West St. Mary's Manor (18ST711)
Site History
The West St. Mary's Manor site (18ST711) is a 17th-20th century farmstead, an early 18th-century frame structure, and cemetery located near St. Mary’s City on the St. Mary's River in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. Constructed between 1700-1730, West St. Mary's Manor is a 40 x 31 ft. 1 1/2 story house with a gable roof, brick basement and end walls, and front and rear walls of clapboards. Tall exterior double chimneys, with a one-story brick pent between them, rise at each gable end.
During the first half of the 20th century, the yard area was stripped, the house jacked up, and the cellar/basement excavated. This activity has most likely destroyed any culture-bearing deposits in the northeast yard area.
Archaeological Investigations
In 1999, archaeologist Julie Ernstein conducted excavations to determine archaeological integrity at the site in advance of expansion of the home. The 1999 field investigations recovered no pre-20th-century artifacts in the five 3 × 3' test units excavated immediately east and to the northeast of the main house. Artifacts recovered from the test units included glazed and unglazed brick fragments, oyster shells, coal clinkers, cut nails, wire nails, bottle glass, stoneware, milk glass, clear flat window glass, and other 20th century items.
Previous archaeological work on the property may have been conducted by Henry Chandlee Forman in the mid-20th century in connection with the designing of the formal garden. Records of this work may be on file at Colonial Williamsburg.
A test unit placed in the garden near the east wall of the house reached a depth of 5.06' below surface. Twelve separate strata and one feature (a mortared surface known as dry-pack, commonly used as a base for masonry in the 1920s, 30s, and 1940s) were encountered. Water pipes from an earlier well were encountered in the northeast quadrant of the unit. Of particular interest was some 3.53' of redeposited cellar fill which would have been associated with the jacking up of the house and excavation of its cellar/basement during reconstruction work in the early to mid-20th century.
References
1999 Executive Summary of Phase I/II Archaeological Investigations at West St. Mary's Manor (18ST711), Drayden, MD (St. Mary's County). MHT # ST 216.
