Phase II and Phase III Archaeological Database and Inventory
18BA330 Dolfield Summer House Complex
Diagnostic Artifact Data
Features
Summary
The Dolfield Summer House Complex (18BA330), also referred to as site MHT 677 - Barn Complex, is a late 19th to mid-20th century house site. It is located within the Red Run drainage southwest of Owings Mills, in Baltimore County. The site is situated on a level ridge, inland from Red Run, but relatively near a larger tributary on the west and the headwaters of a smaller one on the east. The site consisted of the remains of a Victorian summer mansion, an outdoor kitchen, a farmer/caretaker’s house (see synopsis report for 18BA330a), a well, an ice house, and the stone foundations of a greenhouse or barn. A farm road passed the house complex on the west and connects a county road with house site 18BA330a, as well as Sites 18BA331 and 18BA332 (see associated synopsis reports). Also in the area are 2 ice ponds (formed from the larger stream) and a circular stone building. The summer house was constructed sometime in the 1880s and burned in the 1960s. Soil at the site is moderately eroded Glenelg loam.
In 1859, Frederick Dolfield purchased a 160 acre tract of land. Dolfield, originally a cooper, worked the land as a farmer. The 1876 Tax Assessment shows that structures on the land consisted of a frame dwelling, corn house, stable and a tenant house (probably 18BA331 which appears on maps from that time period). The McClure family is depicted at this location on maps dated from 1877 to 1915. The Moser family reportedly lived in that house, as estate caretaker’s, during the later part of the Dolfield ownership. Site 18BA332, a second tenant house on the property, was not listed on the tax record, nor on maps, but may also have dated from that time. His son, Alexander, grew up to become a successful banker.
Alexander built the Dolfield summer house in the 1880s. The house was a three-storey Victorian structure used as a vacation home. On some 19th century maps the Dolfield house is mistakenly depicted north of Red Run. Alexander Dolfield died in 1918, at which time probate proceedings divided the estate into a number of heirs. Those heirs transferred title of the property over to Dolfield’s son, Frederick A. Dolfield. The 1923 tax records show that F.A. Dolfield owned 200 acres containing a dwelling, barn, other buildings, three tenant houses, and a corn crib. This is the earliest specific mention of the house at 18BA332, the black tenant house. It is believed that the Dolfield summer house was destroyed by fire sometime in the 1940s. In 1951, the property was sold to one-time caretaker Raymond Moser. F. A. Dolfield died a few years later. During the Dolfield ownership, several black and white families squatted on the Dolfield property and adjacent properties. These families lived along Dolfield on the western side of the property and were engaged as chrome miners. Several of the structures in which these families lived burned down. The Moser family never lived in the summer house, which was left unoccupied and was eventually destroyed by fire. Finally in 1986, the Dolfield/Moser property was acquired by a private developer based in Owings Mills.
In the 1980s, Baltimore County set up the Owings Mills Growth Area wherein areas were specified for either residential or commercial development. The Lakeside Development was a 432 acre residential development within the Growth Area. To facilitate the building of the development, the land owner was to fund the construction of the extension of two roads, which would cross over Red Run and its tributaries. In order to obtain the permits for the road construction, the developer was required to conduct a preliminary archeological and structural survey of the entire project area. The Phase I reconnaissance survey was divided into 2 stages of work: Stage 1 consisted of the survey of the proposed road alignments and ca. 150 acres of the development slated for construction in 1988 and Stage 2 consisted of the survey of the remaining 282 acres during the spring of 1988 while construction began in the Stage 1 area.
Stage 1 fieldwork was conducted during the winter of 1987 and halted in December due to cold conditions. The Phase I survey strategy entailed testing all geologic formations and all environmental zones within the Lakeside project area. The center line of the two proposed road alignments served as the north-south and east-west grid lines for the shovel testing program in the 150 acre Stage 1 area. A total of 135 shovel test pits (STPs) were excavated on slopes of less than 15%. On slopes greater than 15%, instead of digging an STP, a two m² area was raked, first to remove the overburden then to break the ground a few inches below surface in order to locate any materials near the surface. In areas where artifacts were present, one meter test squares were opened up.
Site 18BA330 was identified during a hike up to the Stage 1 survey area but was itself located in the Stage 2 area. Therefore, the site was simply recorded in 1987 and no STPs were excavated within its boundaries. Foundations and an open well were encountered in the woods. The house may have been demolished in the 1960s after the close of an equity court case. The case files described 3 houses on the property, of which the Dolfield Summer House was one. The second house shown on the map could not be located and the third house was determined to be the remains at Site 18BA331.
A Phase I/II archeological testing program was undertaken within the Owings Mills New Town project area from March through June of 1989. Additional research had been requested by the Maryland Historical Trust for a portion of the Stage 1 area of the residential development project, as well as new investigations in the southern part of the section and in a Wetland Mitigation Exchange Area east of the Stage 1 section. The housing developer was initiating their construction phase at this time.
