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Hotel site yields history The dig may have found quarters for slaves, and many other artifacts from the 1700s Story by Emily Battle Photos by Rebecca Sell J
Archaeological dig at downtown hotel site yields groundbreaking finds
Date published: 4/23/2006
UST A FEW FEET below the asphalt parking lot at the corner of Caroline and Charlotte streets, archaeologists believe they may have uncovered remnants of the first slave quarters ever found in Fredericksburg. At a dig site that has become a popular stopping place for tourists, City Council members and local residents, Kerri Barile of the Dovetail Cultural Resource Group points to the 12- by 16-foot foundation of a structure that she believes may have housed slaves. Barile admits that she and her archaeology crew don't know for certain that the building was a slave quarters, but all the little clues seem to indicate that it was. They think it was built sometime in the 1830s. Its chimney is too small for the building to have been a kitchen, and it was behind a bigger house that fronted Caroline Street. The tiny building also is listed as a "dwelling" on old insurance maps. If Barile and the archaeologists she's working with are reading the clues correctly, it would be a significant find for the city. Because urban properties tend to be developed and dug up over and over again, it can be hard to find well-preserved remnants of buildings that were torn down in the past. And because space in cities is usually so tight, Barile said not a lot of dedicated urban slave quarters were built. Sometimes kitchens, attics or basements doubled as housing for slaves. "In the entire United States, very few urban quarters have been excavated," Barile said. "To have an urban slave quarters here, it can tell us a lot." The foundation lies in what was once the backyard of a house that was built after the Indian Queen Hotel, which took up that whole corner, burned down in 1832. All of these layers of history are visible at the site. You can see the old sandstone foundation of the Indian Queen--built in 1771--underneath the foundation of the newer dwelling. And underneath the Indian Queen foundation, Dovetail crews have dug down to find artifacts from the early to mid-1700s. The Dovetail team has been at the site at Caroline and Charlotte streets for the past two weeks. The city hired them to look into the site's history before the land is sold to a developer that plans to build a Courtyard by Marriott hotel there.
Read more stories about Fredericksburg Date published: 4/23/2006
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