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Introduction
The Independent Grays Privy (18BC133) at 428 North
High Street in downtown Baltimore, Maryland, is a late 19th- to
early 20th-century domestic privy shaft.
Archaeological Investigations
Phase I, II, and III archival and archaeological
studies within the Juvenile Justice Center construction area in
Baltimore were conducted between October 1996 and November 1999
by R. Christopher Goodwin and Associates, Inc. Nine historic sites
were identified and investigated. Of these, four sites, including
18BC133, were assessed as National Register-eligible resources and
were subjected to Phase III data recovery.
Phase I, II ,and III archaeological investigations
documented an articulated complex of un-mortared brick walls enclosing
a square feature identified as a privy (Feature 5-01) and a section
of un-mortared brick foundation that had been built over the walls
of the privy shaft. The brick lined privy was associated with properties
that fronted the west side of the 400 block of North High Street.
The contents of the privy shaft could document up to four sequential
phases of occupation at the site, including early residential use
beginning circa 1824, mid-19th-century institutional use in conjunction
with the Independent Grays Armory, circa 1870-1905 industrial/commercial
use as a livery stable, and early 20th-century (circa 1902 to 1934)
residential use.
Archeobotanical Studies
Three 2-liter flotation samples from Feature 1,
a late 18th- or early 19th-century domestic privy, were processed
at the Frederick offices of R. Christopher Goodwin & Associates
using a modified SMAP-type flotation system. Samples were submitted
to Justine McKnight for analysis. Processing of 6 liters of privy
fill yielded 0.45 grams of plant remains, all of which were non-carbonized
and well preserved. Unburned seeds comprised the flotation samples,
with three taxa (raspberry or blackberry, clover, and bean family)
and unidentifiable seed coat fragments recovered.
The analyzed flotation samples were collected from
strata 3, 4, and 5, with the greatest concentration of seeds in
the upper strata.
References
| McKnight, Justine |
| 2000 |
Studies of Ethnobotanical Analyses. Appendix III
In Phase I, II and III Archeological Investigations at
the
Juvenile Justice Center, Baltimore, Maryland. R. Christopher
Goodwin & Associates, Inc. for the
Maryland
Department of General Services, Baltimore. MHT # BC 128. |
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| Williams, Martha, Nora Sheehan and Suzanne Sanders |
| 2000 |
Phase I, II and III Archeological Investigations
at the Juvenile Justice Center, Baltimore, Maryland.
R.
Christopher Goodwin & Associates, Inc. for the Maryland Department
of General Services, Baltimore.
MHT
# BC 128. |
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