Page 127 - Maryland Historical Trust - Archaeology Colonial MD

or Alexander and Salome d’Hinoyossa who oper- ated in the town from 1705 until 1711. The large cellar would have been ideal for storing and pre- serving the casks of cider needed to operate the ordinary. Visibility and proximity to the landing made this spot geographically ideal for an ordinary.
One isolated structural post hole and mold were uncovered during a sewer line monitor- ing project to the north of the cellar (see figure 5, Building K). A portion of this post hole and mold was uncovered in a three-foot-wide back- hoe trench and no diagnostic artifacts were recov- ered. The remaining portion of this structure is likely preserved under the current driveway near the standing 18th-century brick house. The post hole was elongated and stepped suggesting fully framed wall construction. Further excavations are required to determine the function of the struc- ture and its relationship to the cellar building.
A possible third structure (see figure 5, Build- ing I) is indicated from a small artifact assemblage recovered from the shovel test survey.29 Distri- bution analyses suggest that a structure was lo- cated along the Patuxent River Terrace about 80 feet south of the cellar. Artifacts recovered from the area include tin-glazed earthenware, Rhenish Brown stoneware, and brick fragments. A burned layer was also observed during the shovel test survey and there is a slight depression in the yard area containing the artifacts. Further excavations are needed to determine whether this artifact concentration represents a structure.
At the Landing
The Patuxent terrace just to the southwest of the structures identified at the point, was the most intensively developed area within the bounds of Mount Calvert Historical and Archaeologi- cal Park. This area is the one location where the terrace slope allows ready access to the Patux- ent River, and where ships would anchor at the town landing. Wooden pilings, probably from the 19th-century steamboat landing, are visible in the marsh at low tide and this is also the probable location of the town landing.
The ownership of the land at the town land- ing is complex and difficult to determine precise- ly, but there are several individuals who probably took up lots in the area by 1698. The lots fronting the river near the landing were likely the most de- sirable parcels within the town and would have been taken up early in the town’s history. Three
individuals who would have been in a position to take up and improve these lots were the landowner William Groome, Town Officer Ninian Beall, and Henry Darnall, the government official charged with assigning officers to towns in Calvert Coun- ty. As land owner, William Groome would have had his choice of any town lot. William was still underage at the time the town was created and there is no indication that his stepfather Henry Jowles actively pursued taking up and improving a lot on the property. We know that Henry Darnall took up and improved a lot near the confluence of the Patuxent and Western Branch by 1704, and probably shortly after the town was created in 1684. Ninian Beall had taken up at least one lot in the town by 1697.30 As the town officer, Beall would have been one of the first individuals associated with the town, and an office near the landing would have presented an ideal setting for monitoring the commerce coming into the town.
Merchant and first Chief Justice Thomas Hollyday, was another individual who took up a lot and erected a store as an agent for Peter Paggan and Company. Peter Paggan was one of the larg- est tobacco importers in London during the last
figure 7
Free-blown bottle finish recovered from the cellar at Terrace Site C.
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PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL T. LUCAS, COURTESY OF THE MARYLAND-NATIONAL CAPITAL PARK AND PLANNING COMMISSION.