Wilson Site (18HO300)

The Wilson Site is an early 19th- through early 20th-century domestic complex. Analysis of the excavations at the site provides two important pieces of information about the site: its occupation date, in relation to what is known from the historical records, and its relationship to settlement patterns along the National Road. The 92 artifacts recovered from work at the site point to a domestic occupation that lasted for much of the 19th century. Diagnostic artifacts corroborating the date include cut nails, wire nails, creamware, pearlware, and whiteware, with a mean ceramic date for the assemblage calculated at 1848. The archaeological evidence suggests that the property was occupied for decades before John and Sara Wilson purchased it in 1874. Judging from the artifacts, it seems that the Mercer family may have been the first occupants of the site, before selling it to Thomas Bingham in 1815. Bingham sold the lot and buildings to Joshua Wright in 1837. Wright was likely operating a tavern on the parcel immediately to the west by at least 1859 and may have incorporated the complex of buildings on the Bingham parcel into his tavern business.

Wright's purchase of the property and his operation of a nearby tavern mirrors similar patterns for the placement of taverns and inns along the National Road in the early to mid-19th century. Like the Lisbon Hotel, Poplar Springs, and Robert’s Inn, Wright's Tavern was positioned along the road in an area that developed as a result of the business brought to the area by travelers needing services. The location of the site near a spring and on a somewhat larger parcel would have allowed pasture space for draft animals or stock as well as the ability to grow fodder to feed the animals (Colten 1996:198–199). Wright’s property to the west of the Wilson Cabin site was known as the "Spring Tavern Lot" suggesting that it was near a spring and the seat of a tavern.

Archaeological testing at the Wilson site was conducted in 2018 by Dovetail CRG. A total of 24 shovel test pits were dug at 20-foot intervals. Artifacts were primarily recovered from Stratum I, a 0.8-ft. thick brown silty loam A horizon. This layer sealed an approximately 0.2-ft. thick subsoil composed of a silty clay. In some locations across the site three strata were identified with the second stratum being characterized as a demolition layer from the 2009 dismantling of a building.

The section of foundation wall identified at the Wilson Cabin site is difficult to fully interpret due to limited study, but likely represents a building present on the site during Wright's occupation, and perhaps before, based on the association of a hand-painted pearlware fragment with the feature. Probing of the foundation suggested that the wall ran roughly perpendicular to Frederick Road, but exact dimensions and orientation were not able to be confirmed through probing. In all likelihood, the foundation represents a support building on the Wilson property, possibly the northwestern-most building in the complex of log buildings described in the 1798 tax documents and seen in the 1937 aerial image. The location of the building near the road could have made it very useful as part of a tavern complex, perhaps functioning as a stable or barn, or serving multiple functions. The orientation of the single wall that was probed does suggest the possibility of its alignment with Oster Farm Road, located to the west of the site.

Some of the buildings at the Wilson Cabin site continued to be used into the twenty-first century, until the primary dwelling was dismantled in 2009. Most of the buildings visible in the 1937 aerial appear to have been demolished by the mid-20th century. However, their association with the tavern to the west may have ceased around the time that John Alcock purchased the property in 1869. By that time, the nearby railroad and canal had diverted a good deal of traffic from the National Road in this portion of Maryland and several former tavern and inn locations were beginning to decline as commercial and community gathering places, including the Lisbon Hotel, Robert’s Inn, and Poplar Springs.

Nevertheless, in a few decades, interest in and heavy use of the road would be renewed with the introduction and popularity of the automobile. Places like the Wilson Cabin site did not return to their former glory, as automobile transportation did not lend itself to the same kinds of landscapes as horse and draft animals. Cars did not require pasture land for grazing and springs for water, only small areas to stop for gasoline and perhaps a short rest. Indeed many of the inns and their support buildings reverted to dwellings or agricultural uses with the decline of the National Road, as appears to be the case with the building at the Wilson Cabin site. By 1886 the Wilsons had created a modest farm that included the study area, incorporating the building that was identified archaeologically (Short 2008:29). The site continued in agricultural use until the mid-20th century, when it was sold to developers.

(Modified from state site form by Patricia Samford)