Photos: Excavations of the well house
The Second President’s House was an early nineteenth-century residence built by UNC's first president Joseph Caldwell. It is known as the Second President's House as the University had built an earlier house for the president (where Swain Hall now stands) that was never occupied by Caldwell. After the house burned in 1886 the remaining lot, by then owned by the UNC Trustees, was divided and James Lee Love built a new residence on the eastern portion. The first archaeological investigations associated with the Second President’s House were undertaken in 2004.
UNC archaeologists discovered undisturbed evidence for a 1500-year-old American Indian occupation at the site. The ancient remains were beneath the floor where an early nineteenth-century well house once stood. The well house was a wood frame structure that measured about 14 ft. by 18 ft. and stood on eight stone piers. A large well about 5 ft. in diameter was located at the south edge of the structure. Elsewhere within the area excavated, brick rubble and other debris from the 1886 fire and subsequent clean-up also were revealed.
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