Phase II and Phase III Archaeological Database and Inventory
18BC62 Harrison's at Pier 5
Diagnostic Artifact Data
Features
Summary
Harrison’s at Pier 5 or 18BC62 consists of the archeological remains associated with an early 19th-early 20th century pier/wharf, and series of industrial buildings and commercial properties along a 19th century street in downtown Baltimore. The site is situated at Pier 5 within the Inner Harbor area of the city, within City Block #684 D. The pier extends south from Pratt Street into the city harbor on the northwest branch of the Patapsco River. The Inner Harbor is an urban area of mixed-use properties and most of the area surrounding the site is heavily developed. Soils mapped for the area are classified as “Urban Land” meaning that 80% of the surface is covered either by buildings or by impervious surfaces such as asphalt or concrete.
The area where Pier 5 is now located was originally part of the marshy, delta-like area where the Jones Falls emptied into the northwest branch of the Patapsco River. This fairly large plot was surveyed in 1786 by Z. MacCubbin, Jr. and was called Coles Harbor or Todd’s Range. Thomas McElderry obtained a portion of this area, and by 1798, tax assessments indicated that two wharves had been constructed out into the harbor from Pratt Street. An 1804 plat shows McElderry’s Wharf extending 1,155 feet south of Pratt Street to the line determined by the Port Warden.
An 1807 survey of the Inner Harbor area by the Baltimore County Surveyor Samuel Green indicated that the entire area between McElderry’s Wharf (located just south of the intersection of the Market Space and Pratt Street) and Chase’s Wharf (adjacent to the Jones Falls) was in the process of being wharfed and filled. By 1810, ownership of the lots south of Wilkes Street was being transferred. This indicated that the wharfing and filling of the southern section of Pier 5 had been completed. In 1812, Green re-surveyed the Inner Harbor. During that period, Union Dock was established. In essence, this began the separation of this newly filled area into two piers: what are today known as Piers 5 (18BC62) and 6 (18BC63).
An 1819 map shows that both Pier 5 and 6 were completely wharfed and filled. However, the map does not show the division of the two in the form of Union Dock. A survey completed two years later for the city shows the continued northern extension of the dock north toward Fleet Street. Apparently, both piers were built into the harbor together with the work being completed in the latter part of the 1st decade of the 19th century. Union Dock was created sometime shortly thereafter, probably by removing fill material between McElderry’s Wharf on the west side of the pier and Chase’s Wharf on the east side, next to the Jones Falls. Both McElderry and Chase probably realized that they could dramatically increase the access to their respective piers and thereby effectively increase the volume of their commercial interests if a dock centrally located to their properties was created.
By the 1830s, both Piers 5 and 6 had reached their greatest length from Pratt Street into the Inner Harbor. The general outline of the piers would remain the same until the beginning of the 20th century. An 1838 map shows Union Dock extending from the southern ends of Piers 5 and 6 north to Fleet Street. All of the city blocks had been laid out by this time, as well as the streets which divided the blocks. No street names are present on this map.
In 1843, Andrew Flannigan received a patent for a marine railway that was to be constructed at the end of McElderry’s Wharf. This railway enabled steamboats and other types of vessels to be hauled up out of the water on a wood beam track and repaired. Although Flannigan received his patent in 1843, there is no evidence of the marine railway or any kind of extension south of McElderry’s Wharf on an 1845 plan of Baltimore. However, and 1853 map does show Flannigan’s name directly below the south end of McElderry’s Wharf. This map also shows that by 1853, Union Dock had been extended as far north as Eastern Avenue. Therefore, sometime during the 8 year period between 1845 and 1853, Union Dock was enlarged.
The extension of Union Dock to Eastern Avenue affected the total area of the lots adjoining the dock as well as the lengths of Fleet, Chestnut, and Concord Streets. The lots affected were situated between 500 and 508 Union Dock n City Block #684 D. Each of these lots had as much as ¼ of their eastern sections removed for the northern extension of the slip. The aforementioned 1838 city map shows Fleet Street as the southernmost east-west running street on the pier. This street, along with Chestnut Street (another east-west running street located one block north of Fleet) was terminated at the western edge of the dock (which was enlarged in the mid-1980s. Concord Street, a main north-south street located between Mill Street and East Falls Avenue, ended at Eastern Avenue. By 1853, new lots, along with Hugh Street (the southernmost Street on the pier) had been laid out.
