a filled-in door in the south wall of the rear ell basement, visible in the foreground, at the base of the stairs. The stone footer for the later porch that capped this feature is visible in the background.
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Feature 34 Complex ﷯ A plan view map showing the location of the features that comprise the Feature 34 complex. This complex was located in the cornfield to the west of the farmhouse. The Feature 34 complex consisted of a foundation and associated structural and non-structural features to the west of the main house. The main element (Feature 34) was a stone foundation that measured approximately 3.8 × 7.6 m and was divided into two roughly equal chambers by a narrow stone wall of the same construction. On the east end of the foundation was Feature 66, a brick pad or porch (78 cm × 2.19 m) that formed the eastern entrance to the structure and was directly associated with a stone threshold built into the eastern wall of Feature 34. On the south side of Feature 34 was Feature 35, a linear brick footing that likely supported a south-facing entrance and/or porch. Features 36 and 37 were short stone walls located at the southwest corner of Feature 34, but whose function is unknown. Features 68 and 78 were two post holes located to the east of Feature 34 and were likely part of a porch or overhang for the eastern end of the structure. Feature 48 was a shallow trench along the southern edge of Feature 34 that may have been a planting bed. Three historic posts, Features 82, 85, and 86 were found within the western chamber of Feature 34 and were likely related to internal features of the structure. Feature 34 was also associated with a pit midden deposit, Feature 70, located about 2.5 m to the west of the Feature 34 foundation. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of the Feature 34 complex (north is at the top of the photograph). The brick pad or porch on the eastern end of the building has been excavated, and only its footprint remains. The two holes directly to its east may have housed posts that supported a porch overhang. Feature 70, the trash-filled pit to the west of the structure, is not visible in this view. The brick L-shaped structure on the south of the foundation is Feature 35 a likely porch footing.
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Feature 16 ﷯ A plan view map of Strip Block A showing the location of Feature 16. The Feature 16 cistern was located to the south of the house and just to the southeast of the southeast corner of the Feature 6 foundation (top left). Feature 16 was a large circular brick-lined shaft on the south side of the house. The shaft was approximately 3.4 m in diameter, with an interior diameter of 3.05 m. The walls of the shaft were made of a dual course of mortared brick, and the interior surface had been parged with mortar. The cut for the shaft was hacked into the natural bedrock down to a depth of 2.3 m. The space between the brick structure and the bedrock cut had been infilled with large fragments of angular rock debris, likely spoil left over from the process of quarrying out the hole for the shaft. The interior of the shaft contained several strata, all of which appeared to be late twentieth-century in origin. Two pipes, one iron, and one PVC entered the brick shaft near the top. These pipes fed into a modern concrete box septic tank that had been installed inside the shaft. This box had been inserted in the shaft, and a mass of large stone rubble had been used to fill around it. The box and the surrounding stone fill were littered with bits of yellow caution tape that was still largely legible, suggesting that it was installed in the not-too-distant past. Underneath the rock rubble and concrete tank was a deposit of brick rubble. The brick rubble was clearly a portion of the upper structure of the shaft that had been pushed into the shaft, presumably around the time the concrete septic box was installed. Much of the brick that constituted the deposit was still articulated in a partially circular arc and was still parged in the inside, thus identifying it as a portion of the shaft structure. Beneath this deposit of brick rubble, there was a deposit of wooden planks that were cut to fit the interior of the shaft. When reassembled, it became evident that the planks probably served as a lid set on a lip in the brickwork at the top of the original shaft. These planks were approximately 1–1.5 inches thick and were made of what appears to have been solid oak. No artifacts were recovered from the base of the Feature 16 excavation. The shaft had clearly been repurposed to house a septic system in the twentieth century, but its original function was likely as a cistern. Feature Gallery
Top of the brick cistern, before excavation. The patterning of the brick alternated by course with one course being composed of an exterior ring arranged in a running bond with the interior bricks being placed perpendicular end-to-end. This pattern was then inverted on the next course with the interior ring being comprised of a running bond and the exterior ring arranged end-to-end. This gave the structure of the brick a banded appearance. The bricks all appeared to be handmade and bore no stamp or impressed design to suggest a manufacturer. The cistern after excavation had been completed. The bottom of the shaft was a continuous slab of flat bedrock that looked water-worn and almost polished. Together with the parging on the sidewalls, the bedrock base indicated that this structure was designed to retain liquid and probably originally served as a cistern.
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Pathway and Cobbled Surfaces ﷯ A plan view map of Strip Block F showing the network of path features in the north yard. The bottom left corner of the map is the location of the northeast corner of the Kendle period farmstead. The middle right of frame, north of Trench 5 is the site of the well. Feature 74 heads north toward the barn, Features 75 and 81 both head toward the well, and Feature 101 runs east toward the meadow/orchard. Excavation revealed an extensive cobbled path and flagstone walkway network that once dominated the northeast and south yards of the dwelling house. This network was composed of Features 74, 75, 101, 81, and 95, likely built in the early nineteenth century. Soils from beneath the cobblestones of Features 74 and 95 indicated the presence of a soil horizon dating to the eighteenth century, as evidenced by the presence of mid-eighteenth century artifacts such as a piece of eight and early pipe bowls. The soil deposits on top of and amongst the stones of the pathways, by contrast, typically dated to the mid- to late-nineteenth century, indicating that these structures were in use by then. Features 74 and 95 formed a large cobbled surface on the east (possibly front) and north sides of the dwelling. Feature 74 was linear and suggested a trajectory toward the barn, while Feature 95 was more of a work yard pad. Both of these features had an approximately 6-inch wide channel running along their eastern edges, suggesting that these cobbled pathways and yards had a built-in drainage system. This drainage system, in conjunction with the network of cobbled pathways and work yard surfaces, suggests a highly engineered and functional landscape. Later flagstone pathways, such as Feature 81 and 101, cut through the cobblestone pathways leading to other destinations such as the well or the orchard. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of the Feature 74 cobbled pathway located in the north yard of the farmstead (north is to the left). The northeast corner of the brick farmhouse, which cuts into the pathway, is visible in the lower right corner of the frame. The ghost of disturbance from a pipe cut leading to the well can be seen cutting through the pathway at an angle from this corner of the house. The excavated section near the sign board in the middle of frame was dug by archaeologists to examine the structure of the pathway in profile and to see what was underneath. At the center-left of the frame two drain channels are visible--one that cuts through the pathway and one that runs parallel to it, at the top of the frame. The cruder portion of the path at the left side of the frame is a spur leading toward the chickenhouse but was highly disturbed by the later driveway so its terminus is unknown. View of Feature 75, another cobbled pathway in the north yard of the Kendle period house, as it was uncovered during excavation. The brick farmhouse is in the background, and the photograph was taken from the well, showing how the pathway connected the well to the house complex. The other major cobbled pathway, Feature 74, is visible on the right side of the frame. Planview photograph of the excavation of Feature 81, a flagstone pathway leading to the well. The intact flagstone can be seen on the right side of the frame. To the left, the flagstone has been removed and the stone and soil below it removed down to sterile subsoil. This was done to explore the building sequence of the features, demonstrating that the Feature 81 flagstone pathway sat on top of the Feature 75 cobble pathway. Portions of the cobbles can be seen beneath the flagstone and at the bottom of the frame. This indicates that the Feature 81 flagstone pathway replaced the Feature 75 cobbled pathway as the route to the well. Planview of the drain on the east edge of the Feature 95 cobble surface. This photograph shows a section of drain identified just to the south of the southeast edge of the Kendle period house. This drain channel forms the eastern edge of the Feature 95 cobbled work pad that extended all the way west to Feature 6. This drain is similar in construction to the drain along the eastern edge of Feature 75 and likely functioned as part of the same drainage system. Planview photograph of a portion of the Feature 95 cobble surface (north is bottom of frame). This cobbled surface extended all the way west to the Feature 6 foundation. A large portion of the area in the right of frame was excavated through the surface in order to examine the ground beneath for earlier features. In the left of the image a surviving section of drain channel that ran along the eastern edge of the Feature 95 cobbled surface can be seen. At the bottom of the frame is an excavated area of disturbance to the cobble pad which runs along the south wall of the Kendle period house. This disturbance was labeled Feature 96 and was determined to have likely been the result of a flower bed trench.
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Feature 84 Feature 84 was the remnants of a barrel privy—that is, the hole left in the ground after the privy was abandoned and the wooden barrel staves decomposed. The hole, which was located between the building foundations of Feature 6 and Feature 34, was approximately 57 cm in diameter and 43 cm deep and was filled with a loose dark brown silty loam that contained a variety of historical cultural material and substantial inclusions of whitewashed wall plaster. Near the base of the feature, an iron barrel hoop with a 0.6-m (2-ft.) diameter was encountered. Based on the size of this hoop and the base width of the barrel, the original barrel would have likely stood about 1 m (3 ft.) tall and been capable of holding about 53 gallons. The interior fill of this feature contained a high volume of broken wall plaster, two leather shoe heels, a gutta-percha woman's hairbrush, several medicine vials, fabric, and sundry ceramics. Based on the diagnostic medicine bottles, the feature fill appeared to date to the second half of the nineteenth century. Feature Gallery
Planview of the Feature 84 barrel privy at the conclusion of excavation. This feature was located within Strip Block E just to the west of a large tree. The barrel shape of the cut is evident, and the remnants of the iron barrel hoop are still visible at the base of the excavation. To create a privy, a barrel would have been sunk into the earth and an outhouse shelter placed over top. Lining the privy pit with a barrel made it easier to clean out.
