UNC-Chapel Hill

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Tours

1. A Walking Tour of Archaeological Sites at UNC-Chapel Hill

   UNC archaeologists have conducted numerous archaeological investigations on campus since 1991. This tour highlights their discoveries.

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   1. Carolina Inn Well

      Photo: UNC archaeology student Chris LaMack cleaning the top of the Carolina Inn Well

      A stone-lined well was discovered by workmen in July, 2018, while repaving a driveway adjacent to the University of North Carolina’s Carolina Inn (opened in 1924). It was cleaned, photographed, and mapped by archaeologists from UNC’s Research Laboratories of Archaeology. The well likely is associated with an earlier house that was built on this lot in the mid-1800s.

      3D Model of Well

   2. The Vance Site

      Photos: Excavating undisturbed contexts (left) and the completed excavation showing the cellar and drain (right).

      During renovations of Vance Hall in 2011, construction workers uncovered a deposit of ceramic fragments and broken glassware. Work was temporarily halted while UNC archaeologists excavated a 3×3-meter area between the building and the adjacent brick walkway. This excavation revealed that the construction trench had cut through a nineteenth-century stone drain (See McCorkle Drains) and cellar pit.

      The cellar pit likely was associated a detached kitchen for the private dwelling that stood on the north edge of the lot from the mid-1790s through most of the nineteenth century. The artifacts found in the cellar indicate that it was filled sometime after 1840. Excavation yielded significant information concerning antebellum Chapel Hill, especially mid-19th century foodways due to large quantity of kitchen and dining debris in the form of animal bone and historic ceramics.

      3D model of excavation

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   3. The Pettigrew Site

      Photo: Exposing the top of the Poor House foundation (facing west).

      The Pettigrew site was investigated in 1997 prior to the construction of Hyde Hall. When first surveyed for archaeological remains, it was believed that the site was largely associated with the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house which stood there from the beginning of the twentieth century until the early 1930s. Archaeological investigations demonstrated that it also was the site of a privately owned dormitory known as the Poor House, constructed during the second quarter of the nineteenth century and torn down before 1880.

      Stoneware Jug from the Poor House

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   4. Old West

      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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   5. Old Memorial Hall

      Photos: Photograph of Cameron Avenue between 1885 and 1900, with Old Memorial Hall at right (left) and UNC archaeologist Vin Steponaitis standing over the portico foundation of Old Memorial Hall in 1992 (right).

      The present Memorial Hall on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus was built in 1931 and replaced an earlier structure built in 1885. This earlier building, now known as Old Memorial Hall, was a wood and brick, six-sided, Victorian-Gothic structure designed by well-known architect Samuel Sloan. Originally intended to be a memorial to UNC President David Swain, its function as a memorial was soon expanded to include others connected with the university, such as William R. Davie, Joseph Caldwell, and those former students who fought and died during the Civil War. By the early twentieth century, Old Memorial Hall had gone out of style architecturally and was increasingly regarded as structurally unsound; in 1930 it was torn down.

      When new Memorial Hall was erected in 1931, it was placed on the same site where Old Memorial Hall had stood; however, it did not completely cover the earlier building’s foundations. The new building’s front portico (on Cameron Avenue) was positioned about 8 ft. south of where the earlier portico had stood, and because of its coffin-like plan, the foundations for the east and west sides of Old Memorial Hall extended 10-20 ft. beyond the later Memorial Hall’s footprint.

      Foundations associated with the earlier building were documented by university archaeologists on two occasions. In 1992, excavation of a wide trench to replace aging utility lines along the south side of Cameron Avenue exposed the deeply buried brick foundation of the front portico; these were photographed but not mapped. A decade later, plans were approved to renovate and expand the building, and between 2002 and 2005 archaeologists were afforded opportunities as construction was underway to expose, map, and photograph portions of the wall foundations along the northeast, northwest, and west sides. These brief investigations confirmed the placement of Old Memorial Hall relative to the current building. Today, the buried foundations of the front portico are all that remain of Old Memorial Hall.

   6. Gerrard Hall Site

      Photos: Excavating the Gerrard Hall portico foundation.

      Gerrard Hall is the fourth oldest building still standing on the UNC campus, constructed intermittently between 1822 and 1837. The building’s original design included a portico on the south side of the building, facing away from the center of campus but toward the road that led to the state capital, Raleigh. By about 1900, the portico had fallen into disrepair and was torn down. In 2006 Gerrard Hall underwent extensive renovation, and a new portico was constructed to restore the building’s exterior to its original appearance.

      Prior to those renovations, archaeological investigations were undertaken to locate, expose, and document the original south portico foundations. UNC archaeologists exposed the eastern and east-central column foundations, the portico foundation between these two columns, and the east foundation trench from which the stones had previously been removed. These findings helped confirm the reconstruction design for the new portico and columns. Only a few other early nineteenth-century artifacts were recovered, and no intact soils were found that predated construction of Gerrard Hall.