Andrew Flannigan had filled-in and converted his marine railway into wharf space by 1867. A business directory map from that year shows that area located at the south end of McElderry’s Wharf as being filled and labeled as “Flannigan’s Wharf”. An 1869 birds-eye view of Baltimore confirms that the area was wharfed and filled. Barrels and boxes are shown stacked on this small pier that protrudes into the harbor. Several types of 19th century freighters area also shown moored on either side of the wharf. These include a large steamer, several brigs, and a schooner. This suggests that by the latter mid-19th century, Flannigan had shifted to a focus on maritime commerce and trade and away from the repair of marine vessels.
The next significant change in the continued development of the piers occurred by 1876. At that time, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) extended a track on Pier 5 from Pratt Street down Mill Street at least as far as Locust. This line provided transportation services for the Merchant and Miners Transportation Company and the B&O Freight Station. The other important addition to Pier 5 at this time was the creation of a 250 foot pier for a B&O Railroad Freight Station. This pier, located between the Merchants and Miners Transportation Company’s Pier and Hugh Street, was the last physical change in the overall outline of Pier 5 until the early 20th century.
On February 7th, 1904, the Baltimore Fire completely burned both of the piers, destroying all of the structures present at that time. After the fire, the city established the “Burnt District Commission” which condemned all of the city’s piers and purchased the properties on each from the individual owners. Over the next several years, the overall outline of Piers 5 and 6 was dramatically altered. In fact, the period between 1905 and 1910 witnessed the most widespread changes in the contours and appearance of the piers since their creation a century earlier.
The two most striking changes in the outline of Pier 5 included the removal of a number of properties on the periphery of the pier and the enlargement of Union Dock to Pratt Street. In terms of the first alteration, the city removed the entire western edge of the pier, including McElderry’s Wharf and most of the Merchants and Miners Transportation Company’s Wharf. On the east side of the pier, the entire length of Union Wharf was removed and, with the northern expansion of the Union Dock, the eastern sections of two lots were also removed. This reconfiguration project had the effect of shortening the total length of the pier from 1725 feet from the south side of Pratt Street before the fire to 1250 feet after the fire. The removal of McElderry’s Wharf on the west side and the extension of Union Dock to Pratt Street on the east side resulted in the reduction of the total width of the pier by slightly more than 50 feet.
This massive reconfiguration project, completed sometime around 1910, was the last major change that Pier 5 would go through until the mid-1980s. The only other large scale construction to take place on the pier occurred in anticipation of World War I. A 50 foot wide Belgian Block street was laid in 1914, in order to provide a better transportation route from Pratt Street to the merchant vessels moored around the pier. New utility lines were installed in association with this street.
The latest alteration to the piers occurred in 1984. Approximately 850 feet or ¾ of Union Dock was filled in between Piers 5 and 6. While the area between the two piers had been dredged many times after 1913, the importance of that area as a dock space was increasingly diminished during the last half of the 20th century with the shift of Baltimore’s commercial interests away from the Inner Harbor area. The significance of the pier was not diminished, however. Because of the tremendous growth of the tourist industry in Baltimore in the 1980s and 1990s, the use of space on the pier changed to accommodate this trend. Beginning in 1984, nearly all of Piers 5 and 6, was paved in asphalt and became downtown parking space for motor vehicles.
The site was first examined archeologically in the summer of 1987. A Phase II testing program was carried out at both Piers 5 (18BC62) and 6 (18BC63). At Pier 5, this was later expanded to a Phase III data recovery project. At the time, Center City – Inner Harbor Development, Inc. was undertaking the development of a hotel-restaurant complex at the south end of Pier 5. The Harrison’s at Pier 5 project called for a 400 seat family-style restaurant, a retail seafood and nautical market, a 46 room inn, a small amount of office space and a crab house and entertainment area located on the Nobska (a historic steamship). The Nobska would be berthed adjacent to Pier 5 at a 300 foot wharf. Other plans for development on Piers 5 and 6 included the Center for Marine Biotechnology, the Center for Maritime Archeology, a maritime museum and a conference center. Partial funding for the development included an Urban Development Action Grant (UDAG). Archeological investigations were initiated in order to satisfy Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act for this (partially) publicly-funded project.
Phase II work entailed the excavation of 12 trenches across the two piers. Six were situated at Pier 5: three oriented north-south and three oriented east-west. The locations of these trenches were determined by both predictive and random sampling of cultural resources in different areas of the pier. The known locations of historic period structures were tested in order to identify the extent of their remains and understand the characteristics of their construction. The locations of these trenches were also established in order to examine the stratigraphic sequences from a wide variety of different sections along the pier.