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Features and Feature Complexes
A total of 106 features were encountered as a result of excavation and construction monitoring. The first 15 features were encountered during the Phase II effort while the remaining features were products of the Phase III and construction monitoring efforts. While a large number of features were identified during excavation, this section highlights those that had the greatest bearing on the overall interpretation of the site. Groupings of related features are referred to as complexes and are composed of a primary feature (for which the complex is named) and a number of associated secondary features that inform the interpretation of the primary feature. Feature 6 Complex ﷯ A plan view map showing the location of the features that comprise the Feature 6 complex and their relationship relative to both Feature 6 and the later Kendle period farmstead. The Feature 6 complex consisted of a building foundation located on the southern side of the existing house, an internal ephemeral stone wall, a hewn-log staircase (Feature 104) leading into the basement of the later brick house, a floor surface (Feature 10), and two post holes along the exterior of the foundation (Features 12 and 13) that were likely related to a porch. The physical structure of the Feature 6 foundation consisted of two courses of loosely mortared stone approximately 0.43 m wide. The western wall of the structure, while in poor condition, was still notably present. This western wall of Feature 6 ran north-south in alignment with the western wall of the brick structure’s rear ell. Fully exposed, the interior of the Feature 6 structure was divided into three chambers. The east-west wall, located just south of the brick house’s southern porch, extended the length of the structure and created a full-width chamber on the north side of the building. The north-south wall divided the southern chamber into two smaller chambers. The full-width, east-west wall contained a 1.8-m wide footer, possibly for a hearth, situated in what would have been the middle of the north wall of the eastern chamber. The two southern chambers measured 4.2 x 4.6 m (east) and 2.6 x 4.6 m (west), while the northern chamber measured 2.6 × 7.3 m. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of Feature 6, partially exposed (north is at the top of the image). The north wall of the feature, which cannot be seen in this view because it is beneath the brick structure at the top of the photograph, was uncovered during demolition monitoring, confirming a building dimension of 9 m east-west × 8.3 m north-south. The north wall of Feature 6 abutted the south wall of the brick house’s rear ell and given that the two foundations were aligned it is likely that what became the rear ell was originally built as an addition to Feature 6. Two foundations abutting one another. On the left is the foundation of the brick house’s rear ell, and on the right is the northernmost end of Feature 6, beneath the brick wall of the later house. This portion of Feature 6 was incorporated into the newer house and formed part of the foundation for the rear ell. Feature 104 was uncovered beneath the concrete porch on the south side of the rear ell of the house during construction monitoring. The feature consisted of a wooden staircase made of hand-hewn timber treads descending into the basement of the house’s rear ell. These treads were fixed in place not only by the sidewalls but by a thick deposit of lime mortar. The staircase was roughly 1 m wide and was lined on both sides by mortared limestone walls that appeared in some places to have been whitewashed. The wooden stairway terminated at a filled-in door in the south wall of the rear ell basement, visible in the foreground, at the base of the stairs. The stone footer for the later porch that capped this feature is visible in the background.
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Feature 34 Complex ﷯ A plan view map showing the location of the features that comprise the Feature 34 complex. This complex was located in the cornfield to the west of the farmhouse. The Feature 34 complex consisted of a foundation and associated structural and non-structural features to the west of the main house. The main element (Feature 34) was a stone foundation that measured approximately 3.8 × 7.6 m and was divided into two roughly equal chambers by a narrow stone wall of the same construction. On the east end of the foundation was Feature 66, a brick pad or porch (78 cm × 2.19 m) that formed the eastern entrance to the structure and was directly associated with a stone threshold built into the eastern wall of Feature 34. On the south side of Feature 34 was Feature 35, a linear brick footing that likely supported a south-facing entrance and/or porch. Features 36 and 37 were short stone walls located at the southwest corner of Feature 34, but whose function is unknown. Features 68 and 78 were two post holes located to the east of Feature 34 and were likely part of a porch or overhang for the eastern end of the structure. Feature 48 was a shallow trench along the southern edge of Feature 34 that may have been a planting bed. Three historic posts, Features 82, 85, and 86 were found within the western chamber of Feature 34 and were likely related to internal features of the structure. Feature 34 was also associated with a pit midden deposit, Feature 70, located about 2.5 m to the west of the Feature 34 foundation. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of the Feature 34 complex (north is at the top of the photograph). The brick pad or porch on the eastern end of the building has been excavated, and only its footprint remains. The two holes directly to its east may have housed posts that supported a porch overhang. Feature 70, the trash-filled pit to the west of the structure, is not visible in this view. The brick L-shaped structure on the south of the foundation is Feature 35 a likely porch footing.
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Feature 16 ﷯ A plan view map of Strip Block A showing the location of Feature 16. The Feature 16 cistern was located to the south of the house and just to the southeast of the southeast corner of the Feature 6 foundation (top left). Feature 16 was a large circular brick-lined shaft on the south side of the house. The shaft was approximately 3.4 m in diameter, with an interior diameter of 3.05 m. The walls of the shaft were made of a dual course of mortared brick, and the interior surface had been parged with mortar. The cut for the shaft was hacked into the natural bedrock down to a depth of 2.3 m. The space between the brick structure and the bedrock cut had been infilled with large fragments of angular rock debris, likely spoil left over from the process of quarrying out the hole for the shaft. The interior of the shaft contained several strata, all of which appeared to be late twentieth-century in origin. Two pipes, one iron, and one PVC entered the brick shaft near the top. These pipes fed into a modern concrete box septic tank that had been installed inside the shaft. This box had been inserted in the shaft, and a mass of large stone rubble had been used to fill around it. The box and the surrounding stone fill were littered with bits of yellow caution tape that was still largely legible, suggesting that it was installed in the not-too-distant past. Underneath the rock rubble and concrete tank was a deposit of brick rubble. The brick rubble was clearly a portion of the upper structure of the shaft that had been pushed into the shaft, presumably around the time the concrete septic box was installed. Much of the brick that constituted the deposit was still articulated in a partially circular arc and was still parged in the inside, thus identifying it as a portion of the shaft structure. Beneath this deposit of brick rubble, there was a deposit of wooden planks that were cut to fit the interior of the shaft. When reassembled, it became evident that the planks probably served as a lid set on a lip in the brickwork at the top of the original shaft. These planks were approximately 1–1.5 inches thick and were made of what appears to have been solid oak. No artifacts were recovered from the base of the Feature 16 excavation. The shaft had clearly been repurposed to house a septic system in the twentieth century, but its original function was likely as a cistern. Feature Gallery
Top of the brick cistern, before excavation. The patterning of the brick alternated by course with one course being composed of an exterior ring arranged in a running bond with the interior bricks being placed perpendicular end-to-end. This pattern was then inverted on the next course with the interior ring being comprised of a running bond and the exterior ring arranged end-to-end. This gave the structure of the brick a banded appearance. The bricks all appeared to be handmade and bore no stamp or impressed design to suggest a manufacturer. The cistern after excavation had been completed. The bottom of the shaft was a continuous slab of flat bedrock that looked water-worn and almost polished. Together with the parging on the sidewalls, the bedrock base indicated that this structure was designed to retain liquid and probably originally served as a cistern.
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Pathway and Cobbled Surfaces ﷯ A plan view map of Strip Block F showing the network of path features in the north yard. The bottom left corner of the map is the location of the northeast corner of the Kendle period farmstead. The middle right of frame, north of Trench 5 is the site of the well. Feature 74 heads north toward the barn, Features 75 and 81 both head toward the well, and Feature 101 runs east toward the meadow/orchard. Excavation revealed an extensive cobbled path and flagstone walkway network that once dominated the northeast and south yards of the dwelling house. This network was composed of Features 74, 75, 101, 81, and 95, likely built in the early nineteenth century. Soils from beneath the cobblestones of Features 74 and 95 indicated the presence of a soil horizon dating to the eighteenth century, as evidenced by the presence of mid-eighteenth century artifacts such as a piece of eight and early pipe bowls. The soil deposits on top of and amongst the stones of the pathways, by contrast, typically dated to the mid- to late-nineteenth century, indicating that these structures were in use by then. Features 74 and 95 formed a large cobbled surface on the east (possibly front) and north sides of the dwelling. Feature 74 was linear and suggested a trajectory toward the barn, while Feature 95 was more of a work yard pad. Both of these features had an approximately 6-inch wide channel running along their eastern edges, suggesting that these cobbled pathways and yards had a built-in drainage system. This drainage system, in conjunction with the network of cobbled pathways and work yard surfaces, suggests a highly engineered and functional landscape. Later flagstone pathways, such as Feature 81 and 101, cut through the cobblestone pathways leading to other destinations such as the well or the orchard. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of the Feature 74 cobbled pathway located in the north yard of the farmstead (north is to the left). The northeast corner of the brick farmhouse, which cuts into the pathway, is visible in the lower right corner of the frame. The ghost of disturbance from a pipe cut leading to the well can be seen cutting through the pathway at an angle from this corner of the house. The excavated section near the sign board in the middle of frame was dug by archaeologists to examine the structure of the pathway in profile and to see what was underneath. At the center-left of the frame two drain channels are visible--one that cuts through the pathway and one that runs parallel to it, at the top of the frame. The cruder portion of the path at the left side of the frame is a spur leading toward the chickenhouse but was highly disturbed by the later driveway so its terminus is unknown. View of Feature 75, another cobbled pathway in the north yard of the Kendle period house, as it was uncovered during excavation. The brick farmhouse is in the background, and the photograph was taken from the well, showing how the pathway connected the well to the house complex. The other major cobbled pathway, Feature 74, is visible on the right side of the frame. Planview photograph of the excavation of Feature 81, a flagstone pathway leading to the well. The intact flagstone can be seen on the right side of the frame. To the left, the flagstone has been removed and the stone and soil below it removed down to sterile subsoil. This was done to explore the building sequence of the features, demonstrating that the Feature 81 flagstone pathway sat on top of the Feature 75 cobble pathway. Portions of the cobbles can be seen beneath the flagstone and at the bottom of the frame. This indicates that the Feature 81 flagstone pathway replaced the Feature 75 cobbled pathway as the route to the well. Planview of the drain on the east edge of the Feature 95 cobble surface. This photograph shows a section of drain identified just to the south of the southeast edge of the Kendle period house. This drain channel forms the eastern edge of the Feature 95 cobbled work pad that extended all the way west to Feature 6. This drain is similar in construction to the drain along the eastern edge of Feature 75 and likely functioned as part of the same drainage system. Planview photograph of a portion of the Feature 95 cobble surface (north is bottom of frame). This cobbled surface extended all the way west to the Feature 6 foundation. A large portion of the area in the right of frame was excavated through the surface in order to examine the ground beneath for earlier features. In the left of the image a surviving section of drain channel that ran along the eastern edge of the Feature 95 cobbled surface can be seen. At the bottom of the frame is an excavated area of disturbance to the cobble pad which runs along the south wall of the Kendle period house. This disturbance was labeled Feature 96 and was determined to have likely been the result of a flower bed trench.