The 1989 Phase I testing at the site was concentrated around the summer house and the farmer/caretaker’s house (ultimately assigned its own site number as 18BA330a) as these areas were likely to contain the greatest amount of cultural debris and offered the best opportunity for collecting information for interpreting and contrasting the differing social and economic rankings of the occupants. Thirteen STPs were excavated around the main house, ice house, outdoor kitchen, and the backyard. One STP was placed in the center of the southwest cellar room. A thick burn deposit was encountered in the cellar STP that contained cut nails.
Phase II testing at the site consisted of the excavation of 60 STPs, three 1 m² test units, and topsoil stripping from 3 transects (Trenches 1-3) placed in the western half of the backyard to uncover features. The artifact distribution revealed through the STP excavations indicated the artifact pattern within the yard to be of a low frequency and restricted to the west side yard and backyard areas. Test unit excavations encountered the same burned layer identified in the cellar of the summer house during Phase I testing.
A circular rock foundation feature located south of the summer house was also encountered during the test unit excavations. This may have been an ornamental structure associated with a garden that was reportedly located in the eastern part of the backyard. Topsoil stripping uncovered the remains of an outdoor kitchen in the area of Trench 1, which measured approximately 5x15 meters. Inside the building foundation, 3 burned earth stains were encountered but their origin could not be determined. A stone and brick debris feature was also uncovered. Several sherds from a pearlware chamber pot were recovered from the feature. The feature may have been the location of a privy but no soil stains from a shaft feature were present. No food waste materials were noted at the site, and refuse disposal appeared to have been carried away from the site to an area not yet identified. The only possible exception is the identification of a limited amount of debris that collected around the outdoor kitchen area.
A total of 148 historic artifacts were collected from the Dolfield Summer House site during the 1989 Phase I/II testing at the site. There were 123 architectural materials including 10 small brick fragments (discarded), 77 window glass shards, 15 cut nails, 5 wire nails, 9 modern box or flooring nails, 2 unidentifiable nails, 2 spikes, 2 fragments of mortar (1 with adhering plaster), and 1 hinge pin. There were 24 kitchen-related materials including 15 ceramic sherds (6 whiteware, 8 red-bodied earthenware, 1 porcelain), 1 glass jar lid fragment, 5 bottle/container glass fragments, 1 fluted glass fragment (probably table glass), and 2 animal bones. Arms-related items included a single .45 caliber shell casing.
Following the 1989 Phase I/II investigations, it was decided that the farmer/caretaker’s house was the location of the original Dolfield farm house and was given a different site number, 18BA330a. More extensive field investigations were recommended for Site 18BA330. Since the area was scheduled for residential development and the planned earth-moving activities would destroy the site, the collection of additional data was deemed appropriate. Additional testing, it was thought, could provide information on the socioeconomic practices of early farmers and reveal the stratified economic and social rank of those living at the summer house and the caretaker’s house. Additionally, the socioeconomic division within the house, between owners and servants, might also be reflected in the patterns of refuse disposal.
Late in 1989 a combined testing and data recovery was conducted at several sites in the development area including 18BA328 (see synopsis reports for 18BA330, 18BA330a, 18BA331, 18BA332, 18BA354, and 18BA394). Previous investigation suggested that these sites were potentially eligible for listing to the National Register of Historic Places.
Phase III data recovery operations focused on securing architectural, land-use, material cultural, and dietary information from the site and relating the data to questions concerning social, economic, and ethnic practices. The goal of the Phase III intensive recovery was to obtain a representative sample of the site’s cultural record and in doing so, preserve a record of the information as an adverse impact mitigative action. Other general research goals were the interpretation of site-specific and inter-site variability (such as history, settlement, ethnicity, diet, and socioeconomic practices) and hypotheses creation and testing. Phase III work at 18PR330 was carried out from late October through late November 1989.
The actual field investigations were primarily focused on the west and southwest yard area (relative to the summer house foundation), of which 321 m2 of topsoil was stripped. Seven 1 m2 excavation units were placed systematically in areas thought to possess either shaft features or trash pits. Fifteen features were subsequently excavated and recorded. Features, when identified, were mapped, photographed, and then excavated. Features were excavated by revealing a cross-section profile for study and classification as to purpose. Then, the remaining cross-section was profiled and photographed, then removed and screened through hardware cloth.
