Old Dirt – New Thoughts

We’re expanding our excavations. At the church site we have added a “T” extension on the west end of our trench that will expose a longer section of the church’s foundation. We want to better document the building’s location and construction. We also are hoping to find more artifacts – especially anything with architectural details. We’ve started to on-cover a mass of fragmented red brick, mortar, and wood. It’s all in a jumble as if it was thrown up against the outer wall during demolition. This pile of debris is important because it indicates we are close to the original ground surface. Everything we find in this strata are likely to be objects from the time of the church.

We’re also expanding the locus of our excavations to include the red brick house across the street. This colonial-style house was built in 1884 and is amongst the earliest houses still remaining in the Hamline neighborhood. Assuming the house occupants were home in December 1925, they would have been some of our best witnesses to the fire at the Methodist church. We’ll be digging in the backyard and hoping to find features and artifacts from the early days of this house’s existence. This dig will be our first exploration of a domestic site. The contrast of this excavation with our digs at institutional sites (the church and the university) should provide a broader understanding of life in Hamline village 100 years ago.