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Feature 84 Feature 84 was the remnants of a barrel privy—that is, the hole left in the ground after the privy was abandoned and the wooden barrel staves decomposed. The hole, which was located between the building foundations of Feature 6 and Feature 34, was approximately 57 cm in diameter and 43 cm deep and was filled with a loose dark brown silty loam that contained a variety of historical cultural material and substantial inclusions of whitewashed wall plaster. Near the base of the feature, an iron barrel hoop with a 0.6-m (2-ft.) diameter was encountered. Based on the size of this hoop and the base width of the barrel, the original barrel would have likely stood about 1 m (3 ft.) tall and been capable of holding about 53 gallons. The interior fill of this feature contained a high volume of broken wall plaster, two leather shoe heels, a gutta-percha woman's hairbrush, several medicine vials, fabric, and sundry ceramics. Based on the diagnostic medicine bottles, the feature fill appeared to date to the second half of the nineteenth century. Feature Gallery
Planview of the Feature 84 barrel privy at the conclusion of excavation. This feature was located within Strip Block E just to the west of a large tree. The barrel shape of the cut is evident, and the remnants of the iron barrel hoop are still visible at the base of the excavation. To create a privy, a barrel would have been sunk into the earth and an outhouse shelter placed over top. Lining the privy pit with a barrel made it easier to clean out.
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Features and Feature Complexes
A total of 106 features were encountered as a result of excavation and construction monitoring. The first 15 features were encountered during the Phase II effort while the remaining features were products of the Phase III and construction monitoring efforts. While a large number of features were identified during excavation, this section highlights those that had the greatest bearing on the overall interpretation of the site. Groupings of related features are referred to as complexes and are composed of a primary feature (for which the complex is named) and a number of associated secondary features that inform the interpretation of the primary feature. Feature 6 Complex ﷯ A plan view map showing the location of the features that comprise the Feature 6 complex and their relationship relative to both Feature 6 and the later Kendle period farmstead. The Feature 6 complex consisted of a building foundation located on the southern side of the existing house, an internal ephemeral stone wall, a hewn-log staircase (Feature 104) leading into the basement of the later brick house, a floor surface (Feature 10), and two post holes along the exterior of the foundation (Features 12 and 13) that were likely related to a porch. The physical structure of the Feature 6 foundation consisted of two courses of loosely mortared stone approximately 0.43 m wide. The western wall of the structure, while in poor condition, was still notably present. This western wall of Feature 6 ran north-south in alignment with the western wall of the brick structure’s rear ell. Fully exposed, the interior of the Feature 6 structure was divided into three chambers. The east-west wall, located just south of the brick house’s southern porch, extended the length of the structure and created a full-width chamber on the north side of the building. The north-south wall divided the southern chamber into two smaller chambers. The full-width, east-west wall contained a 1.8-m wide footer, possibly for a hearth, situated in what would have been the middle of the north wall of the eastern chamber. The two southern chambers measured 4.2 x 4.6 m (east) and 2.6 x 4.6 m (west), while the northern chamber measured 2.6 × 7.3 m. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of Feature 6, partially exposed (north is at the top of the image). The north wall of the feature, which cannot be seen in this view because it is beneath the brick structure at the top of the photograph, was uncovered during demolition monitoring, confirming a building dimension of 9 m east-west × 8.3 m north-south. The north wall of Feature 6 abutted the south wall of the brick house’s rear ell and given that the two foundations were aligned it is likely that what became the rear ell was originally built as an addition to Feature 6. Two foundations abutting one another. On the left is the foundation of the brick house’s rear ell, and on the right is the northernmost end of Feature 6, beneath the brick wall of the later house. This portion of Feature 6 was incorporated into the newer house and formed part of the foundation for the rear ell. Feature 104 was uncovered beneath the concrete porch on the south side of the rear ell of the house during construction monitoring. The feature consisted of a wooden staircase made of hand-hewn timber treads descending into the basement of the house’s rear ell. These treads were fixed in place not only by the sidewalls but by a thick deposit of lime mortar. The staircase was roughly 1 m wide and was lined on both sides by mortared limestone walls that appeared in some places to have been whitewashed. The wooden stairway terminated at a filled-in door in the south wall of the rear ell basement, visible in the foreground, at the base of the stairs. The stone footer for the later porch that capped this feature is visible in the background.
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Feature 34 Complex ﷯ A plan view map showing the location of the features that comprise the Feature 34 complex. This complex was located in the cornfield to the west of the farmhouse. The Feature 34 complex consisted of a foundation and associated structural and non-structural features to the west of the main house. The main element (Feature 34) was a stone foundation that measured approximately 3.8 × 7.6 m and was divided into two roughly equal chambers by a narrow stone wall of the same construction. On the east end of the foundation was Feature 66, a brick pad or porch (78 cm × 2.19 m) that formed the eastern entrance to the structure and was directly associated with a stone threshold built into the eastern wall of Feature 34. On the south side of Feature 34 was Feature 35, a linear brick footing that likely supported a south-facing entrance and/or porch. Features 36 and 37 were short stone walls located at the southwest corner of Feature 34, but whose function is unknown. Features 68 and 78 were two post holes located to the east of Feature 34 and were likely part of a porch or overhang for the eastern end of the structure. Feature 48 was a shallow trench along the southern edge of Feature 34 that may have been a planting bed. Three historic posts, Features 82, 85, and 86 were found within the western chamber of Feature 34 and were likely related to internal features of the structure. Feature 34 was also associated with a pit midden deposit, Feature 70, located about 2.5 m to the west of the Feature 34 foundation. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of the Feature 34 complex (north is at the top of the photograph). The brick pad or porch on the eastern end of the building has been excavated, and only its footprint remains. The two holes directly to its east may have housed posts that supported a porch overhang. Feature 70, the trash-filled pit to the west of the structure, is not visible in this view. The brick L-shaped structure on the south of the foundation is Feature 35 a likely porch footing.
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Feature 16 ﷯ A plan view map of Strip Block A showing the location of Feature 16. The Feature 16 cistern was located to the south of the house and just to the southeast of the southeast corner of the Feature 6 foundation (top left). Feature 16 was a large circular brick-lined shaft on the south side of the house. The shaft was approximately 3.4 m in diameter, with an interior diameter of 3.05 m. The walls of the shaft were made of a dual course of mortared brick, and the interior surface had been parged with mortar. The cut for the shaft was hacked into the natural bedrock down to a depth of 2.3 m. The space between the brick structure and the bedrock cut had been infilled with large fragments of angular rock debris, likely spoil left over from the process of quarrying out the hole for the shaft. The interior of the shaft contained several strata, all of which appeared to be late twentieth-century in origin. Two pipes, one iron, and one PVC entered the brick shaft near the top. These pipes fed into a modern concrete box septic tank that had been installed inside the shaft. This box had been inserted in the shaft, and a mass of large stone rubble had been used to fill around it. The box and the surrounding stone fill were littered with bits of yellow caution tape that was still largely legible, suggesting that it was installed in the not-too-distant past. Underneath the rock rubble and concrete tank was a deposit of brick rubble. The brick rubble was clearly a portion of the upper structure of the shaft that had been pushed into the shaft, presumably around the time the concrete septic box was installed. Much of the brick that constituted the deposit was still articulated in a partially circular arc and was still parged in the inside, thus identifying it as a portion of the shaft structure. Beneath this deposit of brick rubble, there was a deposit of wooden planks that were cut to fit the interior of the shaft. When reassembled, it became evident that the planks probably served as a lid set on a lip in the brickwork at the top of the original shaft. These planks were approximately 1–1.5 inches thick and were made of what appears to have been solid oak. No artifacts were recovered from the base of the Feature 16 excavation. The shaft had clearly been repurposed to house a septic system in the twentieth century, but its original function was likely as a cistern. Feature Gallery
Top of the brick cistern, before excavation. The patterning of the brick alternated by course with one course being composed of an exterior ring arranged in a running bond with the interior bricks being placed perpendicular end-to-end. This pattern was then inverted on the next course with the interior ring being comprised of a running bond and the exterior ring arranged end-to-end. This gave the structure of the brick a banded appearance. The bricks all appeared to be handmade and bore no stamp or impressed design to suggest a manufacturer. The cistern after excavation had been completed. The bottom of the shaft was a continuous slab of flat bedrock that looked water-worn and almost polished. Together with the parging on the sidewalls, the bedrock base indicated that this structure was designed to retain liquid and probably originally served as a cistern.
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Pathway and Cobbled Surfaces ﷯ A plan view map of Strip Block F showing the network of path features in the north yard. The bottom left corner of the map is the location of the northeast corner of the Kendle period farmstead. The middle right of frame, north of Trench 5 is the site of the well. Feature 74 heads north toward the barn, Features 75 and 81 both head toward the well, and Feature 101 runs east toward the meadow/orchard. Excavation revealed an extensive cobbled path and flagstone walkway network that once dominated the northeast and south yards of the dwelling house. This network was composed of Features 74, 75, 101, 81, and 95, likely built in the early nineteenth century. Soils from beneath the cobblestones of Features 74 and 95 indicated the presence of a soil horizon dating to the eighteenth century, as evidenced by the presence of mid-eighteenth century artifacts such as a piece of eight and early pipe bowls. The soil deposits on top of and amongst the stones of the pathways, by contrast, typically dated to the mid- to late-nineteenth century, indicating that these structures were in use by then. Features 74 and 95 formed a large cobbled surface on the east (possibly front) and north sides of the dwelling. Feature 74 was linear and suggested a trajectory toward the barn, while Feature 95 was more of a work yard pad. Both of these features had an approximately 6-inch wide channel running along their eastern edges, suggesting that these cobbled pathways and yards had a built-in drainage system. This drainage system, in conjunction with the network of cobbled pathways and work yard surfaces, suggests a highly engineered and functional landscape. Later flagstone pathways, such as Feature 81 and 101, cut through the cobblestone pathways leading to other destinations such as the well or the orchard. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of the Feature 74 cobbled pathway located in the north yard of the farmstead (north is to the left). The northeast corner of the brick farmhouse, which cuts into the pathway, is visible in the lower right corner of the frame. The ghost of disturbance from a pipe cut leading to the well can be seen cutting through the pathway at an angle from this corner of the house. The excavated section near the sign board in the middle of frame was dug by archaeologists to examine the structure of the pathway in profile and to see what was underneath. At the center-left of the frame two drain channels are visible--one that cuts through the pathway and one that runs parallel to it, at the top of the frame. The cruder portion of the path at the left side of the frame is a spur leading toward the chickenhouse but was highly disturbed by the later driveway so its terminus is unknown. View of Feature 75, another cobbled pathway in the north yard of the Kendle period house, as it was uncovered during excavation. The brick farmhouse is in the background, and the photograph was taken from the well, showing how the pathway connected the well to the house complex. The other major cobbled pathway, Feature 74, is visible on the right side of the frame. Planview photograph of the excavation of Feature 81, a flagstone pathway leading to the well. The intact flagstone can be seen on the right side of the frame. To the left, the flagstone has been removed and the stone and soil below it removed down to sterile subsoil. This was done to explore the building sequence of the features, demonstrating that the Feature 81 flagstone pathway sat on top of the Feature 75 cobble pathway. Portions of the cobbles can be seen beneath the flagstone and at the bottom of the frame. This indicates that the Feature 81 flagstone pathway replaced the Feature 75 cobbled pathway as the route to the well. Planview of the drain on the east edge of the Feature 95 cobble surface. This photograph shows a section of drain identified just to the south of the southeast edge of the Kendle period house. This drain channel forms the eastern edge of the Feature 95 cobbled work pad that extended all the way west to Feature 6. This drain is similar in construction to the drain along the eastern edge of Feature 75 and likely functioned as part of the same drainage system. Planview photograph of a portion of the Feature 95 cobble surface (north is bottom of frame). This cobbled surface extended all the way west to the Feature 6 foundation. A large portion of the area in the right of frame was excavated through the surface in order to examine the ground beneath for earlier features. In the left of the image a surviving section of drain channel that ran along the eastern edge of the Feature 95 cobbled surface can be seen. At the bottom of the frame is an excavated area of disturbance to the cobble pad which runs along the south wall of the Kendle period house. This disturbance was labeled Feature 96 and was determined to have likely been the result of a flower bed trench.
