Page 20 - Maryland Historical Trust - Archaeology Colonial MD

severed the physical and symbolic ties with the Catholic Lords Baltimore and their chief sup- porters. Without provincial business, St. Mary’s began withering, and with the movement of St. Mary’s County government to another place in 1708, Maryland’s first city died. Farmers demol- ished the abandoned buildings and plowed up the streets and yards. By the mid-18th century, only one structure continued in use from the original capital, the 1676 brick State House converted into an Anglican church.5 People remembered that St. Mary’s was the founding site and first capital of the colony, but all above ground traces of the city vanished.
By the time of the American Civil War, only a few artifacts and brick fragments exposed by farmer’s plows testified to long forgotten houses and taverns of “the ancient and chief seate of gov- ernment.” Nevertheless, a knowledge of the his- tory was retained by local inhabitants and espe- cially one family that came to own all of the land upon which the city once stood. When Dr. John Brome inherited the St. Mary’s Manor plantation in 1841, he also took possession of the sites and legends of Maryland’s beginning. His descen- dants, the Howards, protected the sites and led commemoration efforts to celebrate Maryland’s 300th anniversary in 1934. They produced a map of the city based on known locations of ruins, and oral history accounts. But with no period maps and major gaps in the documentary record, it was impossible to know if the ancient legends and the map had any validity. Archaeology would be a vital tool to answer these questions.
There was some digging for relics in the 1870s, and in 1934 St. Mary’s became the first location in Maryland to feature the public dis- play of 17th-century archaeological remains during an official event. It was during the 300th anniversary celebrations of Maryland’s founding that the chimney and floor of the Van Swerin- gen Council Chamber kitchen was uncovered and shown to visitors (see figure 2); its exhibition demonstrated that physical remains from the 17th-century capital still survived.
This site and a number of others became the subject of the first true archaeological excavations of colonial sites in Maryland between 1935 and 1938. Architectural historian H. Chandlee For- man conducted investigations on a number of the structures (see figure 3) that had brick in their construction, including the Council Chamber site. Previously working at Jamestown, Forman
was one of the foremost authorities on colonial architecture in the Chesapeake. He summarized his archaeological findings and extensive archival work in a highly popular book entitled Jamestown and St. Mary’s: Buried Cities of Romance in 1938. For the next two decades, this was the premier source about the archaeology of the early Ches- apeake capitals. Only the extensive excavations at Jamestown in preparation for Virginia’s 350th anniversary in 1957 yielded a more detailed pub- lication about Jamestown’s archaeology.6
After the 1934 festivities, St. Mary’s slid back into obscurity except for Forman’s work which continued up to 1941. His findings demonstrated that a rich complex of early colonial sites survived under the fields of St. Mary’s City. This informa- tion came to the attention of a retired Marine General named Robert Hogaboom in the early 1960s. Recognizing the significance of the site’s history and fearing that development might de- stroy the archaeology and beauty of the location, Hogaboom led an effort with the support of the landowners (the Howard Family) and other local citizens to preserve the site. This resulted in the legislature establishing the St. Mary’s City Com- mission in 1966 with the mission of preserving, studying and interpreting the site through the cre- ation of a state museum. Historical research began the following year by Dr. Lois Green Carr and the first archaeological survey was conducted in 1968, leading to major excavations on a threatened early 18th-century site. This initiated the first program of colonial archaeology in Maryland that has con- tinued for half a century. Carr was joined by archi- tectural historian Cary Carson and archaeologist Garry Wheeler Stone in 1970, formalizing a three- part research initiative that built the museum. The following presents a few of the major site inves- tigations and details the way the archaeologists learned to decipher the archaeological evidence, better understand the experiences of the early set- tlers through close collaboration with the histori- ans, and produce the first modern perspective on the former “Metropolis of Maryland.”7
Revealing Early Maryland Life
At the beginning, one of the greatest challeng- es was learning how to collect and read the archaeological evidence from sites 300 or more years old. What would an early or late 17th- century site look like in the ground and how should it be excavated? What artifacts were best
figure 4
During the 1972 season, the outline of the St. John’s foundation was gradually revealed.
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