FOSA's first dig of the season occurred this spring on May 14 and 15 on the grounds of the Windsor Historical Society (WHS). The Society's campus consists of 3 connected buildings, with the Strong-Howard House the oldest. This house dates back to 1758 and the other two buildings were added on in 1961 and 1989 respectively. The grounds are within what was once the Windsor Palisade, a stockade enclosure built in the late 1630s to protect the colonists from the threat of an attack during the Pequot War (For more info on this Palisade see Spring 2007 FOSA Newsletter reprint).

The WHS was founded in 1921 and purchased the Strong-Howard House in 1925. They saved it from being torn down to erect a gas station. It is a wood structure with a gambrel roof and clapboard siding. A structure like this is a rarity because so few have survived to the present. In the years since 1925, it has been used as the Society's meeting place and museum until the 2 newer buildings were added to the complex. Today its rooms are furnished in styles that range from mid 18^th to late 19^th century periods and is 1 of 2 houses the Society offers for tours.

The Strong-Howard House is currently under renovation and is nearing completion of phase I. This phase consisted of electrical rewiring, moisture abatement in the cellar, sill and clapboard replacement and a facelift of two of the house's rooms; the parlor and store.

This house was built by John Strong but he and his family lived there for only a short time. Captain Nathaniel Howard, his wife Ann, children and descendants occupied or owned the house from 1772 to 1837. Of all the owners of the house, they seem to be the most colorful and interesting inhabitants. The Captain was a successful merchant sea captain who sailed the Atlantic carrying on trade with England and the West Indies. He traded local goods, such as produce and livestock, for manufactured goods from aboard. His overseas trade brought in luxury goods from abroad that his wife Ann would sell in a store setup in the house.

Ann's store was the focus of this season's dig. It is a 9 by 12 foot room that was added on to the original house in the late 18^th century. This room was at the front of the house at the time as the main road passed there during the 18^th century. In the process of the phase I renovations, the carpenters removed the floor boards over the crawl space beneath this room to replace the footings and floor joists. Therefore, we had 2 days to complete a study to see if it could reveal any information about this section of the house and provide a more accurate estimate of when it was constructed.

Windsor Historical Society's Executive Director Christine Ermenc and its Curator and Educator Christina Vida invited FOSA to perform this archaeological survey. Prior to this dig I dug three 2'x2' shovel test pits outside the foundation of this room with the main goal of finding how deep the foundation went for structural purposes as part of phase I, and in the process many interesting artifacts were found and cataloged. One surprise artifact is what we believe is a complete 7 inch long whale's tooth. With this and many other interesting finds we hoped the opportunity to dig beneath the store's floor would be even more exciting.

We had an excellent turnout with 28 FOSA members over the two days. Everyone had something to do. Indeed it is unusual to be digging inside of a house and I originally thought it would be a treat but soon found out the close quarters were somewhat cramped and having to wear a breathing mask made one's eye glasses soon fog up.

Under Nick's direction, we divided the 9' x 12' crawl space into six 1 meter squares.. This encompassed nearly all the space under the floor. The entire operation went very smoothly with 3 or 4 persons excavating, then the excavated soil handed out the window to be screened for artifacts and then bagged and labeled.

Near the surface, pieces of newspapers were found but all were vintage 1960 and 1970. Perhaps they were used to prevent drafts in the winter. But soon we were recovering a variety of typical historic artifacts such as: food, poultry and rodent bones, marine and nut shell, wrought and wire iron nails, pieces of brick, clay pipe stems, and numerous glass wares and shards. A surprise find was a ½" diameter musket ball.

Compared with past experience on this site there were an unusually small number of pottery shards to be found.

Photo 1 displays one of the incomplete wine bottles with its detached neck shard. The bottom is composed of 7 separate shards that I cemented together. Interestingly the shards where found in 4 different excavated squares. Notice the center of its base rises into the bottles interior, this is known as a "conical basal kick" (Hume, 1969:71). Not shown in the photo is the pontil mark located on the exterior and opposite to the conical basal kick. This type of bottle is of a style that may date back to 1714, (Hume, 1969: 64). In that case, it dates before the house was built. But because it is a black glass it may have been made in America as late as 1820 (Hume, 1969:71). If the earlier date of 1714 proves correct, this bottle doesn't relate to the time period of this house but to one of an earlier period. This area of Ancient Windsor dates back to the late 1630's and was getting well populated even at that time. Hence, even though the house dates back to 1758, the property had many other owners before that time.

Interesting are some of the glass window shards. Some were long and straight narrow strips with scribe marks indicating where the glass was marked to be cut or snapped off by the window cutter and glazier. These long slender pieces were the scraps from a large piece that was sized for a window pane. This leads me to believe the glazier was possibly on site at sometime, installing and replacing windows. Because of its clear and smooth appearance, unlike broad or crown glass, it suggests more late 19^th or 20^th century manufacture (Hume, 1969: 233-234)



A surprising number of glass lantern chimney shards were recovered. I found it unusual to find so many in this one spot. In the past I have dug outside of this house and the surrounding grounds and can't recall finding any. Photo 2 displays several incomplete chimneys where I was able to match some of the shards. The chimney on the far right is from my home and is used here as a comparison. The chimney to the far left is composed of 5 matched shards.

Photo 3 displays two complete pharmaceutical medicine bottles that were recovered. They both have mold seams going down the center of their body. The one on the left has a smooth body, while the one on the right has a 12 facet body. The bottle lips appear to have been applied separately in manufacture unlike 17^th century English versions where the neck was tooled out at the top to form a lip (Hume, 1969:74). These bottles probably date to the time period of the house.

Photo 4 is a hand blown bottle that looks to be in the pharmaceutical class. All of its pieces were found in one location and I was able to mend 3 shards that compose the shoulder and neck. The bottom half is complete and has a pontil mark but the mid section is broken up into several unmatchable shards. It is clear glass, about 5 inches in length and was manufactured in the late 18^th century (Hume, 1969:72). This dates to the early years of our house.

Some other unusual artifacts that are worth mentioning are several brass tacks that remind me of those used for furniture upholstering, a very small scallop shell with a hole in its center that may have been used for decoration, a very small finial that looks like a toy bedpost and a slate pencil.

All the artifacts are in the care of the WHS and plans are to integrate them into the visitors' experience of the House. The restorations are nearly completed and on October 5^th, the public is invited to see the new look. With the store and parlor changes, visitors will see what the very talented staff at WHS has created. As Christine Ermenc, WHS Executive Director said, "This summer we will furnish the parlor and store areas with reproductions of items the Howard family would have used and sold in 1810, changing the standard 'look, don't touch' guided tour into an experience where visitors are invited inside to touch, smell, explore, and relive what life was like two hundred years ago."

We hope that our efforts have contributed useful information to the ongoing archeological and historic record for this period.


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Bibliography: Hume, Ivor Noel 1969 A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America Vintage Books A Division of Random House, Inc, New York.