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Feature 84 Feature 84 was the remnants of a barrel privy—that is, the hole left in the ground after the privy was abandoned and the wooden barrel staves decomposed. The hole, which was located between the building foundations of Feature 6 and Feature 34, was approximately 57 cm in diameter and 43 cm deep and was filled with a loose dark brown silty loam that contained a variety of historical cultural material and substantial inclusions of whitewashed wall plaster. Near the base of the feature, an iron barrel hoop with a 0.6-m (2-ft.) diameter was encountered. Based on the size of this hoop and the base width of the barrel, the original barrel would have likely stood about 1 m (3 ft.) tall and been capable of holding about 53 gallons. The interior fill of this feature contained a high volume of broken wall plaster, two leather shoe heels, a gutta-percha woman's hairbrush, several medicine vials, fabric, and sundry ceramics. Based on the diagnostic medicine bottles, the feature fill appeared to date to the second half of the nineteenth century. Feature Gallery
Planview of the Feature 84 barrel privy at the conclusion of excavation. This feature was located within Strip Block E just to the west of a large tree. The barrel shape of the cut is evident, and the remnants of the iron barrel hoop are still visible at the base of the excavation. To create a privy, a barrel would have been sunk into the earth and an outhouse shelter placed over top. Lining the privy pit with a barrel made it easier to clean out.
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Features and Feature Complexes
A total of 106 features were encountered as a result of excavation and construction monitoring. The first 15 features were encountered during the Phase II effort while the remaining features were products of the Phase III and construction monitoring efforts. While a large number of features were identified during excavation, this section highlights those that had the greatest bearing on the overall interpretation of the site. Groupings of related features are referred to as complexes and are composed of a primary feature (for which the complex is named) and a number of associated secondary features that inform the interpretation of the primary feature. Feature 6 Complex ﷯ A plan view map showing the location of the features that comprise the Feature 6 complex and their relationship relative to both Feature 6 and the later Kendle period farmstead. The Feature 6 complex consisted of a building foundation located on the southern side of the existing house, an internal ephemeral stone wall, a hewn-log staircase (Feature 104) leading into the basement of the later brick house, a floor surface (Feature 10), and two post holes along the exterior of the foundation (Features 12 and 13) that were likely related to a porch. The physical structure of the Feature 6 foundation consisted of two courses of loosely mortared stone approximately 0.43 m wide. The western wall of the structure, while in poor condition, was still notably present. This western wall of Feature 6 ran north-south in alignment with the western wall of the brick structure’s rear ell. Fully exposed, the interior of the Feature 6 structure was divided into three chambers. The east-west wall, located just south of the brick house’s southern porch, extended the length of the structure and created a full-width chamber on the north side of the building. The north-south wall divided the southern chamber into two smaller chambers. The full-width, east-west wall contained a 1.8-m wide footer, possibly for a hearth, situated in what would have been the middle of the north wall of the eastern chamber. The two southern chambers measured 4.2 x 4.6 m (east) and 2.6 x 4.6 m (west), while the northern chamber measured 2.6 × 7.3 m. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of Feature 6, partially exposed (north is at the top of the image). The north wall of the feature, which cannot be seen in this view because it is beneath the brick structure at the top of the photograph, was uncovered during demolition monitoring, confirming a building dimension of 9 m east-west × 8.3 m north-south. The north wall of Feature 6 abutted the south wall of the brick house’s rear ell and given that the two foundations were aligned it is likely that what became the rear ell was originally built as an addition to Feature 6. Two foundations abutting one another. On the left is the foundation of the brick house’s rear ell, and on the right is the northernmost end of Feature 6, beneath the brick wall of the later house. This portion of Feature 6 was incorporated into the newer house and formed part of the foundation for the rear ell. Feature 104 was uncovered beneath the concrete porch on the south side of the rear ell of the house during construction monitoring. The feature consisted of a wooden staircase made of hand-hewn timber treads descending into the basement of the house’s rear ell. These treads were fixed in place not only by the sidewalls but by a thick deposit of lime mortar. The staircase was roughly 1 m wide and was lined on both sides by mortared limestone walls that appeared in some places to have been whitewashed. The wooden stairway terminated at a filled-in door in the south wall of the rear ell basement, visible in the foreground, at the base of the stairs. The stone footer for the later porch that capped this feature is visible in the background.
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Feature 34 Complex ﷯ A plan view map showing the location of the features that comprise the Feature 34 complex. This complex was located in the cornfield to the west of the farmhouse. The Feature 34 complex consisted of a foundation and associated structural and non-structural features to the west of the main house. The main element (Feature 34) was a stone foundation that measured approximately 3.8 × 7.6 m and was divided into two roughly equal chambers by a narrow stone wall of the same construction. On the east end of the foundation was Feature 66, a brick pad or porch (78 cm × 2.19 m) that formed the eastern entrance to the structure and was directly associated with a stone threshold built into the eastern wall of Feature 34. On the south side of Feature 34 was Feature 35, a linear brick footing that likely supported a south-facing entrance and/or porch. Features 36 and 37 were short stone walls located at the southwest corner of Feature 34, but whose function is unknown. Features 68 and 78 were two post holes located to the east of Feature 34 and were likely part of a porch or overhang for the eastern end of the structure. Feature 48 was a shallow trench along the southern edge of Feature 34 that may have been a planting bed. Three historic posts, Features 82, 85, and 86 were found within the western chamber of Feature 34 and were likely related to internal features of the structure. Feature 34 was also associated with a pit midden deposit, Feature 70, located about 2.5 m to the west of the Feature 34 foundation. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of the Feature 34 complex (north is at the top of the photograph). The brick pad or porch on the eastern end of the building has been excavated, and only its footprint remains. The two holes directly to its east may have housed posts that supported a porch overhang. Feature 70, the trash-filled pit to the west of the structure, is not visible in this view. The brick L-shaped structure on the south of the foundation is Feature 35 a likely porch footing.
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Feature 16 ﷯ A plan view map of Strip Block A showing the location of Feature 16. The Feature 16 cistern was located to the south of the house and just to the southeast of the southeast corner of the Feature 6 foundation (top left). Feature 16 was a large circular brick-lined shaft on the south side of the house. The shaft was approximately 3.4 m in diameter, with an interior diameter of 3.05 m. The walls of the shaft were made of a dual course of mortared brick, and the interior surface had been parged with mortar. The cut for the shaft was hacked into the natural bedrock down to a depth of 2.3 m. The space between the brick structure and the bedrock cut had been infilled with large fragments of angular rock debris, likely spoil left over from the process of quarrying out the hole for the shaft. The interior of the shaft contained several strata, all of which appeared to be late twentieth-century in origin. Two pipes, one iron, and one PVC entered the brick shaft near the top. These pipes fed into a modern concrete box septic tank that had been installed inside the shaft. This box had been inserted in the shaft, and a mass of large stone rubble had been used to fill around it. The box and the surrounding stone fill were littered with bits of yellow caution tape that was still largely legible, suggesting that it was installed in the not-too-distant past. Underneath the rock rubble and concrete tank was a deposit of brick rubble. The brick rubble was clearly a portion of the upper structure of the shaft that had been pushed into the shaft, presumably around the time the concrete septic box was installed. Much of the brick that constituted the deposit was still articulated in a partially circular arc and was still parged in the inside, thus identifying it as a portion of the shaft structure. Beneath this deposit of brick rubble, there was a deposit of wooden planks that were cut to fit the interior of the shaft. When reassembled, it became evident that the planks probably served as a lid set on a lip in the brickwork at the top of the original shaft. These planks were approximately 1–1.5 inches thick and were made of what appears to have been solid oak. No artifacts were recovered from the base of the Feature 16 excavation. The shaft had clearly been repurposed to house a septic system in the twentieth century, but its original function was likely as a cistern. Feature Gallery
Top of the brick cistern, before excavation. The patterning of the brick alternated by course with one course being composed of an exterior ring arranged in a running bond with the interior bricks being placed perpendicular end-to-end. This pattern was then inverted on the next course with the interior ring being comprised of a running bond and the exterior ring arranged end-to-end. This gave the structure of the brick a banded appearance. The bricks all appeared to be handmade and bore no stamp or impressed design to suggest a manufacturer. The cistern after excavation had been completed. The bottom of the shaft was a continuous slab of flat bedrock that looked water-worn and almost polished. Together with the parging on the sidewalls, the bedrock base indicated that this structure was designed to retain liquid and probably originally served as a cistern.
