Phase II and Phase III Archaeological Database and Inventory
18BA331 House Site #1
Diagnostic Artifact Data
Features
Summary
House Site #1 (18BA331) is the location of a late 19th to late 20th century tenant house. The main structural remains present at the site are those of the stone and mortar house foundation, a well, outbuilding remains, and a cistern. It is located within the Red Run drainage southwest of Owings Mills, in Baltimore County, Maryland. It 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. It overlooks the Dolfield summer house (see synopsis report for 18BA330) located approximately 70 meters to the north across a farm road. Outbuildings consist of a barn and pen area situated to the northeast and overlooking a small, second order stream running northeast/southwest. The pen area is marked in part by split rail fence sections located to the east of the barn area. The barn has experienced intensive destruction and consists of rock and concrete elements as the only above-ground evidence of its presence. Soil at the site is moderately eroded Glenelg loams.
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 showed that structures on the land consisted of a frame dwelling, corn house, stable and a tenant house (probably Site 18BA331) which appears on maps from that time period. The McClure family was depicted at this location on maps dated from 1877 to 1915. The Moser family is thought to have lived in that house, as estate caretaker’s, during the later part of the Dolfield ownership. Site 18BA332 (see associated synopsis report), a second tenant house on the property (also known as the “black tenant” house), was not listed on the tax record nor on maps but may also have dated from this time period. Frederick Dolfield’s son, Alexander, grew up to become a successful banker.
Alexander built the Dolfield summer house (see synopsis report for 18BA330) in the 1880s. It was a Victorian three-story structure used as a vacation home. Alexander Dolfield died in 1918, at which time probate proceedings divided the estate amongst a number of heirs. Those heirs transferred title of the property over to Dolfield’s son, Frederick A. Dolfield. The 1923 tax records showed that F. A. Dolfield owned 200 acres containing a dwelling, barn, other buildings and houses, and a corn crib. The dwelling, barn and one of the houses are thought to relate to Sites 18BA330 and 18BA330a. One of the other house sites mentioned is Site 18BA331 and the black tenant house is 18BA332. This is the earliest specific mention of the black tenant house in the historic record. 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 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 took up residence in the summer house, prior to its destruction. Finally in 1986, the Dolfield/Moser property was acquired by a local developer in Owings Mills.
So, Site 18BA331 was possibly established as early as the 1850s and by the 1870s, a tenant farm was maintained there by the McClure family. The McClure name was listed on maps dated between 1877 and 1915. The grandmother of a local informant and her children moved onto the Dolfield farm ca. 1913, apparently taking over the house at 18BA331. By 1928 the Moser family was carried as a tenant. The structure was described in a 1965 equity record as a two-story frame structure with no heat or electricity, and in poor condition. Occupation of the property extended into the mid-20th century until the house burned down in the 1960s.
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 18BA331 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 and no STPs were excavated during the survey. The field investigators noted that a stove had been dumped into an old well near the foundation of the house and that there was an abundance of late 20th century bulk trash scattered across the site.
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.
Phase I investigation at Site 18BA331 in 1989 consisted of surface reconnaissance and the excavation of 10 STPs. Phase II testing consisted of extensive clearing of vegetation, the excavation of 40 STPs, and a single 1 m² test unit. The test unit was placed in the southwest corner of the foundation in order to provide a profile of the foundation and to collect a sample of the interior cultural materials. Excavations revealed that the house foundation enclosed a full cellar with a concrete floor. Two stone foundations with concrete and cement caps adjoining the north and south walls were also identified. These form a front and back porch, respectively. To the southwest of the foundation the remains of a frame building were located. This was probably at one time an animal enclosure (chicken coop).