The entire area in which subsurface investigations were conducted was covered by asphalt or macadam surfacing material. A gradall was used to remove this surfacing material along with its white sand bedding layer and the pier fill layers located below. The widths of these trenches were usually between 1.52 to 2.13 m (5 to 7 ft) and the depths averaged 1.83 to 2.13 m (6 to 7 feet). The depth to which each trench was excavated was determined by the location of the water table, at 1.83 to 2.13 m below the existing pier surfaces. No more than 12.2 m (40 ft) of trench was excavated in one day during this project. For safety reasons, all trenches were back-filled the same day they were opened.
Vertical control was maintained during the excavation through the use of a transit and level rod. Excavations above sea level at mean low tide for Baltimore City were determined for each of the trenches. Two methods of collection were used for artifacts encountered during excavation of these trenches. The first involved artifacts found in situ. Any artifacts that were found within the walls of the trenches during fieldwork activities were collected and bagged according to their provenience (trench and layer) and brought to a lab for processing and analysis. The other method of artifact retrieval involved the recovery of artifacts that were found in the soils that had been mechanically removed from the trenches. These artifacts recovered from the “backdirt” were bagged and labeled as “backdirt finds”. If their probable locations of origin were tentatively identified, this provenience information was also noted.
Both written and photographic records were systematically maintained throughout the excavation of the trenches on Pier 5. Profile drawings of one wall of each trench were completed by the excavators and detailed soil descriptions were made. A “Feature Form” was completed for features identified and a notebook which held the daily entries of the project archeologist was also kept. These entries included observations on the physical conditions under which the project took place, any problems encountered and general impressions on the nature of the archeological finds.
The excavation of the 6 trenches enabled the types of fill materials that were used in the construction of the piers, as well as the characteristics of their deposition onto the pier to be studied. Excavation of the northernmost east-west trending trench exposed a redware deposit which may have originated from a local Baltimore pottery. A variety of fill materials were used in the pier building process. Three main types were identified during this testing phase: dredged mud which came from dredging of “mud machines”, dry fill soils used to cap or cover the wet fill, and destruction rubble from the 1904 Great Baltimore Fire. While the dredged silts from the deepening of docking slips in the Inner Harbor were used almost exclusively for deep fill, destruction rubble from the 1904 fire was used both to create entire new sections of the pier (evident in the southernmost trench) and the build-up existing areas of the pier (near the center of the pier).
A number of historic roads were identified during this testing phase. The characteristics of and materials used in their construction were recorded and studied. In the southern section of the pier, the remains of historic Locust Street were identified. The street was made up of a densely packed layer of rounded pebbles and small cobbles. Interestingly, the apparent roadbed material (a mottled loamy sand) was not present below the entire length of the street. In the center section of the pier, two trenches revealed the remains of historic Mill Street. A substantial sand base was present below the cobblestones of Mill Street: the main north-south street on the west side of Pier 5. This sand would not only have provided stability for the cobblestones but would have facilitated the drainage of the street.
Understanding the technology used in the construction of foundations for waterfront structures was perhaps the most interesting knowledge gained from archeological testing at Pier 5. Two brick piers with a connecting brick wall (collectively recorded as Feature 9) were discovered, providing a good example of this technology. The brick foundations were resting on two sets of wooden planks. The wall itself, which was determined to be the west or back wall of a saloon, was supported by a single 7 m (23 foot) long wooden plank. The technology used in this type of construction is interesting for its simplicity and effectiveness. These wooden footing planks effectively acted as a kind of buffer against the ebb and flow of the harbor tides, thereby providing buoyancy and stability for those buildings constructed on waterfront fill areas. This unique “foundation” was interpreted to be the base of Charles Knoop's Tavern and Restaurant, which dated to the latter 19th century.
Phase II testing on Pier 5 provided information on fill deposits used in the creation of the pier as well as information on the nature of 19th century road fill materials. Other important insights obtained through archeological testing included gaining an understanding of the technology used in waterfront construction in the 19th century. Based on these findings, and based on the fact that commercial structures were known to exist in specific areas of the site that would be impacted by the proposed development of Harrison’s at Pier 5, Phase III data recovery was recommended at 18BC62.
Phase III work was carried out in the late summer and fall of 1988. Archival records were extensively “mined” in order to determine the approximate locations of historic commercial structures and other buildings in the Pier 5 area. In the center portion of the site, an area was located where extensive subsurface disturbance would be undertaken during construction and where archival evidence suggested historic structural remains were likely to be present. These were associated with a number of lumber yards and storage areas through the greater part of the 19th century. These were apparently replaced by a large canning company in this locale towards the end of the 19th century (ca. 1880). This entire area was stripped of the overlying asphalt using heavy machinery, and architectural remains were encountered. Due to the presence of several construction trailers, the architectural remains could not be fully exposed initially, and excavations proceeded until the trailers could be moved and additional excavation carried out. The area was, thus, subdivided into “Area A” and “Area B” with the former being the area of initial exposure and the latter being the area beneath the construction trailers which had to be stripped at a later date.
