Photos: Slip-decorated earthenware pitcher base (left) and a replica of the “Old West Pitcher” by Hal Pugh, 1992 (right).
In 1991, just prior to the University’s bicentennial celebration, extensive repairs were made to two of its oldest buildings—Old East and Old West. Old West was built in 1822 and expanded in 1848. No formal archaeological investigation was undertaken during this project; however, the crawlspace was examined by university archaeologists once the first floor had been removed.
Many of the artifacts found during repairs were associated with the daily lives of the students who lived here during the building’s early years. The artifacts include a playing card from the late nineteenth century that was tucked behind a chimney, a shoe dye bottle, a glass flask, a wine bottle neck, glass tumbler fragments, buttons, a horseshoe, and a several-thousand-year-old American Indian spear point. The spear point may have been lost by an ancient hunter at this spot, or it might have been picked up elsewhere by a student living in Old West.
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