George Washington's Fredericksburg Foundation

City extends dig at site for hotel

City gets help, allows more time for archaeology work at hotel site

By EMILY BATTLE
Published in The Free Lance-Star: 4/28/2006
Archaeologists dig at downtown hotel site
Marco Gonzalez, a senior field technician
with Dovetail Cultural Resource Group,
removes dirt and looks for artifacts in the dig.
Photo courtesy of The Free Lance-Star

Archaeologists will spend another week's worth of time unearthing city history at the corner of Caroline and Charlotte streets--land that Fredericksburg is on the verge of selling to a hotel developer.

The city and the developers who hope to buy the site to build a Courtyard by Marriott are splitting the $5,000 cost to keep Dovetail Cultural Resource Group there for 40 more hours.

The group will work 10-hour days Sunday through Wednesday, digging and sifting through layers of dirt believed to contain artifacts dating to the 18th century.

Because of the limited time, George Washington's Fredericksburg Foundation has agreed to send a team of four archaeologists to the site from Monday through Wednesday of next week to assist Dovetail.

"We know this is an important dig for the city, and we like to be good neighbors," said Dave Muraca, chief archaeologist at Ferry Farm.

Muraca said he was struck by the fact that the parking lot the city laid over the site in the 1960s has essentially preserved the remains that lay beneath it.

"Usually with cities, the natural remains are pretty chewed up," he said. "In this case, the parking lot has sort of preserved what was there in the past. Everything looks pretty intact, and that's sort of astounding."

Over the past few weeks, the Dovetail crew has found the foundation of a structure that may have been a former slave quarters. If so, it would be the first ever found in the city.

The work is also revealing details about the way Fredericksburgers of the 18th and early 19th centuries lived, as archaeologists study what remains of the Indian Queen hotel, which stood on the corner from 1771 until it burned in 1832.

Beneath part of the old floor of the Indian Queen, researchers are hoping to find well-preserved artifacts from the early to mid-1700s.

Tommy Mitchell, who is working on the project with Northern Virginia hotel operators Rich Palmer and Barry Gosnell, said the work isn't interfering with hotel plans. He said the group had already completed all the preliminary work it needs to do on the site prior to buying it.

City Manager Phillip Rodenberg said the work will not interfere with the First Friday event scheduled May 5. If weather delays mean the hole is still open by Friday, Rodenberg said, the city would fence it off and make sure it's safe for visitors.

To reach EMILY BATTLE:540/374-5413
Email: ebattle@freelancestar.com