The Harrison’s at Pier 5 (18BC62)

Piers 5 and 6 are located in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore and development of this area, including new restaurants and other attractions, brought about an archaeological excavation of these piers in the late 1980s. In the 18th century, this area was marsh and where Jones Falls emptied into the northwest branch of the Patapsco. In 1786, this area was surveyed and called Cole's Harbor or Todd's Range. By 1798, two wharves had been constructed out into the harbor from Pratt Street (known as McElderry's Wharf and Chase's Wharf). By 1807, the area between these two wharves was being filled. Around 1812, Union Dock was established, essentially separation the newly-filled area into two piers. By around 1830, both piers had reached their full lengths and would remain generally the same in outline until the early 20th century. In the early 19th century, the piers were used for lumber storage and maritime activities and by the late 19th century there was some heavy industrial usage (Simmon 1990:11).

Andrew Flannigain received permission in 1843 to build a marine railway on McElderry's wharf, but he did not build it for at least two years. The earliest documentation for this marine railway is 1853 and there is additional evidence that he had filled in and converted the marine railway to a wharf by 1867 (Simmons 1990:3). In 1876, the B&O Railroad extended a track down Pier 5. Both piers were destroyed in the 1904 fire. There is discussion on pages 40 and 51 of Simmons (1990) of the clean-up process and where the debris were placed. Rebuilding of the piers did take place by 1910.

Excavations at the Cheapside Wharf revealed that it was like Piers 5 and 6 in that all were built on created land, mostly likely fill from dredging out harbors.

Archaeological Investigations

The Baltimore Center for Urban Archaeology conducted archaeological testing and excavations at the Harrison's at Piers 5 and 6 sites in 1987 and 1988. Machine trenching on both piers (six trenches on each pier) occurred in 1987 and showed intact structural remains, as well as fill materials used in the construction of the piers (Simmons 1990). Trenches A-F were excavated at Pier 5 and Trenches G-L were excavated at Pier 6. This work provided good information on pier construction and fill materials. The piers were made using crib construction. Three main types of fill were discovered during the trenching – dredged mud from the dredging machines; dry fill soils used to cap the wet fill, and debris from the clean-up of the 1904 fire. Destruction rubble from the fire was used to both create new sections of pier and to build up existing sections of the pier.

Several traces of roads were found in the Phase II work. The machine trenches placed in the areas of the two piers in 1987 showed consistent evidence of a Belgian block stone road paving. This road was constructed around 1914 in anticipation of World War I. Trench C showed a stretch of cobble paving believed to have been Mill Street, possibly the 1871 repaving of that street. In addition, a section of Locust Street, at the south end of the pier, was identified. It was paced with a densely packed layer of rounded pebbles and small cobbles. Evidence of two 19th century floods was also seen in two layers of silted soil.

Traces of structures were also found in the 1987 trenching. Two brick piers and a connecting brick wall were determined to be the back wall of a saloon. The brick rested on a 23 ft section of wooden plank. It is believed that building on the plank would have provided greater stability for a foundation in a tidal area (Simmons 1990:58).

The mitigation work done in 1988 had the goals of discovering whether there were structural remains on the piers and to further elucidate the types of fill and construction details used in pier construction (Simmons 1990:73). A total of 15 units of varying sizes were hand excavated in this phase of work. The soil layers that were found fairly consistently across the units were described in detail and there appears to be excellent preservation of both paleobotanical and faunal remains in many of the layers. They appear to date to the late 18th and early 19th centuries and could provide good data on not only the environmental plants, but dietary plant resources and meat choices as well. These layers are discussed on pages 85-98 in Simmons (1990) and results are given in the Appendix report by Cheryl Holt. At some of the lowest levels in the units, the paleobotanical remains showed that plants and soils from marsh environments had been used in filling the crib piers (Simmons 1990:95). There was also a great deal of other household debris (ceramics, glass, etc.) found in these layers, suggesting perhaps that the products of cleaning out of privies founds its way into the harbor as pier fill (Simmons 1990:114). Also present were layers of sawdust and wood chips, as well as layers with large quantities of leather and leather goods—all suggesting commercial endeavors in the area were also disposing of trash as pier cribbing fill.

The work done in 1988 also uncovered features associated with the Smith and Wicks Tin Can Manufactory (1880-1890) and its replacement, the Tynes Smith Can Company (1890-1904)—Features 3 and 4 (brick piers supporting the can factory) and Feature 7 – a large oil tank used to heat solder for making the cans. Also discovered were two sections of flooring and a wooden framing for a large tank.

The collections created as a result of this excavation are with the BCUA collections at the Maryland Historical Society.

(Written by Patricia Samford)