Peter Scott House Architectural Report, Block 13-1 Building 3A Lot 354Originally entitled: "Architectural Research Report
and Reconstruction on the Peter Scott House
Block 13 - Colonial Lot 354"
1956
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library Research Report Series - 1274
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library
Williamsburg, Virginia
1990
FROM FRENCHMAN'S MAP 1782?
SCALE-1=100
FOUNDATIONS UNCOVERED BY ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATION. 1931-1955
SCALE-1"-100'
ARCHITECTURAL RESEARCH REPORT
and recommendation
on
The Peter Scott House
Block 13 - Colonial lot 354
Colonial lot 354 on the south side of Duke of Gloucester Street is between the Maupin-Dixon House (lot 355) to the east and Hartwell-Perry Ordinary (lot 353) to the west. The three lots, 353, 354, 355 were granted to John Custis by the Trustees of Williamsburg in 1714. Since he retained title to the lots it is evident that he erected houses on each, in accordance with the statutes. Records indicate that Custis rented tenements on these lots.
The earliest specific date which may be assigned by documentary records, to a building on lot 354 is found in a notice in the Virginia Gazette (Purdie, ed.) dated January 26, 1776:
"Mr. Peter Scott's old house in this City, which he had rented and lived in for 43 years, was burnt down last Sunday Night, by accident."The house was being used by continental troops. Mr. Scott had died in 1775.
Documentary evidence gives no clue to the appearance of the building which was probably built by 1716 and burned in 1776. The Virginia Gazette story indicates that it was certainly standing in 1733.
Archaeological excavations have revealed the foundations of a building about 32'-7" along Duke of Gloucester Street, and about 20'-9" deep with a full basement, a brick stair to the basement on the south and an outside chimney on the west. The walls vary from 16" to 18" thick and are laid in English Bond. The building is set back from the street line about 4'-0" and is very close to the western line of lot 354. The work is almost certainly early 18th century.
Elsewhere on the lot the foundations of at least three other houses, which could be identified, were uncovered, the earliest being early 19th century work. Foundations of a number of outbuildings, and those of some sort of furnace, which appeared to be 18th century, were also discovered.
2The Peter Scott House
The Maupin Shop (Bldg. 31) now standing on the northwest corner of lot 354, over the foundations described above, was probably built in the second quarter of the 19th century by William Edloe. The building then used as a Shop and Post Office was repaired by Humphry Harwood in 1846. A room by room inventory of the possessions in the house of William Edloe dated 1851 has been found. Foundations of early 19th century date which have been uncovered back from the street and slightly east of the center of the lot, may be those of the Edloe house.
The Maupin Shop was restored in 1931 using an 18th century architectural vocabulary under the erroneous impression of its date which we based entirely upon the mouldings of the pediment. Records of occupancy and the obviously earlier foundations beneath it reveal conclusively that the shop was built in the 19th century. In restoring the building it was raised about three feet and except for some of the wall and roof framing members, and portions of the north pediment or gable, it is entirely new and conjectural work. In the light of evidence uncovered since 1931 the building must be considered "unauthentic.
I recommend that the Maupin Shop be removed and that the house and shops of Peter Scott be reconstructed on the lot. It is true that the Peter Scott group will be largely a conjectural reconstruction based upon archaeological and peripheral documentary evidence.
The few original parts of the existing building are of 19th century construction and the Shop has been altered to a conjectural 18th century appearance. It is in my opinion less accurate than the reconstruction of Peter Scott's house may be.
Orin M. Bullock, Jr. Supervisor Architectural Research April 20, 1956
References Archaeological Drawing and Notes
Construction and Archaeological photographs
Architectural Report - Maupin (Cole) Shop
Research Reports Colonial lot 354 - Colonial lot 353-354 - Colonial lot 353
Williamsburg - Restoration
Cole Shop
No. 1 12/4/1930
TODD AND BROWN, INC.
Williamsburg - Restoration
Cole Shop
No. 1 12/4/1930
TODD AND BROWN, INC.
