Carroll-Caton House (18BC6)
Site History
The Carroll-Caton House (18BC6) is in a part of Baltimore known as Old Town and the block examined is bounded by Plowman Street, Albemarle St. King George (now Lombard) and Still House (South Front). The lots – 191, 192 and 193 – measured 40 × 100 ft. From the earliest settlement, the block was mixed use-residential and commercial and it remained so. During the early 19th century, this area was one of the most fashionable neighborhoods in Baltimore. In the twentieth century, it became the location of seafood processing houses.
The southwest corner of the block holds the Carroll-Caton House, a Federal period townhouse with a large garden and numerous outbuildings (kitchen, belvedere, stable, carriage house). The house was occupied in the opening years of the 19th century by merchant Henry Wilson and then by the wealthy French émigré Christopher Deshon (1811-1820). It served as the last residence (1820-1832) of the oldest surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. Charles Carroll died in 1832 and the house remained in the Carroll family until the late 1840s (Ward 1989:8).
During the early 20th century, it is possible that the house was used as a sweatshop or tenement. By 1917, it was the location of a vocational school and ten years later a recreational facility for young men. In 1967, the house was restored to its Carroll era appearance.
Archaeological investigations
The first archaeological excavation at the Carroll-Caton House took place in 1967 during the restoration of the property and was conducted by members of the ASM. Most of the records and artifacts from this work were dispersed and a summary of the work is provided in Ward (1989). Two trenches were excavated and the circular brick foundation of what may have been a cistern or well associated with the belvedere (summer house) was discovered. Also discovered was a brick floor of an underground storage vault connected to the basement of the Carroll-Caton House. Evidence was discovered of large-scale filling of the back portion of the property in the early 19th century.
Archaeological investigations by the Baltimore Center for Urban Archaeology took place in late 1988 and early 1989 in City Block 1358 to look for archaeological remains of significance in the future location of the Baltimore City Life Museum City Life Gallery. The 1988/89 work by BCUA had the research goal of discovering intact remains of the early 19th century rear garden of the Carroll-Caton House and in particular the presence of a brick wall along the north and east boundaries of the courtyard. Testing took the form of 5 x 5 ft units placed the northeast and northwest corners of the yard.
Stratigraphy in both units was fairly consistent and included four layers (approx. 2 ft in depth) of relatively recent (second half of 20th century) fill associated with recent gardening and property restoration (Ward 1989:28). Strata E & F appear to date to circa 1900 and represent yard surface levels just prior to and after a wall stabilization event around the turn of the 20th century. Excavation in Stratum G indicates that the wall was built early in the 19th century. Stratum G is a yard surface and contains an area of shell midden whose artifacts suggest a date range of the 1760s to circa 1825. The underlying Level H was a thin deposit of organic material and it and two levels discovered below H were interpreted as deliberate fill of this flood-prone area adjacent to Jones Falls (to the west). Artifacts from these layers were interpreted as having been brought in from elsewhere and cannot be associated with the Carroll-Caton property.
Features discovered in the two 5 × 5 ft units included a garden entrance/gate area comprised of brick and a wooden entrance sill (Ward 1989:29-30). This gate would have been located along the northwest corner of the courtyard frontage of Front Street.
References
1989 An Investigation of the Archaeological Resources Associated with the Baltimore City Life Museums' City Life Gallery (18BC6 and 18BC68) on Lombard Street, Baltimore, Maryland. Research Series Number 34. Baltimore Center for Urban Archaeology. Report on file at Maryland Historical Trust, Crownsville.