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Pathway and Cobbled Surfaces ﷯ A plan view map of Strip Block F showing the network of path features in the north yard. The bottom left corner of the map is the location of the northeast corner of the Kendle period farmstead. The middle right of frame, north of Trench 5 is the site of the well. Feature 74 heads north toward the barn, Features 75 and 81 both head toward the well, and Feature 101 runs east toward the meadow/orchard. Excavation revealed an extensive cobbled path and flagstone walkway network that once dominated the northeast and south yards of the dwelling house. This network was composed of Features 74, 75, 101, 81, and 95, likely built in the early nineteenth century. Soils from beneath the cobblestones of Features 74 and 95 indicated the presence of a soil horizon dating to the eighteenth century, as evidenced by the presence of mid-eighteenth century artifacts such as a piece of eight and early pipe bowls. The soil deposits on top of and amongst the stones of the pathways, by contrast, typically dated to the mid- to late-nineteenth century, indicating that these structures were in use by then. Features 74 and 95 formed a large cobbled surface on the east (possibly front) and north sides of the dwelling. Feature 74 was linear and suggested a trajectory toward the barn, while Feature 95 was more of a work yard pad. Both of these features had an approximately 6-inch wide channel running along their eastern edges, suggesting that these cobbled pathways and yards had a built-in drainage system. This drainage system, in conjunction with the network of cobbled pathways and work yard surfaces, suggests a highly engineered and functional landscape. Later flagstone pathways, such as Feature 81 and 101, cut through the cobblestone pathways leading to other destinations such as the well or the orchard. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of the Feature 74 cobbled pathway located in the north yard of the farmstead (north is to the left). The northeast corner of the brick farmhouse, which cuts into the pathway, is visible in the lower right corner of the frame. The ghost of disturbance from a pipe cut leading to the well can be seen cutting through the pathway at an angle from this corner of the house. The excavated section near the sign board in the middle of frame was dug by archaeologists to examine the structure of the pathway in profile and to see what was underneath. At the center-left of the frame two drain channels are visible--one that cuts through the pathway and one that runs parallel to it, at the top of the frame. The cruder portion of the path at the left side of the frame is a spur leading toward the chickenhouse but was highly disturbed by the later driveway so its terminus is unknown. View of Feature 75, another cobbled pathway in the north yard of the Kendle period house, as it was uncovered during excavation. The brick farmhouse is in the background, and the photograph was taken from the well, showing how the pathway connected the well to the house complex. The other major cobbled pathway, Feature 74, is visible on the right side of the frame. Planview photograph of the excavation of Feature 81, a flagstone pathway leading to the well. The intact flagstone can be seen on the right side of the frame. To the left, the flagstone has been removed and the stone and soil below it removed down to sterile subsoil. This was done to explore the building sequence of the features, demonstrating that the Feature 81 flagstone pathway sat on top of the Feature 75 cobble pathway. Portions of the cobbles can be seen beneath the flagstone and at the bottom of the frame. This indicates that the Feature 81 flagstone pathway replaced the Feature 75 cobbled pathway as the route to the well. Planview of the drain on the east edge of the Feature 95 cobble surface. This photograph shows a section of drain identified just to the south of the southeast edge of the Kendle period house. This drain channel forms the eastern edge of the Feature 95 cobbled work pad that extended all the way west to Feature 6. This drain is similar in construction to the drain along the eastern edge of Feature 75 and likely functioned as part of the same drainage system. Planview photograph of a portion of the Feature 95 cobble surface (north is bottom of frame). This cobbled surface extended all the way west to the Feature 6 foundation. A large portion of the area in the right of frame was excavated through the surface in order to examine the ground beneath for earlier features. In the left of the image a surviving section of drain channel that ran along the eastern edge of the Feature 95 cobbled surface can be seen. At the bottom of the frame is an excavated area of disturbance to the cobble pad which runs along the south wall of the Kendle period house. This disturbance was labeled Feature 96 and was determined to have likely been the result of a flower bed trench.
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Feature 84 Feature 84 was the remnants of a barrel privy—that is, the hole left in the ground after the privy was abandoned and the wooden barrel staves decomposed. The hole, which was located between the building foundations of Feature 6 and Feature 34, was approximately 57 cm in diameter and 43 cm deep and was filled with a loose dark brown silty loam that contained a variety of historical cultural material and substantial inclusions of whitewashed wall plaster. Near the base of the feature, an iron barrel hoop with a 0.6-m (2-ft.) diameter was encountered. Based on the size of this hoop and the base width of the barrel, the original barrel would have likely stood about 1 m (3 ft.) tall and been capable of holding about 53 gallons. The interior fill of this feature contained a high volume of broken wall plaster, two leather shoe heels, a gutta-percha woman's hairbrush, several medicine vials, fabric, and sundry ceramics. Based on the diagnostic medicine bottles, the feature fill appeared to date to the second half of the nineteenth century. Feature Gallery
Planview of the Feature 84 barrel privy at the conclusion of excavation. This feature was located within Strip Block E just to the west of a large tree. The barrel shape of the cut is evident, and the remnants of the iron barrel hoop are still visible at the base of the excavation. To create a privy, a barrel would have been sunk into the earth and an outhouse shelter placed over top. Lining the privy pit with a barrel made it easier to clean out.
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Features and Feature Complexes
Feature 34 Complex ﷯ A plan view map showing the location of the features that comprise the Feature 34 complex. This complex was located in the cornfield to the west of the farmhouse. The Feature 34 complex consisted of a foundation and associated structural and non-structural features to the west of the main house. The main element (Feature 34) was a stone foundation that measured approximately 3.8 × 7.6 m and was divided into two roughly equal chambers by a narrow stone wall of the same construction. On the east end of the foundation was Feature 66, a brick pad or porch (78 cm × 2.19 m) that formed the eastern entrance to the structure and was directly associated with a stone threshold built into the eastern wall of Feature 34. On the south side of Feature 34 was Feature 35, a linear brick footing that likely supported a south-facing entrance and/or porch. Features 36 and 37 were short stone walls located at the southwest corner of Feature 34, but whose function is unknown. Features 68 and 78 were two post holes located to the east of Feature 34 and were likely part of a porch or overhang for the eastern end of the structure. Feature 48 was a shallow trench along the southern edge of Feature 34 that may have been a planting bed. Three historic posts, Features 82, 85, and 86 were found within the western chamber of Feature 34 and were likely related to internal features of the structure. Feature 34 was also associated with a pit midden deposit, Feature 70, located about 2.5 m to the west of the Feature 34 foundation. Feature Gallery
A total of 106 features were encountered as a result of excavation and construction monitoring. The first 15 features were encountered during the Phase II effort while the remaining features were products of the Phase III and construction monitoring efforts. While a large number of features were identified during excavation, this section highlights those that had the greatest bearing on the overall interpretation of the site. Groupings of related features are referred to as complexes and are composed of a primary feature (for which the complex is named) and a number of associated secondary features that inform the interpretation of the primary feature. Feature 6 Complex ﷯ A plan view map showing the location of the features that comprise the Feature 6 complex and their relationship relative to both Feature 6 and the later Kendle period farmstead. The Feature 6 complex consisted of a building foundation located on the southern side of the existing house, an internal ephemeral stone wall, a hewn-log staircase (Feature 104) leading into the basement of the later brick house, a floor surface (Feature 10), and two post holes along the exterior of the foundation (Features 12 and 13) that were likely related to a porch. The physical structure of the Feature 6 foundation consisted of two courses of loosely mortared stone approximately 0.43 m wide. The western wall of the structure, while in poor condition, was still notably present. This western wall of Feature 6 ran north-south in alignment with the western wall of the brick structure’s rear ell. Fully exposed, the interior of the Feature 6 structure was divided into three chambers. The east-west wall, located just south of the brick house’s southern porch, extended the length of the structure and created a full-width chamber on the north side of the building. The north-south wall divided the southern chamber into two smaller chambers. The full-width, east-west wall contained a 1.8-m wide footer, possibly for a hearth, situated in what would have been the middle of the north wall of the eastern chamber. The two southern chambers measured 4.2 x 4.6 m (east) and 2.6 x 4.6 m (west), while the northern chamber measured 2.6 × 7.3 m. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of Feature 6, partially exposed (north is at the top of the image). The north wall of the feature, which cannot be seen in this view because it is beneath the brick structure at the top of the photograph, was uncovered during demolition monitoring, confirming a building dimension of 9 m east-west × 8.3 m north-south. The north wall of Feature 6 abutted the south wall of the brick house’s rear ell and given that the two foundations were aligned it is likely that what became the rear ell was originally built as an addition to Feature 6. Two foundations abutting one another. On the left is the foundation of the brick house’s rear ell, and on the right is the northernmost end of Feature 6, beneath the brick wall of the later house. This portion of Feature 6 was incorporated into the newer house and formed part of the foundation for the rear ell. Feature 104 was uncovered beneath the concrete porch on the south side of the rear ell of the house during construction monitoring. The feature consisted of a wooden staircase made of hand-hewn timber treads descending into the basement of the house’s rear ell. These treads were fixed in place not only by the sidewalls but by a thick deposit of lime mortar. The staircase was roughly 1 m wide and was lined on both sides by mortared limestone walls that appeared in some places to have been whitewashed. The wooden stairway terminated at a filled-in door in the south wall of the rear ell basement, visible in the foreground, at the base of the stairs. The stone footer for the later porch that capped this feature is visible in the background.
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Photomosaic planview of the Feature 34 complex (north is at the top of the photograph). The brick pad or porch on the eastern end of the building has been excavated, and only its footprint remains. The two holes directly to its east may have housed posts that supported a porch overhang. Feature 70, the trash-filled pit to the west of the structure, is not visible in this view. The brick L-shaped structure on the south of the foundation is Feature 35 a likely porch footing.