      3D model of excavation

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   7. South Building Drains

      Photo: UNC archaeologist Trawick Ward standing over the exposed stone drain at South Building

      In 1992, construction crews exposed part of Elisha Mitchell’s stone drain beneath the brick walkway in front of South Building, while excavating a trench to install new utility lines. Stone rubble from the drain was exposed at the base of the construction trench and was quickly mapped and documented by UNC archaeologists Vin Steponaitis and Trawick Ward before the excavation was filled in.

      A letter from Mitchell to President Swain in 1844 provides compelling evidence that Mitchell was involved in the design and orientation of the drains themselves. South Building was experiencing drainage problems, and Mitchell, not agreeing with the proposed solution, devised his own plan that he presented to Swain complete with illustrations. Like most construction projects on the antebellum campus, these were executed with slave labor, sometimes that of Mitchell’s own slaves.

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   8. New East

      Photos: Archaeologists excavating the midden north of New East.

      The New East site contains archaeological remains associated with Steward’s Hall, one of the first buildings on campus. It was constructed in 1794 and served as the University Commons, or dining hall, until 1816. Steward’s Hall was located immediately south of where New East, built in 1858, now stands.

      Investigations have failed to determine the exact location of Steward’s Hall; however, two archaeological contexts were found that likely are associated with the elusive building. Both discoveries resulted from monitoring by UNC archaeologists of construction activities to modernize campus infrastructure. In 1995 an abandoned well was discovered by a construction crew laying fiber-optic cable along the north side of Cameron Avenue.

      The second context likely associated with Steward’s Hall was a buried layer of soil, or midden, that contained numerous artifacts from the early nineteenth-century. It was found in 2007 during archaeological testing ahead of utility line installation immediately north of New East. This midden likely formed as discarded trash accumulated in the backyard of Steward’s Hall.

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   9. McCorkle Drain

      Photos: Exposing a section of the stone drain along the east edge of McCorkle Place

      Archaeological excavations and construction-related activities near the heart of the old campus have revealed several drains dating to the mid-nineteenth century. Constructed of stone, these subterranean stone structures served as early sewers to remove waste and also were used to remove storm water from around building foundations and moisture from basements. The implementation of campus drainage projects was likely overseen by the celebrated Professor Elisha Mitchell, who came to Chapel Hill in 1818 to teach mathematics. Like most construction projects on the antebellum campus, these were executed with slave labor, sometimes that of Mitchell’s own slaves.

      One of these drains was discovered in 2006 by university grounds personnel who were repairing a damaged irrigation line in front of Alumni Hall. A small excavation by UNC archaeologists revealed an intact section of the well-constructed stone drain. Probing of the soil both north (toward Franklin Street) and south (toward Old East) of the exposure indicates that the drain likely extended the entire length of McCorkle Place.

      3D model of excavation

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   10. The Graham Memorial Site

       Photo: Students are mapping exposed archaeological deposits and disturbed foundations

       The Graham Memorial site was the first site on campus to be investigated by UNC archaeologists. During the 1993–1994 academic year, excavations were conducted as an archaeological field school in conjunction with the University’s bicentennial celebration. The site is located on old Chapel Hill Lot 13. This two-acre parcel was sold by the University trustees at auction on October 12, 1793, and throughout the nineteenth century and first two decades of the twentieth century, a tavern house which later served as a hotel and boarding house stood here at the north edge of the University of North Carolina campus. During its heyday was it was known as the Eagle Hotel.

       In 1908 the Chapel Hill Hotel and University Inn Annex, as the hotel was now known, was acquired by the university to be used as a dormitory. During the following decade, the facility was poorly maintained and in 1921 it caught fire and was completely destroyed. After its destruction, the site of the hotel remained largely untouched, except for construction in 1931 of Graham Memorial Building immediately to the south.

       Excavations discovered foundations from the Eagle Hotel and its annexes, drainage ditches filled with refuse from various periods, foundations of the Tavern House, including a chimney and a cellar. Artifacts from all periods of occupation were found along with significant information about hotel’s owners dealt with problems of moisture and drainage.

       3D Model of Brass Keg Tap

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   11. Love House

       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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   12. Second President's House

       Photos: Students excavating within the basement

       A second archaeological investigation of the Second President’s House occurred in August 2014, after construction activity to replace the driveway at the current UNC President’s House exposed the stone foundations and filled-in basement. This provided important information about the building’s dimensions and exact location– pieces of information lacking in written documents.

       An exploratory trench was dug into the basement and a door lock and iron hinges were recovered from the brick rubble fill within the basement trench, and they likely came from the front door. At the top of the basement fill just north of the excavation trench, archaeologists recovered most all of the pieces of a cast iron parlor stove. The stove model was patented by Henry Stanley in 1845, so it likely was installed at about the time President Swain moved into the house.

       3D Model of Exterior Door Lock

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