A construction site in Old Town Alexandria provided a fascinating glimpse of the past. Preserved under a parking lot on the 200 block of North Lee Street (formerly called Water Street) were the remains of late 18th century wharves, an early 19th century bakery and tavern, a Civil War support complex for U.S. Military Hospitals, and artifacts relating to post-war occupation of the site. The site was excavated in September 1997, and artifacts are now being processed in the laboratory of Alexandria Archaeology Museum.
An 18-page illustrated booklet,A Community Digs its Past: The Lee Street Site", is available from our online Museum Shop for $5.00
A panoramic view of the Lee Street site.
Soil was water-screened on site. The rubble from the screens was further sorted in the laboratory to recover even the smallest artifacts and seeds.The Excavations
Before developer Lawrence Brandt could build townhouses and a parking garage on the site, he was required by the City's archaeological preservation laws to recover the archaeological information. He engaged the services of archaeologists from the consulting firm Dames and Moore, who worked with City of Alexandria archaeologists and volunteers. The six-week excavation uncovered many important features, including the walls and ovens of the Jamieson bakery and a privy used during the Civil War. The waterlogged conditions of the privy, well and cistern resulted in excellent preservation of artifacts including wood, leather and fabric. The artifacts recovered from the dig were processed and analyzed in the Alexandria Archaeology Museum in the Torpedo Factory Art Center.
Stone paving which may relate to the early wharves were found in the western portion of the site.
This large basket may have been used to carry goods at the wharves.
This barrel was lifted and brought to the lab for conservation.The Wharves
The half block between Thompson's Alley and Lee, Union and Queen streets was originally part of a shallow bay of the Potomac River. Because it ran along the old shoreline, Lee Street was originally called Water Street. By the early 1780s, however, Alexandria merchants had extended wharves into the river from Water Street and had filled in much of the bay.
The Jamieson bakery appears in the center of this Civil War era photo. Some of the hospital stables, and possibly a privy and a guardhouse, are visible on the right.
Photo courtesy U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
The cistern can be seen in the foreground,with a capped well to its upper left.The Jamieson Bakery
Just north of the project area, at Lee and Oronoco streets, Scotland native Andrew Jamieson began baking an assortment of best white biscuits or crackers in 1785. He later moved his bake-house to Ramsay's Wharf at King and Union streets. Andrew's son, Robert, joined the firm in 1821 and continued the business after his father's death. By 1836, the bakery had moved to the project area, to a three-story brick building at the northeast corner of Lee Street and Thompson's Alley. It has been said that Jamieson made Alexandria famous by his crackers. The products must have been highly esteemed as Queen Victoria as a young woman so relished them that she imported them for the Royal table.
The Jamieson bakery was a large manufactory for the time, with twelve employees and $24,000 capital invested by 1850. That year, Robert Jamieson purchased 4900 bushels of flour to produce $36,000 worth of crackers. Ten years later, despite the addition of a twelve-horsepower steam engine, the firm sold $6000 less of its product. Jamieson offered to lease his old Bakery House in 1856.
It is not known whether the Union army used the bakery during the Civil War, although a number of military structures were constructed on the block. Several months after the war, a fire broke out in the building. The bakery was apparently still serviceable in 1873, when George R. Hill purchased it and recommenced baking crackers. Later, Hill moved his operation across Lee Street to an old mill. The bakery was torn down in 1888 to make room for the wholesale warehouses of Charles King and Son, which eventually covered (and preserved) the entire half block.
The brick footings of the late nineteenth-century warehouses were unearthed beneath the asphalt parking lot. And under these, the massive stone foundations of the three-story brick bakery of Robert Jamieson were discovered. Three rooms comprised the main floor. North of the bakery was a well, perhaps the earliest water supply for the building. The well-preserved brick domed cistern, located in the second room, was probably also used to supply water for baking and for the operation of a steam engine boiler used to heat the large rectangular ovens.
Pennies from 1822 and 1832, and an 1827(?) four pfenninge coin, found in the Tavern area.
A pearlware plate, discovered on the tavern site.The Tavern
A variety of artifacts were found under the flooring of Gemeny and Mannery's tavern, dating from the 1820s and 1830s. These include a large number of bones, a complete shell-edged pearlware plate and a variety of ceramics and glass, brass buttons, and several Liberty head pennies. Several layers of brick and wood flooring suggest recurrent soil settlement or flooding and filling on this river-front site.
A section of a Civil War privy, as illustrated on an 1865 Quartermaster Map.
Excavating the Civil War privy.U.S. Military Hospital Complex
Another fascinating aspect of the site relates to its use by the United States military, which occupied Alexandria throughout the Civil War (1861-1865). Quartermaster maps of the period document that the army constructed several buildings on the block to support their more than 34 hospitals in the Alexandria area. This site contained horse stables, sheds, offices, and a mess house used by hospital staff. Using the historic maps, archaeologists directed the excavations to discover amazing evidence of these Civil War structures. A horse jaw bone and a bridle are among the artifacts that may relate to the stable and harness shop. A Civil War sink -a large privy or outhouse-pictured on the Quartermaster map, has produced fascinating objects and food remains of the era. Because of the waterlogged nature of the site, the plank framing of the privy box was well preserved. Analysis of all the artifacts will permit accurate interpretation of military life and hospital logistics.
Campaign medal or token.
REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT/U.S.GRANT/1872.The Postwar Era
After the war, in the 1870s, a coal yard was built on the southwest corner of Queen and Union Streets. Around the same time Charles R. King and Sons established a wholesale grocery firm. By 1888 King had erected warehouses on the Lee Street side of the block. These buildings, with their shallow foundations, helped to preserve many of the earlier features on the site. Archaeologists found many artifacts dating to the Reconstruction period and later, relating to the last years of the bakery and to the later nineteenth-century warehouses. Of particular interest is a political token from the 1872 presidential campaign of Ulysses S. Grant. Although he won decisively over the Democratic candidate, editor Horace Greeley, Grant tied Greeley in Alexandria, managing to carry only one of the four city wards.
A leather shoe sole and upper. Waterlogged leather, wood and textiles from the privy were found in excellent condition, but will require conservation to prevent deterioration.In the Laboratory
More than eighty boxes of artifacts were brought into the Alexandria Archaeology Museum, where they were washed and sorted by a corps of volunteers and students. They were then catalogued by consultants from Dames and Moore, Inc. and Alexandria Archaeology staff and volunteers.
The artifacts from the privy, well and cistern are exceptionally well preserved because they remained consistently wet since they were discarded around 130 years ago. To ensure their long-term preservation, archaeologists had to keep the artifacts wet until conservation treatment could take place.
As artifacts were identified, catalogued and photographed, the information was entered into a computer database so that it could be analyzed. Food remains, including bones, shell, seeds, and even egg-shell, were also studied. The artifacts are studied in the context of the layers of earth in which they were found. Together with the architectural features found on the site and documents relating to the site's history, they will tell us about life in this microcosm of Alexandria.