A total of 57 historic artifacts were collected from House Site #1 during the 1989 Phase I/II testing. There were 29 architectural materials including 6 window glass shards, 1 piece of flat glass, 11 cut nails, 1 wire nails, 5 unidentifiable nails, 1 brad, 1 metal bracket with rivet, 2 pieces of (modern) asbestos exterior siding (discarded), and 1 corroded bolt with lock washer. The 28 kitchen-related materials including 13 bottle/container glass fragments, 12 ceramic sherds (7 whiteware, 3 unidentified salt-glazed stoneware, 1 modern yellow-glazed earthenware, 1 porcelain), 1 teaspoon stamped “100% nickel silver Alaska”, a glass jar lid fragment, 1 oyster shell fragment, and 1 butchered animal bone fragment.
Site 18BA331 was likley one of the original farms in the area and the use of the site as a tenant farm within the Dolfield estate offers the potential for addressing questions related to socioeconomic differences between the land owners and tenants. Although modern artifacts were collected, the remainder of the assemblage dated to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Following the Phase II testing, it was originally concluded that the site was generally a socioeconomic duplicate of 18BA332 and had limited research value (testing at Site 18BA331 was undertaken after the testing at Site 18BA332 was completed). Therefore, no further archeological testing was recommended. However, the Maryland Historical Trust held the position that more historical explanation was necessary before a determination could be established. It was pointed out that 18BA332 was occupied by African American tenants while 18BA331 was occupied by Caucasian tenants. This difference provided an opportunity to examine status, and possible economic differences, between what were essentially two similar tenant families. For this reason, the interpretation of site duplication was not acceptable. A Data Recovery plan was requested before development plans could proceed.
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. Data recovery was carried out from late October through late November 1989.
During the Phase III study, a total of 18 1 X 1 m units were collected or dug and 415 square meters of topsoil were stripped in the east side, west side, and rear yard areas. 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. Feature 2, a large buried 19th century artifact and food refuse scatter (midden), was found in the east side yard area. It was gridded into fourteen 1 X 1 m units and surface collected. Fifty percent of the units were then excavated to the interface with subsoil, which formed the base of cultural deposits. A posthole and a privy feature were found on the west end of the site, near the chicken coop and pen area. The former was not excavated by the usual cross-section procedure because the fill was very loose and contained a very high concentration of artifacts, most of which was glass. Only basic diagnostics were collected.
A 1 X 1 m test unit was excavated on the exterior of the north end of the west wall house foundation in order to locate a builder’s trench. Another was placed on the interior southwest corner in order to gain information concerning room use, floor structure, and early occupation data as reflected in the artifact assemblage. The remaining two units were placed in the north and south yard to test for artifact scatters and gain stratigraphic control.
Seven features were identified during the course of the Phase III investigations. Feature 1was a buried layer of topsoil near the house foundation which appeared to represent builder’s trench fill. The trench had a depth of 1.1 m below surface and tapered in shape. Feature 2 was a large, oval-shaped disturbed scatter of refuse located in the southeastern yard area. Its surface was in the topsoil about 10 cm above the interface with subsoil. The midden extended in depth into the upper 10 cm of the subsoil. Three discolored circular stains were recorded in the central and northwestern part of the feature. The vast majority of artifacts recovered during Phase III, came from this feature. Feature 3 was the outlet of a 9 cm kitchen drainpipe. The drain area was discolored and contained a dense population of roots which had been encouraged to grow by the waste nutrients. Feature 4 was a stain in the upper part of the subsoil, located between the chicken coop area and the privies to the west and is in the outer part of the southwestern section of the yard. Its function is uncertain. Another soil stain in the upper part of the subsoil, Feature 5, was oval in form and measured 1 X 1.4 m. The color extended approximately 20 cm into the subsoil. A posthole was located nearby, which may have been a structural support for a drawer type privy which an informant placed in this area. The stained area may have resulted from the operation of a drawer type privy at this location. Feature 6 was a trench-like depression located in and below the southwestern part of Feature 2. It extended into the subsoil about 12 cm and was filled with topsoil, subsoil, and some artifacts. Feature 7 was situated north of the privy area (Feature 5) and was a post hole, possibly part of a fence line that bounded the rear and western yard area.
