209 Main Street (18AP75)
Site History
The 209 Main Street site (18AP75) is a late 17th/early 18th-century possible structure/tavern located along Main Street in Annapolis, Maryland. This property was originally owned in the late 17th and early 18th century by Margaret and John Freeman. They constructed a large dwelling there shortly after acquiring the lot and the home was used as a tavern, inn, and meeting place for civic groups (Polglase et al. 1997:112). After John Freeman's death, Margaret Freeman remarried Philemon Lloyd II, a prominent figure in Maryland politics. From the Lloyd family, the property passed into the Dorsey and then Paca families in the 18th century.
Archaeological Investigations
In 1995, R. Christopher Goodwin and Associates conducted cultural resources management investigations for the Main Street Reconstruction Project. They excavated eight units of varying sizes. A number of features were located through this work, including utility trenches, postholes and postmolds, two large refuse pits, and shell and rubble layers representing beds for 19th-century sidewalk paving. One of the large refuse pits contained almost 6,000 artifacts dating largely from the first half of the 18th century. The other refuse pit contained 4,300 artifacts, also dating to the same period. Both features were interpreted as having been created during the period the property served as a tavern.
References
1997 Cultural Resources Management Investigations for the Main Street Reconstruction Project, Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, Maryland. R. Christopher Goodwin & Associates, Inc. AP69.
