Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library

Interim Archaeological Report

During the autumn and winter of 1958 until the early spring of 1959, archaeological excavations were in progress around and beneath the Coke-Garrett House, excavations which resulted in the recovery of new evidence relating to the long and narrow colonial building which lay in part beneath the kitchen of the Coke Garrett House, beneath the adjacent office, and extended in an easterly direction beyond the latter.

No evidence for the date of construction of the colonial building was forthcoming. But it was established that it was destroyed by fire, probably in the decade 1810-1820, whereupon the office and possibly the Coke-Garrett House were constructed on the site, the former making use of brick robbed from the walls and foundations of the colonial structure.

Previous excavations directed by Mr. J. M. Knight (1952) had exposed the west end of the colonial structure as well as the bulkhead steps which descended into a basement from the east end of the north wall. At that time the north wall was traced in a westerly direction until it passed beneath the east foundation of the office. The south colonial wall, on the other hand, was only partially exposed, the presence of a substantial tree preventing the excavators from tracing the eighteenth-century wall as far as the office.

In the fall of 1958 a small N/S cutting was made across the north colonial wall four feet east from the office. This operation was undertaken only to re-establish the line of the eighteenth century foundation, before embarking on excavations beneath the nineteenth-century buildings. The wall was duly uncovered, and was found to possess the following relevant statistics:

Width:	12 5/8"	Courses:	7
Height:	22¾"	Top below modern grade:	3' 4½"
English	bond	Shell mortar
Brick	measurement:	8-5/8" x 4-1/8" x 2-5/8"

The filling within the basement had largely been disturbed by the earlier excavations, but the remaining original fill contained much yellow clay, domestic trash attributed to the close of the eighteenth century, and a scattering of shell mortar and wall plaster. No bricks 2 were found in the floor of the basement, the latter appearing to have been of rammed clay-impressed into which were found a brass wine-cock, an iron padlock, and a fragment of pottery dating from the period c.1750-1770. All three items were of eighteenth-century date, and indicated that the building was in existence during the third quarter of that century. Subsequent excavations did nothing to alter or improve upon this contention.

Excavations beneath the floor of the office picked up the north wall of the colonial building as it continued west and terminated in a clay bank beneath the west wall of the office. The eighteenth-century basement was found to be filled with domestic trash dating up to the second decade of the nineteenth century, large quantities of brickbats, lumps of shell mortar, a stone step with molded nosing, and a large section of a brick chimney which had fallen into the basement when the house burned.

The chimney had faced E/W, was plastered in its upper face, measured approximately 7'-2¼" in width, had a 9¼" return at either side, that on the south being thickly plastered, the latter returning again and bearing the impressions of horizontal laths on the back. A section of the upper surface of the fallen chimney was carefully removed to expose a collapsed, soot-lined flue. Although the shape had been lost over most of the exposed length, a sufficient distance remained virtually undisturbed revealing that the flue was (at least in part) divided by a withe a half brick in thickness. A further examination of the chimney has been scheduled.

Partial excavation around and beneath the tumbled chimney showed that it lay on a stratum of ash, charcoal and burnt plaster, from which were recovered a number of fragments of early nineteenth century ceramics, burnt window-glass and iron nails. There was no doubt, therefore, that these items had been in the building when it burned and that the chimney collapsed on top of them.

The burnt layer in turn rested on a stratum of brick fragments pressed into natural clay beneath. So closely were the brick pieces laid that there seemed little doubt that they had been part of a rough basement floor. However, this supposition is in marked contrast to the evidence recovered east of the office where no bricks were found on the floor, and where no traces of the chimney were encountered-regardless of the fact that from within the office it gave the appearance of continuing beneath and beyond the east wall.

The south wall, of the colonial building had been removed before the office was constructed, presumably to salvage bricks for re-use. The destruction of the wall had occurred before the basement had been filled after the fire, for the mixed clay, dirt, trash and bats which overlay the fallen chimney extended down beside it at the south side and overlay the line of the building's robbed south wall.

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The west wall of the colonial basement took the form of a clay bank against which the north wall abutted, and it was down this raking bank that the fallen chimney lay. It is suggested that the chimney stood inside the building on a foundation at ground level to the west of the bank, thus avoiding the expense of extending the foundation to basement depth.

Traces of the south wall, two courses in depth, and one brick in width, were found extending beyond the basement between the nineteenth-century office and the Coke-Garrett House and passing (bottom course only) beneath the south wall of that building's kitchen. The single course, a series of headers, extended west for a distance of 6' 6½" from the S.E. corner of the kitchen along precisely the same line. It should here be noted that while the colonial building extended along the same building line as that of the Coke-Garrett kitchen, the Coke-Garrett Office is set somewhat askew, the S.E. corner being situated south of the line and the S.W. corner falling behind it by approximately 3½".

Although the row of headers representing the western extension of the colonial south wall terminated as stated above, a stretcher was found at the same depth and on the same line 8" to the west of it. This brick passed behind a concrete step which could not be moved and it is not known whether other bricks continued on that same line. However, a further cutting to the west of the step revealed no traces of colonial brickwork in situ, but did expose a group of post holes, containing late eighteenth-century artifacts, curving beneath the kitchen south wall and across the line of the colonial foundation, had it extended that far.

Excavations beneath the floor of the Coke-Garrett kitchen revealed a scatter of bats running north from the south wall on a line 6'5" from the S.E. interior corner of the nineteenth-century building. It is possible that this represents all that remains of the west end of the colonial structure.

A short section of the colonial north wall 2' 2½" in length, was found running 2' 1" south of the interior of the kitchen's north wall and running parallel with it. Although trenching continued along the same line westward beneath the pantry, hall, and living-room of the Coke-Garrett House, no further traces of colonial foundations were encountered. It has been suggested that the 8¼" foundations extending west beyond the colonial basement may be part of a lean-to addition to that building erected later in the eighteenth century. Shell mortar was used in the construction and the bricks measure 8½" x 4-1/8" x 2¼" and 8¼" x 3-7/8" x 2-3/8".

No foundation for the west chimney was definitely located. All traces, if they had existed, between the office and kitchen had been 4 obliterated by the laying of modern utilities. Inside the house the foundations of the kitchen's east chimney and a pier supporting the floor caused such disturbance that little of the eighteenth-century stratum remained intact. However, between and cut through by these nineteenth-century features and to the north of the pier was a spread of shell mortar which might have been associated with the colonial chimney. The evidence was inconclusive.

SUMMARY

The Coke-Garrett east colonial building was probably in existence by the third quarter of the eighteenth century and was apparently destroyed by fire in the decade 1810-20. Both the Coke-Garrett Office and the main house were built after the later date.

The colonial building possessed a basement with an internal measurement of 28' 3" x 14", and had a probable total exterior length of approximately 45' 9". The western 11' (interior) possessed no basement and is thought to have supported a substantial internal chimney.