Exact artifact counts are not provided in the body of the text in the full site report. Some artifact classes receive tallies, while others are only mentioned as being present. The amounts provided here and in the tables above are, thus, minimal estimates based on the data available. The artifact assemblage includes (at the least) the following; 149 activity items, 350 architectural artifacts, 18 clothing items, 2 unidentified furniture parts, 1,897 kitchen-related artifacts, 25 personal items, a tobacco-related artifact (a reeded pipe fragment), 4 arms objects (2 brass cartridges and 2 shotgun shells), 2,374 miscellaneous items (cat remains with evidence of tubercular infection, and 2,373 unidentified objects), and a lone prehistoric quartz flake. The activity items were 22 toys (1 glass marble, 7 other marbles, 6 pieces from a children’s tea set, 7 doll fragments, a plastic game piece, and 14 misc. toy parts), 8 lighting objects (a lamp shade fragment, 4 brass lamp parts, and 3 pieces of lamp glass), a washing machine agitator, a baseball glove fragment, 2 slate writing board fragments, 5 slate pencil pieces, a fishing reel, a burned paper stack, and 85 redware flowerpot sherds, and 9 farm implements (a saw blade, a singletree, a piece of horse tackle, 3 horseshoes, a scythe blade, a hay harrow, and a claw hammer). Architectural remains were at least 173 pieces of window glass, 166 nails (93 cut, 15 wire, and 58 unidentified), a washer, a hinge, a bolt, 4 ceramic doorknobs, 2 pieces of door hardware, and 2 miscellaneous architectural objects. Clothing remains were a glass button, 8 pieces of shoe leather, 8 clothing fasteners, and a safety pin. The kitchen assemblage consisted of 887 ceramic sherds (11 late creamware, 3 pearlware, 3 late pearlware, 56 porcelain, 8 vitreous china, 594 whiteware, 30 yelloware, 79 redware, 4 miscellaneous earthenware, and 116 miscellaneous stoneware), 893 glass fragments (23 table glass, 12 miscellaneous jar fragments, and 858 other bottle glass fragment), a bone cutlery handle, 4 spoons, 2 forks, a knife fragment, 88 faunal remains (48 animal bones, 4 clam shells, and 36 oyster shells), and 4 peach pits. Personal items were a key, 6 pennies (1917-1979), 4 mirror fragments, a cosmetic jar, 4 chamberpot fragments, 5 Bakelite comb fragments, 2 earrings, and 2 glass beads.
Based on the presence of marked and dated artifacts, it was possible to attribute the contents of some features or strata to either the period of occupation by the McClure family during the late 19th century or the period of occupation by the Moser family during the 20th. The ceramic inventory was composed of common wares dating from the late 19th/mid-20th century. Some porcelain sherds were recovered, including vessel forms from a tea service. However, these upper economic level ceramic sherds were a minor part of the assemblage, probably being gifts or payment for services. Architecturally, the 18BA331 residence, support buildings and features were typically rural in nature. The chicken coop and “drawer” privies represented the area. The on-site well was sufficient for providing fresh water to the occupants, while a cistern located north of the house was used to service 18BA330 and 18BA330a, along with the barn compound located east of the two sites.
The land-use at 18BA331 serviced the domestic needs of the house and/or aided in the farming enterprises. Waste materials were generally removed off-site, but food debris was noticeably higher at 18BA331 than at nearby sites (18BA330 and 18BA330a). However, this difference was not seen as a substantial departure, in terms of socioeconomic behavior, from that in evidence at surrounding sites. In fact, 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 18BA331 is the apparent remains of a late 19th-early 20th century tenant house, and likely the oldest house on the property. The excavation work primarily verified the oral and written history of the area. Several features were identified and the site did exhibit good integrity (occupations by specific families could be isolated by individual features in some cases. However, the research potential of 18BA331 has largely been exhausted. The development project has subsequently moved forward resulting in significant impacts to the site.
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