Within both stripped areas, a total of 15 formal test units were laid out. Ten of these were 1.524 X 1.524 m (5 X 5 ft) in extent, while the other units were larger, but of varied in shape/size to better expose features. All of these units were excavated by hand following the removal (by heavy machinery) of the paved surfaces and their associated ballast or bedding layers. Excavation proceeded in natural stratigraphic layers and vertical control was maintained through a transit and level rod. With the exception of a layer of fill associated with the Baltimore Fire of 1904 and a layer of fine sand below it from a historically documented 19th century flood, all excavated layers of soil were recovered using a combination of wet and dry screening through hardware cloth. In the aforementioned fill layers and in the surface layers, in situ artifacts were recorded when encountered, but otherwise artifacts were recovered through “grab sampling”. Artifacts were bagged according to provenience (unit and layer) and sent to the lab for processing.
Both written and photographic records were systematically maintained throughout the excavation of Areas A and B. Records were maintained on a series of standardized forms as well as in both “official” and “unofficial” notebooks. Both color slide and black and white print film were used in regular and wide angle formats to record the site. Color film was especially useful as a means of recording subtle color differences between strata.
The 1988 archeological investigations on Pier 5 verified the existence of intact structural remains which were part of a late 19th to early 20th century canning plant. This plant operated on the pier from 1880 to 1904: first as the Smith and Wicks Tin Can Manufactory (1880-1890) and later as the R. Tynes Smith Can Company (1890-1904). The remains encountered were in the form of two foundations and a large tank which held oil that may have been used in the canning operations. Also, two small sections of flooring were exposed as well as a wooden frame cover for the large oil tank. Both of these remains showed visible evidence of the 1904 fire which destroyed the cannery.
A total of 16 features and 33 different stratigraphic layers were identified at the site during the Phase III work. In addition to the aforementioned features that were elements of the canning operation, wharf cribbing crossbeams, pier drainage systems, and utility pipes were identified. Floral and faunal analysis of soil samples from the site revealed the dietary refuse of the early 19th century residents of Baltimore. The variety of fruit and nut remains recovered from the fill soils excavated on the pier helped round out the picture of the subsistence patterns of early-19th century Baltimoreans. A combination of both local (cherry, peach, plum, walnut) and imported (almond and coconut) fruits and nuts were consumed. The floral and faunal material recovered on the pier related important information on the manner in which early-19th century waterfront piers were created in Baltimore. Foods such as meats, fruits, and vegetables were brought into town, purchased at one of the local markets, consumed by the town's residents, and discarded into household privies. The need for fill material in the pier building process created an ideal disposal area for the domestic refuse collected by the town's privy cleaners, the "nightsoil men”, and this is how these materials came to be relocated at the site.
In addition to the nightsoil, fills came from the river itself. As a major tributary of the Patapsco River, the Jones Falls was responsible for carrying great amounts of eroded topsoil out into Baltimore Harbor. Archival research has shown that both the Jones Falls and the Harbor were periodically dredged in order to prevent both from being filled by sedimentation. Archaeological evidence from the site suggested that most of the earliest fill layers identified on Pier 5 were deposited as a result of those dredging activities. Other material used as fill include refuse from leather tanning activities, pottery wasters and kiln furniture (possibly a secondary deposit dredged from the Jones Falls), wood chips from saw mills leavings, and destruction rubble from the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904.
Although domestic structures were known to have existed on the wharf, no evidence was found during the excavations. Such structures are known to have existed on Pier 5 and can be documented archivally. There is a high likelihood that such remains are persevered beneath deep fill layers at the site.
No detailed table of artifact types is available in the body of the full site report (a catalog organized by provenience is available on microfiche), but it does report total numbers of artifacts from the non-fill stratigraphic layers encountered. The report reveals that at a minimum, 1300 artifacts were recovered. These have been included in the table above simply as miscellaneous objects.
Excavations at 18BC62 revealed significant archeological remains that can be tied directly to historically documented structures and businesses situated in Baltimore’s harbor. These intact features are deeply buried beneath fill deposits. Throughout most of the site, it was found that these deposits were too deeply buried to be impacted by construction on Pier 5. In the one area where deeper impacts were likely, data recovery was carried out and sufficiently documented that portion of the site. The remainder of the site, potentially including intact remains associated with past commercial enterprises and heretofore undocumented (archeologically) dwellings at Pier 5, was preserved in place. Additional work is warranted should future development threaten these deeply buried deposits.
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