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Feature 16 ﷯ A plan view map of Strip Block A showing the location of Feature 16. The Feature 16 cistern was located to the south of the house and just to the southeast of the southeast corner of the Feature 6 foundation (top left). Feature 16 was a large circular brick-lined shaft on the south side of the house. The shaft was approximately 3.4 m in diameter, with an interior diameter of 3.05 m. The walls of the shaft were made of a dual course of mortared brick, and the interior surface had been parged with mortar. The cut for the shaft was hacked into the natural bedrock down to a depth of 2.3 m. The space between the brick structure and the bedrock cut had been infilled with large fragments of angular rock debris, likely spoil left over from the process of quarrying out the hole for the shaft. The interior of the shaft contained several strata, all of which appeared to be late twentieth-century in origin. Two pipes, one iron, and one PVC entered the brick shaft near the top. These pipes fed into a modern concrete box septic tank that had been installed inside the shaft. This box had been inserted in the shaft, and a mass of large stone rubble had been used to fill around it. The box and the surrounding stone fill were littered with bits of yellow caution tape that was still largely legible, suggesting that it was installed in the not-too-distant past. Underneath the rock rubble and concrete tank was a deposit of brick rubble. The brick rubble was clearly a portion of the upper structure of the shaft that had been pushed into the shaft, presumably around the time the concrete septic box was installed. Much of the brick that constituted the deposit was still articulated in a partially circular arc and was still parged in the inside, thus identifying it as a portion of the shaft structure. Beneath this deposit of brick rubble, there was a deposit of wooden planks that were cut to fit the interior of the shaft. When reassembled, it became evident that the planks probably served as a lid set on a lip in the brickwork at the top of the original shaft. These planks were approximately 1–1.5 inches thick and were made of what appears to have been solid oak. No artifacts were recovered from the base of the Feature 16 excavation. The shaft had clearly been repurposed to house a septic system in the twentieth century, but its original function was likely as a cistern. Feature Gallery
Top of the brick cistern, before excavation. The patterning of the brick alternated by course with one course being composed of an exterior ring arranged in a running bond with the interior bricks being placed perpendicular end-to-end. This pattern was then inverted on the next course with the interior ring being comprised of a running bond and the exterior ring arranged end-to-end. This gave the structure of the brick a banded appearance. The bricks all appeared to be handmade and bore no stamp or impressed design to suggest a manufacturer. The cistern after excavation had been completed. The bottom of the shaft was a continuous slab of flat bedrock that looked water-worn and almost polished. Together with the parging on the sidewalls, the bedrock base indicated that this structure was designed to retain liquid and probably originally served as a cistern.
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Pathway and Cobbled Surfaces ﷯ A plan view map of Strip Block F showing the network of path features in the north yard. The bottom left corner of the map is the location of the northeast corner of the Kendle period farmstead. The middle right of frame, north of Trench 5 is the site of the well. Feature 74 heads north toward the barn, Features 75 and 81 both head toward the well, and Feature 101 runs east toward the meadow/orchard. Excavation revealed an extensive cobbled path and flagstone walkway network that once dominated the northeast and south yards of the dwelling house. This network was composed of Features 74, 75, 101, 81, and 95, likely built in the early nineteenth century. Soils from beneath the cobblestones of Features 74 and 95 indicated the presence of a soil horizon dating to the eighteenth century, as evidenced by the presence of mid-eighteenth century artifacts such as a piece of eight and early pipe bowls. The soil deposits on top of and amongst the stones of the pathways, by contrast, typically dated to the mid- to late-nineteenth century, indicating that these structures were in use by then. Features 74 and 95 formed a large cobbled surface on the east (possibly front) and north sides of the dwelling. Feature 74 was linear and suggested a trajectory toward the barn, while Feature 95 was more of a work yard pad. Both of these features had an approximately 6-inch wide channel running along their eastern edges, suggesting that these cobbled pathways and yards had a built-in drainage system. This drainage system, in conjunction with the network of cobbled pathways and work yard surfaces, suggests a highly engineered and functional landscape. Later flagstone pathways, such as Feature 81 and 101, cut through the cobblestone pathways leading to other destinations such as the well or the orchard. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of the Feature 74 cobbled pathway located in the north yard of the farmstead (north is to the left). The northeast corner of the brick farmhouse, which cuts into the pathway, is visible in the lower right corner of the frame. The ghost of disturbance from a pipe cut leading to the well can be seen cutting through the pathway at an angle from this corner of the house. The excavated section near the sign board in the middle of frame was dug by archaeologists to examine the structure of the pathway in profile and to see what was underneath. At the center-left of the frame two drain channels are visible--one that cuts through the pathway and one that runs parallel to it, at the top of the frame. The cruder portion of the path at the left side of the frame is a spur leading toward the chickenhouse but was highly disturbed by the later driveway so its terminus is unknown. View of Feature 75, another cobbled pathway in the north yard of the Kendle period house, as it was uncovered during excavation. The brick farmhouse is in the background, and the photograph was taken from the well, showing how the pathway connected the well to the house complex. The other major cobbled pathway, Feature 74, is visible on the right side of the frame. Planview photograph of the excavation of Feature 81, a flagstone pathway leading to the well. The intact flagstone can be seen on the right side of the frame. To the left, the flagstone has been removed and the stone and soil below it removed down to sterile subsoil. This was done to explore the building sequence of the features, demonstrating that the Feature 81 flagstone pathway sat on top of the Feature 75 cobble pathway. Portions of the cobbles can be seen beneath the flagstone and at the bottom of the frame. This indicates that the Feature 81 flagstone pathway replaced the Feature 75 cobbled pathway as the route to the well. Planview of the drain on the east edge of the Feature 95 cobble surface. This photograph shows a section of drain identified just to the south of the southeast edge of the Kendle period house. This drain channel forms the eastern edge of the Feature 95 cobbled work pad that extended all the way west to Feature 6. This drain is similar in construction to the drain along the eastern edge of Feature 75 and likely functioned as part of the same drainage system. Planview photograph of a portion of the Feature 95 cobble surface (north is bottom of frame). This cobbled surface extended all the way west to the Feature 6 foundation. A large portion of the area in the right of frame was excavated through the surface in order to examine the ground beneath for earlier features. In the left of the image a surviving section of drain channel that ran along the eastern edge of the Feature 95 cobbled surface can be seen. At the bottom of the frame is an excavated area of disturbance to the cobble pad which runs along the south wall of the Kendle period house. This disturbance was labeled Feature 96 and was determined to have likely been the result of a flower bed trench.
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Feature 84 Feature 84 was the remnants of a barrel privy—that is, the hole left in the ground after the privy was abandoned and the wooden barrel staves decomposed. The hole, which was located between the building foundations of Feature 6 and Feature 34, was approximately 57 cm in diameter and 43 cm deep and was filled with a loose dark brown silty loam that contained a variety of historical cultural material and substantial inclusions of whitewashed wall plaster. Near the base of the feature, an iron barrel hoop with a 0.6-m (2-ft.) diameter was encountered. Based on the size of this hoop and the base width of the barrel, the original barrel would have likely stood about 1 m (3 ft.) tall and been capable of holding about 53 gallons. The interior fill of this feature contained a high volume of broken wall plaster, two leather shoe heels, a gutta-percha woman's hairbrush, several medicine vials, fabric, and sundry ceramics. Based on the diagnostic medicine bottles, the feature fill appeared to date to the second half of the nineteenth century. Feature Gallery
Planview of the Feature 84 barrel privy at the conclusion of excavation. This feature was located within Strip Block E just to the west of a large tree. The barrel shape of the cut is evident, and the remnants of the iron barrel hoop are still visible at the base of the excavation. To create a privy, a barrel would have been sunk into the earth and an outhouse shelter placed over top. Lining the privy pit with a barrel made it easier to clean out.
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Features and Feature Complexes
A total of 106 features were encountered as a result of excavation and construction monitoring. The first 15 features were encountered during the Phase II effort while the remaining features were products of the Phase III and construction monitoring efforts. While a large number of features were identified during excavation, this section highlights those that had the greatest bearing on the overall interpretation of the site. Groupings of related features are referred to as complexes and are composed of a primary feature (for which the complex is named) and a number of associated secondary features that inform the interpretation of the primary feature. Feature 6 Complex ﷯ A plan view map showing the location of the features that comprise the Feature 6 complex and their relationship relative to both Feature 6 and the later Kendle period farmstead. The Feature 6 complex consisted of a building foundation located on the southern side of the existing house, an internal ephemeral stone wall, a hewn-log staircase (Feature 104) leading into the basement of the later brick house, a floor surface (Feature 10), and two post holes along the exterior of the foundation (Features 12 and 13) that were likely related to a porch. The physical structure of the Feature 6 foundation consisted of two courses of loosely mortared stone approximately 0.43 m wide. The western wall of the structure, while in poor condition, was still notably present. This western wall of Feature 6 ran north-south in alignment with the western wall of the brick structure’s rear ell. Fully exposed, the interior of the Feature 6 structure was divided into three chambers. The east-west wall, located just south of the brick house’s southern porch, extended the length of the structure and created a full-width chamber on the north side of the building. The north-south wall divided the southern chamber into two smaller chambers. The full-width, east-west wall contained a 1.8-m wide footer, possibly for a hearth, situated in what would have been the middle of the north wall of the eastern chamber. The two southern chambers measured 4.2 x 4.6 m (east) and 2.6 x 4.6 m (west), while the northern chamber measured 2.6 × 7.3 m. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of Feature 6, partially exposed (north is at the top of the image). The north wall of the feature, which cannot be seen in this view because it is beneath the brick structure at the top of the photograph, was uncovered during demolition monitoring, confirming a building dimension of 9 m east-west × 8.3 m north-south. The north wall of Feature 6 abutted the south wall of the brick house’s rear ell and given that the two foundations were aligned it is likely that what became the rear ell was originally built as an addition to Feature 6. Two foundations abutting one another. On the left is the foundation of the brick house’s rear ell, and on the right is the northernmost end of Feature 6, beneath the brick wall of the later house. This portion of Feature 6 was incorporated into the newer house and formed part of the foundation for the rear ell. Feature 104 was uncovered beneath the concrete porch on the south side of the rear ell of the house during construction monitoring. The feature consisted of a wooden staircase made of hand-hewn timber treads descending into the basement of the house’s rear ell. These treads were fixed in place not only by the sidewalls but by a thick deposit of lime mortar. The staircase was roughly 1 m wide and was lined on both sides by mortared limestone walls that appeared in some places to have been whitewashed. The wooden stairway terminated at a filled-in door in the south wall of the rear ell basement, visible in the foreground, at the base of the stairs. The stone footer for the later porch that capped this feature is visible in the background.
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Feature 34 Complex ﷯ A plan view map showing the location of the features that comprise the Feature 34 complex. This complex was located in the cornfield to the west of the farmhouse. The Feature 34 complex consisted of a foundation and associated structural and non-structural features to the west of the main house. The main element (Feature 34) was a stone foundation that measured approximately 3.8 × 7.6 m and was divided into two roughly equal chambers by a narrow stone wall of the same construction. On the east end of the foundation was Feature 66, a brick pad or porch (78 cm × 2.19 m) that formed the eastern entrance to the structure and was directly associated with a stone threshold built into the eastern wall of Feature 34. On the south side of Feature 34 was Feature 35, a linear brick footing that likely supported a south-facing entrance and/or porch. Features 36 and 37 were short stone walls located at the southwest corner of Feature 34, but whose function is unknown. Features 68 and 78 were two post holes located to the east of Feature 34 and were likely part of a porch or overhang for the eastern end of the structure. Feature 48 was a shallow trench along the southern edge of Feature 34 that may have been a planting bed. Three historic posts, Features 82, 85, and 86 were found within the western chamber of Feature 34 and were likely related to internal features of the structure. Feature 34 was also associated with a pit midden deposit, Feature 70, located about 2.5 m to the west of the Feature 34 foundation. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of the Feature 34 complex (north is at the top of the photograph). The brick pad or porch on the eastern end of the building has been excavated, and only its footprint remains. The two holes directly to its east may have housed posts that supported a porch overhang. Feature 70, the trash-filled pit to the west of the structure, is not visible in this view. The brick L-shaped structure on the south of the foundation is Feature 35 a likely porch footing.