Two of the units were placed on the interior and exterior walls of the preserved portion of a greenhouse foundation (originally thought to be that of an outdoors kitchen). According to a local informant, the outdoor kitchen was actually located at the southwestern end of the summer house, adjacent to the northern and northeastern sides of a well. An excavation unit was placed at the center of this presumed kitchen area with hopes of recovering artifacts that could date early use of the kitchen. The remaining four units were placed on and above the west ridge overlooking an access road. It was anticipated that data regarding privy locale, stratigraphy, and artifact concentrations could be obtained. A local informant stated that two privies and a tiny smokehouse were located in this area.
Feature 1 was an unclassified subsoil stain measuring 50 cm across which contained a clear, pressed glass fragment from a bowl or dish. Features 2 and 3 appeared to be the aforementioned privies based on their squarish form and location in the area described by the local informant. Feature 6 appears to be a third privy in the same general locale. These privies were utilized by the summer house occupants prior to the construction of the indoor bathroom facility at the southwestern end of the house. A local informant relates that the black servants, however, continued to use the outdoor privy. The informant also related that these were “drawer privies”, which contained receptacles emptied off-site when filled, thus prohibiting study of any artifacts disposed of in the privy. Features 2 and 3 did contain four fragments of glass, while Feature 6 contained a large assemblage of material culture. Feature 6 was also of more elaborate construction (with a brick base) and it was surmised that this family was the one used by the Dolfield family. Feature 7 was the rectangular stone foundation of a former greenhouse. Feature 8 was portions of a flagstone walkway located on the west side of the house, beginning at the porch (Feature 8a) and continuing to a parallel rock-lined pathway and gate at the base of the nearby slope. Feature 9 and 10 were irregular unclassified subsoil stains containing late 19th/early 20th century artifacts. Feature 13 appeared to be the remains of the former outdoor kitchen, based on the large quantities of ceramic food service items recovered. No clear architectural pattern could be discerned, but the structure appeared to be roughly 3 by 3 m in size. Feature 14 was a drain which ran along the west side of the house. Feature 15 (first identified during Phase II work) was a rock-lined garden bed. All other features were of un-recognizable form and contained no cultural remains.
Artifacts recovered during the Phase III data recovery at 18PR330 include 43 activity items, 471 architectural artifacts, 4 clothing items (a glass button, a metal button, a small metal snap, and a suspender buckle), two furniture items (a clock key and a possible cast-iron stove part), 479 kitchen-related artifacts, 6 personal items (a thermometer section, 2 Parian figurine fragments, a 1919 penny, a 1942 penny, and a brass key), 3 arms objects (brass cartridges), 163 miscellaneous objects (16 unidentified metal items, 140 unidentified glass pieces, 4 twigs, 1 bark fragment, and 2 snail shells), and 2 prehistoric lithics (a quartz flake and a quartz shatter fragment). The historic activity items were 7 toys (), 5 pieces of lamp glass, a clothesline pulley, an iron barrel hoop, an iron tap/chisel, a cast iron bar, an iron rod bent at 90° angles, a padlock part, 2 carbon battery cores, 2 headlight lens fragments, and 21 redware flowerpot fragments. The architectural assemblage consisted of 26 pieces of brick, a fragment of concrete, 16 pieces of mortar, 238 window glass fragments, 7 pieces of wood, 156 nails (108 cut, 16 wire, and 32 unidentified), a cut spike, a staple, 2 hinges, 1 screw, a bolt, 2 cupboard latches, 2 iron shutter/window latches, 16 sink/commode pieces (porcelain or vitreous china), and an iron pipe joint. The kitchen-related artifacts were 333 ceramic sherds (2 creamware, 16 pearlware, 14 porcelain, 10 vitreous china, 209 whiteware, 16 yelloware, 43 redware, 20 gray stoneware, and 3 other stoneware), 96 glass fragments (13 table glass, 6 glass lid liners, 3 miscellaneous jar glass fragments, 6 pieces of olive green bottle glass fragments, five 19th century bottle glass fragments, and 63 other pieces of bottle glass), a metal saucepan handle, a table fork, an unidentified flatware handle, 4 tin can fragments, 40 faunal objects (18 animal bones, 1 piece of conch shell, and 21 pieces of oyster shell), and 3 floral remains (2 pieces of walnut shell and 1 other nut shell).
The artifacts encountered during data recovery operations ranged in date from the late 19th century to the mid 20th century and span the period of the summer house occupation. Nail analysis indicates that machine-cut and wire nail types were utilized, which correlates with the documented building date of circa 1880s, a period of technological transition. Very little was recovered that touched on the research questions set out at the outset of the Phase III work (related to socioeconomic status, diet, etc.)
Site 18BA330 is the apparent remains of a summer house and associated outbuildings dating to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While the site played a role in verifying the history of the area otherwise documented through oral history and written records, it did not provide a large assemblage for further study or even comparison to similar sites. Several features were identified and the site did exhibit good integrity. However, the research potential of 18BA330 has largely been exhausted. The housing development has subsequently moved forward resulting in significant impacts to the site.
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