Williamsport Lots 2-4 (18WA628)
Site History
The Williamsport Lots 2-4 (18WA628) site is a late 18th-century stone house, a 19th-century log possible store, and a late 19th-20th-century lumber mill in Williamsport in Washington County, Maryland. Lots 2-4 have been a single property since 1811. The northernmost Lot 4 fronts on W. Potomac Street adjacent to the Cushwa Basin and the old Williamsport Market Square. There is a 2.5-story stone house on Lot 4; records indicate that this house was built circa 1792 by the Van Lear brothers, who were local merchants. These properties continued to be leased by members of the Van Lear family at least into the 1830s. In 1890 these three lots were acquired by the Miller Brothers, who were local lumber merchants. From 1890 to the 1920s this was their office. After Williamsport was electrified, they built a 2-story wooden structure adjacent to the rear of the Stone House, extending across Lots 2 and 3. This housed their milling operations and wood storage. The planing mill structure was torn down in 2020.
Archaeological Investigations
Archaeology on Lots 2-4 began after the planing mill structure had been demolished. One transect of shovel tests was excavated across the property at 25-foot intervals. The shovel tests close to the house encountered only deep 20th-century fill. More than 50 feet from the house some shovel tests encountered an old plowzone buried under 0.5 to 1.5 feet of fill. One shovel test cut into a stone-lined cellar hole measuring 8 by 20 feet. The fill in the three foot deep cellar was tested with three test units and a mechanical trench. The structure above the cellar had likely been a log structure probably built after the Van Lears began leasing Lots 2 and 3 (1811) and torn down after the Miller Brothers acquired the property in 1890. The structure, which may have been a store, does not appear on the 1904 Sanborn Map. The fill contained some 19th-century artifacts but also some much more recent artifacts, indicating the fill was disturbed.
References
2020 Addendum to the Phase IA and IB Archeological Investigations of the Miller Lumber Site for the new headquarters of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, Williamsport, Maryland. Prepared for Maryland Economic Development Corporation and The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park.
Associated Artifacts
Printed Earthenware
Printed Earthenware
Printed Earthenware
Printed Earthenware
Sponge Decorated