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Feature 16 ﷯ A plan view map of Strip Block A showing the location of Feature 16. The Feature 16 cistern was located to the south of the house and just to the southeast of the southeast corner of the Feature 6 foundation (top left). Feature 16 was a large circular brick-lined shaft on the south side of the house. The shaft was approximately 3.4 m in diameter, with an interior diameter of 3.05 m. The walls of the shaft were made of a dual course of mortared brick, and the interior surface had been parged with mortar. The cut for the shaft was hacked into the natural bedrock down to a depth of 2.3 m. The space between the brick structure and the bedrock cut had been infilled with large fragments of angular rock debris, likely spoil left over from the process of quarrying out the hole for the shaft. The interior of the shaft contained several strata, all of which appeared to be late twentieth-century in origin. Two pipes, one iron, and one PVC entered the brick shaft near the top. These pipes fed into a modern concrete box septic tank that had been installed inside the shaft. This box had been inserted in the shaft, and a mass of large stone rubble had been used to fill around it. The box and the surrounding stone fill were littered with bits of yellow caution tape that was still largely legible, suggesting that it was installed in the not-too-distant past. Underneath the rock rubble and concrete tank was a deposit of brick rubble. The brick rubble was clearly a portion of the upper structure of the shaft that had been pushed into the shaft, presumably around the time the concrete septic box was installed. Much of the brick that constituted the deposit was still articulated in a partially circular arc and was still parged in the inside, thus identifying it as a portion of the shaft structure. Beneath this deposit of brick rubble, there was a deposit of wooden planks that were cut to fit the interior of the shaft. When reassembled, it became evident that the planks probably served as a lid set on a lip in the brickwork at the top of the original shaft. These planks were approximately 1–1.5 inches thick and were made of what appears to have been solid oak. No artifacts were recovered from the base of the Feature 16 excavation. The shaft had clearly been repurposed to house a septic system in the twentieth century, but its original function was likely as a cistern. Feature Gallery
Top of the brick cistern, before excavation. The patterning of the brick alternated by course with one course being composed of an exterior ring arranged in a running bond with the interior bricks being placed perpendicular end-to-end. This pattern was then inverted on the next course with the interior ring being comprised of a running bond and the exterior ring arranged end-to-end. This gave the structure of the brick a banded appearance. The bricks all appeared to be handmade and bore no stamp or impressed design to suggest a manufacturer. The cistern after excavation had been completed. The bottom of the shaft was a continuous slab of flat bedrock that looked water-worn and almost polished. Together with the parging on the sidewalls, the bedrock base indicated that this structure was designed to retain liquid and probably originally served as a cistern.
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Pathway and Cobbled Surfaces ﷯ A plan view map of Strip Block F showing the network of path features in the north yard. The bottom left corner of the map is the location of the northeast corner of the Kendle period farmstead. The middle right of frame, north of Trench 5 is the site of the well. Feature 74 heads north toward the barn, Features 75 and 81 both head toward the well, and Feature 101 runs east toward the meadow/orchard. Excavation revealed an extensive cobbled path and flagstone walkway network that once dominated the northeast and south yards of the dwelling house. This network was composed of Features 74, 75, 101, 81, and 95, likely built in the early nineteenth century. Soils from beneath the cobblestones of Features 74 and 95 indicated the presence of a soil horizon dating to the eighteenth century, as evidenced by the presence of mid-eighteenth century artifacts such as a piece of eight and early pipe bowls. The soil deposits on top of and amongst the stones of the pathways, by contrast, typically dated to the mid- to late-nineteenth century, indicating that these structures were in use by then. Features 74 and 95 formed a large cobbled surface on the east (possibly front) and north sides of the dwelling. Feature 74 was linear and suggested a trajectory toward the barn, while Feature 95 was more of a work yard pad. Both of these features had an approximately 6-inch wide channel running along their eastern edges, suggesting that these cobbled pathways and yards had a built-in drainage system. This drainage system, in conjunction with the network of cobbled pathways and work yard surfaces, suggests a highly engineered and functional landscape. Later flagstone pathways, such as Feature 81 and 101, cut through the cobblestone pathways leading to other destinations such as the well or the orchard. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of the Feature 74 cobbled pathway located in the north yard of the farmstead (north is to the left). The northeast corner of the brick farmhouse, which cuts into the pathway, is visible in the lower right corner of the frame. The ghost of disturbance from a pipe cut leading to the well can be seen cutting through the pathway at an angle from this corner of the house. The excavated section near the sign board in the middle of frame was dug by archaeologists to examine the structure of the pathway in profile and to see what was underneath. At the center-left of the frame two drain channels are visible--one that cuts through the pathway and one that runs parallel to it, at the top of the frame. The cruder portion of the path at the left side of the frame is a spur leading toward the chickenhouse but was highly disturbed by the later driveway so its terminus is unknown. View of Feature 75, another cobbled pathway in the north yard of the Kendle period house, as it was uncovered during excavation. The brick farmhouse is in the background, and the photograph was taken from the well, showing how the pathway connected the well to the house complex. The other major cobbled pathway, Feature 74, is visible on the right side of the frame. Planview photograph of the excavation of Feature 81, a flagstone pathway leading to the well. The intact flagstone can be seen on the right side of the frame. To the left, the flagstone has been removed and the stone and soil below it removed down to sterile subsoil. This was done to explore the building sequence of the features, demonstrating that the Feature 81 flagstone pathway sat on top of the Feature 75 cobble pathway. Portions of the cobbles can be seen beneath the flagstone and at the bottom of the frame. This indicates that the Feature 81 flagstone pathway replaced the Feature 75 cobbled pathway as the route to the well. Planview of the drain on the east edge of the Feature 95 cobble surface. This photograph shows a section of drain identified just to the south of the southeast edge of the Kendle period house. This drain channel forms the eastern edge of the Feature 95 cobbled work pad that extended all the way west to Feature 6. This drain is similar in construction to the drain along the eastern edge of Feature 75 and likely functioned as part of the same drainage system. Planview photograph of a portion of the Feature 95 cobble surface (north is bottom of frame). This cobbled surface extended all the way west to the Feature 6 foundation. A large portion of the area in the right of frame was excavated through the surface in order to examine the ground beneath for earlier features. In the left of the image a surviving section of drain channel that ran along the eastern edge of the Feature 95 cobbled surface can be seen. At the bottom of the frame is an excavated area of disturbance to the cobble pad which runs along the south wall of the Kendle period house. This disturbance was labeled Feature 96 and was determined to have likely been the result of a flower bed trench.
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Feature 84 Feature 84 was the remnants of a barrel privy—that is, the hole left in the ground after the privy was abandoned and the wooden barrel staves decomposed. The hole, which was located between the building foundations of Feature 6 and Feature 34, was approximately 57 cm in diameter and 43 cm deep and was filled with a loose dark brown silty loam that contained a variety of historical cultural material and substantial inclusions of whitewashed wall plaster. Near the base of the feature, an iron barrel hoop with a 0.6-m (2-ft.) diameter was encountered. Based on the size of this hoop and the base width of the barrel, the original barrel would have likely stood about 1 m (3 ft.) tall and been capable of holding about 53 gallons. The interior fill of this feature contained a high volume of broken wall plaster, two leather shoe heels, a gutta-percha woman's hairbrush, several medicine vials, fabric, and sundry ceramics. Based on the diagnostic medicine bottles, the feature fill appeared to date to the second half of the nineteenth century. Feature Gallery
Planview of the Feature 84 barrel privy at the conclusion of excavation. This feature was located within Strip Block E just to the west of a large tree. The barrel shape of the cut is evident, and the remnants of the iron barrel hoop are still visible at the base of the excavation. To create a privy, a barrel would have been sunk into the earth and an outhouse shelter placed over top. Lining the privy pit with a barrel made it easier to clean out.
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Features and Feature Complexes
A total of 106 features were encountered as a result of excavation and construction monitoring. The first 15 features were encountered during the Phase II effort while the remaining features were products of the Phase III and construction monitoring efforts. While a large number of features were identified during excavation, this section highlights those that had the greatest bearing on the overall interpretation of the site. Groupings of related features are referred to as complexes and are composed of a primary feature (for which the complex is named) and a number of associated secondary features that inform the interpretation of the primary feature. Feature 6 Complex ﷯ A plan view map showing the location of the features that comprise the Feature 6 complex and their relationship relative to both Feature 6 and the later Kendle period farmstead. The Feature 6 complex consisted of a building foundation located on the southern side of the existing house, an internal ephemeral stone wall, a hewn-log staircase (Feature 104) leading into the basement of the later brick house, a floor surface (Feature 10), and two post holes along the exterior of the foundation (Features 12 and 13) that were likely related to a porch. The physical structure of the Feature 6 foundation consisted of two courses of loosely mortared stone approximately 0.43 m wide. The western wall of the structure, while in poor condition, was still notably present. This western wall of Feature 6 ran north-south in alignment with the western wall of the brick structure’s rear ell. Fully exposed, the interior of the Feature 6 structure was divided into three chambers. The east-west wall, located just south of the brick house’s southern porch, extended the length of the structure and created a full-width chamber on the north side of the building. The north-south wall divided the southern chamber into two smaller chambers. The full-width, east-west wall contained a 1.8-m wide footer, possibly for a hearth, situated in what would have been the middle of the north wall of the eastern chamber. The two southern chambers measured 4.2 x 4.6 m (east) and 2.6 x 4.6 m (west), while the northern chamber measured 2.6 × 7.3 m. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of Feature 6, partially exposed (north is at the top of the image). The north wall of the feature, which cannot be seen in this view because it is beneath the brick structure at the top of the photograph, was uncovered during demolition monitoring, confirming a building dimension of 9 m east-west × 8.3 m north-south. The north wall of Feature 6 abutted the south wall of the brick house’s rear ell and given that the two foundations were aligned it is likely that what became the rear ell was originally built as an addition to Feature 6. Two foundations abutting one another. On the left is the foundation of the brick house’s rear ell, and on the right is the northernmost end of Feature 6, beneath the brick wall of the later house. This portion of Feature 6 was incorporated into the newer house and formed part of the foundation for the rear ell. Feature 104 was uncovered beneath the concrete porch on the south side of the rear ell of the house during construction monitoring. The feature consisted of a wooden staircase made of hand-hewn timber treads descending into the basement of the house’s rear ell. These treads were fixed in place not only by the sidewalls but by a thick deposit of lime mortar. The staircase was roughly 1 m wide and was lined on both sides by mortared limestone walls that appeared in some places to have been whitewashed. The wooden stairway terminated at a filled-in door in the south wall of the rear ell basement, visible in the foreground, at the base of the stairs. The stone footer for the later porch that capped this feature is visible in the background.
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Feature 34 Complex ﷯ A plan view map showing the location of the features that comprise the Feature 34 complex. This complex was located in the cornfield to the west of the farmhouse. The Feature 34 complex consisted of a foundation and associated structural and non-structural features to the west of the main house. The main element (Feature 34) was a stone foundation that measured approximately 3.8 × 7.6 m and was divided into two roughly equal chambers by a narrow stone wall of the same construction. On the east end of the foundation was Feature 66, a brick pad or porch (78 cm × 2.19 m) that formed the eastern entrance to the structure and was directly associated with a stone threshold built into the eastern wall of Feature 34. On the south side of Feature 34 was Feature 35, a linear brick footing that likely supported a south-facing entrance and/or porch. Features 36 and 37 were short stone walls located at the southwest corner of Feature 34, but whose function is unknown. Features 68 and 78 were two post holes located to the east of Feature 34 and were likely part of a porch or overhang for the eastern end of the structure. Feature 48 was a shallow trench along the southern edge of Feature 34 that may have been a planting bed. Three historic posts, Features 82, 85, and 86 were found within the western chamber of Feature 34 and were likely related to internal features of the structure. Feature 34 was also associated with a pit midden deposit, Feature 70, located about 2.5 m to the west of the Feature 34 foundation. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of the Feature 34 complex (north is at the top of the photograph). The brick pad or porch on the eastern end of the building has been excavated, and only its footprint remains. The two holes directly to its east may have housed posts that supported a porch overhang. Feature 70, the trash-filled pit to the west of the structure, is not visible in this view. The brick L-shaped structure on the south of the foundation is Feature 35 a likely porch footing.
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Feature 16 ﷯ A plan view map of Strip Block A showing the location of Feature 16. The Feature 16 cistern was located to the south of the house and just to the southeast of the southeast corner of the Feature 6 foundation (top left). Feature 16 was a large circular brick-lined shaft on the south side of the house. The shaft was approximately 3.4 m in diameter, with an interior diameter of 3.05 m. The walls of the shaft were made of a dual course of mortared brick, and the interior surface had been parged with mortar. The cut for the shaft was hacked into the natural bedrock down to a depth of 2.3 m. The space between the brick structure and the bedrock cut had been infilled with large fragments of angular rock debris, likely spoil left over from the process of quarrying out the hole for the shaft. The interior of the shaft contained several strata, all of which appeared to be late twentieth-century in origin. Two pipes, one iron, and one PVC entered the brick shaft near the top. These pipes fed into a modern concrete box septic tank that had been installed inside the shaft. This box had been inserted in the shaft, and a mass of large stone rubble had been used to fill around it. The box and the surrounding stone fill were littered with bits of yellow caution tape that was still largely legible, suggesting that it was installed in the not-too-distant past. Underneath the rock rubble and concrete tank was a deposit of brick rubble. The brick rubble was clearly a portion of the upper structure of the shaft that had been pushed into the shaft, presumably around the time the concrete septic box was installed. Much of the brick that constituted the deposit was still articulated in a partially circular arc and was still parged in the inside, thus identifying it as a portion of the shaft structure. Beneath this deposit of brick rubble, there was a deposit of wooden planks that were cut to fit the interior of the shaft. When reassembled, it became evident that the planks probably served as a lid set on a lip in the brickwork at the top of the original shaft. These planks were approximately 1–1.5 inches thick and were made of what appears to have been solid oak. No artifacts were recovered from the base of the Feature 16 excavation. The shaft had clearly been repurposed to house a septic system in the twentieth century, but its original function was likely as a cistern. Feature Gallery
Top of the brick cistern, before excavation. The patterning of the brick alternated by course with one course being composed of an exterior ring arranged in a running bond with the interior bricks being placed perpendicular end-to-end. This pattern was then inverted on the next course with the interior ring being comprised of a running bond and the exterior ring arranged end-to-end. This gave the structure of the brick a banded appearance. The bricks all appeared to be handmade and bore no stamp or impressed design to suggest a manufacturer. The cistern after excavation had been completed. The bottom of the shaft was a continuous slab of flat bedrock that looked water-worn and almost polished. Together with the parging on the sidewalls, the bedrock base indicated that this structure was designed to retain liquid and probably originally served as a cistern.
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Pathway and Cobbled Surfaces ﷯ A plan view map of Strip Block F showing the network of path features in the north yard. The bottom left corner of the map is the location of the northeast corner of the Kendle period farmstead. The middle right of frame, north of Trench 5 is the site of the well. Feature 74 heads north toward the barn, Features 75 and 81 both head toward the well, and Feature 101 runs east toward the meadow/orchard. Excavation revealed an extensive cobbled path and flagstone walkway network that once dominated the northeast and south yards of the dwelling house. This network was composed of Features 74, 75, 101, 81, and 95, likely built in the early nineteenth century. Soils from beneath the cobblestones of Features 74 and 95 indicated the presence of a soil horizon dating to the eighteenth century, as evidenced by the presence of mid-eighteenth century artifacts such as a piece of eight and early pipe bowls. The soil deposits on top of and amongst the stones of the pathways, by contrast, typically dated to the mid- to late-nineteenth century, indicating that these structures were in use by then. Features 74 and 95 formed a large cobbled surface on the east (possibly front) and north sides of the dwelling. Feature 74 was linear and suggested a trajectory toward the barn, while Feature 95 was more of a work yard pad. Both of these features had an approximately 6-inch wide channel running along their eastern edges, suggesting that these cobbled pathways and yards had a built-in drainage system. This drainage system, in conjunction with the network of cobbled pathways and work yard surfaces, suggests a highly engineered and functional landscape. Later flagstone pathways, such as Feature 81 and 101, cut through the cobblestone pathways leading to other destinations such as the well or the orchard. Feature Gallery
Photomosaic planview of the Feature 74 cobbled pathway located in the north yard of the farmstead (north is to the left). The northeast corner of the brick farmhouse, which cuts into the pathway, is visible in the lower right corner of the frame. The ghost of disturbance from a pipe cut leading to the well can be seen cutting through the pathway at an angle from this corner of the house. The excavated section near the sign board in the middle of frame was dug by archaeologists to examine the structure of the pathway in profile and to see what was underneath. At the center-left of the frame two drain channels are visible--one that cuts through the pathway and one that runs parallel to it, at the top of the frame. The cruder portion of the path at the left side of the frame is a spur leading toward the chickenhouse but was highly disturbed by the later driveway so its terminus is unknown. View of Feature 75, another cobbled pathway in the north yard of the Kendle period house, as it was uncovered during excavation. The brick farmhouse is in the background, and the photograph was taken from the well, showing how the pathway connected the well to the house complex. The other major cobbled pathway, Feature 74, is visible on the right side of the frame. Planview photograph of the excavation of Feature 81, a flagstone pathway leading to the well. The intact flagstone can be seen on the right side of the frame. To the left, the flagstone has been removed and the stone and soil below it removed down to sterile subsoil. This was done to explore the building sequence of the features, demonstrating that the Feature 81 flagstone pathway sat on top of the Feature 75 cobble pathway. Portions of the cobbles can be seen beneath the flagstone and at the bottom of the frame. This indicates that the Feature 81 flagstone pathway replaced the Feature 75 cobbled pathway as the route to the well. Planview of the drain on the east edge of the Feature 95 cobble surface. This photograph shows a section of drain identified just to the south of the southeast edge of the Kendle period house. This drain channel forms the eastern edge of the Feature 95 cobbled work pad that extended all the way west to Feature 6. This drain is similar in construction to the drain along the eastern edge of Feature 75 and likely functioned as part of the same drainage system. Planview photograph of a portion of the Feature 95 cobble surface (north is bottom of frame). This cobbled surface extended all the way west to the Feature 6 foundation. A large portion of the area in the right of frame was excavated through the surface in order to examine the ground beneath for earlier features. In the left of the image a surviving section of drain channel that ran along the eastern edge of the Feature 95 cobbled surface can be seen. At the bottom of the frame is an excavated area of disturbance to the cobble pad which runs along the south wall of the Kendle period house. This disturbance was labeled Feature 96 and was determined to have likely been the result of a flower bed trench.
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Feature 84 Feature 84 was the remnants of a barrel privy—that is, the hole left in the ground after the privy was abandoned and the wooden barrel staves decomposed. The hole, which was located between the building foundations of Feature 6 and Feature 34, was approximately 57 cm in diameter and 43 cm deep and was filled with a loose dark brown silty loam that contained a variety of historical cultural material and substantial inclusions of whitewashed wall plaster. Near the base of the feature, an iron barrel hoop with a 0.6-m (2-ft.) diameter was encountered. Based on the size of this hoop and the base width of the barrel, the original barrel would have likely stood about 1 m (3 ft.) tall and been capable of holding about 53 gallons. The interior fill of this feature contained a high volume of broken wall plaster, two leather shoe heels, a gutta-percha woman's hairbrush, several medicine vials, fabric, and sundry ceramics. Based on the diagnostic medicine bottles, the feature fill appeared to date to the second half of the nineteenth century. Feature Gallery
Planview of the Feature 84 barrel privy at the conclusion of excavation. This feature was located within Strip Block E just to the west of a large tree. The barrel shape of the cut is evident, and the remnants of the iron barrel hoop are still visible at the base of the excavation. To create a privy, a barrel would have been sunk into the earth and an outhouse shelter placed over top. Lining the privy pit with a barrel made it easier to clean out.
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