Phase II and Phase III Archaeological Database and Inventory
18BC63 Harrison's at Pier 6
Diagnostic Artifact Data
Features
Summary
Harrison’s at Pier 6 or 18BC63 consists of the archeological remains associated with an early 19th-early 20th century pier/wharf, and series of industrial buildings and commercial properties in downtown Baltimore. The site is situated at Pier 6 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 6 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 (to the west of the site) 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 the two piers included the removal of a number of properties on their periphery and the enlargement of Union Dock to Pratt Street. In terms of the first alteration, the city removed the entire western edge of Pier 5, including McElderry’s Wharf and most of the Merchants and Miners Transportation Company’s Wharf. On the east side of the pier (Pier 6), 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 Piers 5 and 6 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 6: all of them oriented east-west and all within 6.1 m (20 ft) of the eastern edge of the pier. The locations of these trenches were determined by both predictive and random sampling of cultural resources in different areas of the pier. The known location of a historic road was tested in order to identify the extent of its remains and understand the characteristics of its 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. And finally, trenches were placed in an attempt to locate any remnants of a small island depicted on a 1792 map of the area. It was felt that traces of prehistoric settlement might be situated on any remnant of this island that remained preserved.
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 6. 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.
Archeological testing on Pier 6 provided some important insights into how the eastern side of the pier was formed and what materials contributed to that formation. Excavations also provided information regarding the nature of 19th century road fill materials. All of the trenches were excavated through historic West Falls Avenue. This testing revealed the kinds of materials used for the construction of West Falls Avenue in the 19th century. No substantive historic building remains were encountered and ultimately, the inundation of trenches during excavation made it impossible to establish the location of the aforementioned island. No prehistoric artifacts or deposits were encountered.
A comparison was made of soil types from strata which were believed to have represented the remains of West Falls Avenue prior to the 1904 fire. Each of the strata located between the concrete bedding material for the street and deeply buried dredged fill soils for the pier, shared two common attributes in terms of their soil composition. Each had a loam matrix and each contained numerous pebbles. One deep stratigraphic layer possibly represented one of the earlier repairing projects for the street. A letter from the property owners along West Falls Avenue in 1852 complained that the bed of the street had become impassable for drays, carts, and wagons. The city agreed to pave West Falls Avenue from Pratt Street to the basin or Inner Harbor. A layer associated with this construction was identified as well.
Testing along the eastern edge of Pier 6 revealed that a variety of fill materials were used in the pier building process. A large number of these were heavily mottled with pockets and bands of clay and silt or silty loam. While some of the deeper strata were evenly deposited, other deep fill layers were not. In one of the northern trenches, several layers were so thoroughly mixed together that defining the boundaries between each strata was difficult.
The uneven deposition and thorough mixing of deep fill layers was more than likely due to the west environment from which these materials originated: the muddy bottoms of the Jones Falls and Inner Harbor. Because of the consistency of these soils at the time of their deposition, it was not surprising that mixing between inundated soils occurred. Also, soils that were dredged from docking slips in the Inner Harbor and the heavily silted-in Jones Falls probably settled differently depending on their composition and consistency. Trenching on Pier 6 also showed that usually less than 61 cm (2 ft) of probable dry earth was used to cover or cap the west soils obtained from dredging.
While the 1987 excavations did identify an intact road bed and some evidence of the filling sequences associated with the pier, no evidence of historic structures or prehistoric deposits were encountered. The overall interpretation was that 18BC63 lacked integrity and the Pier 6 remains were not likely to yield important prehistoric or historic information. No further work was conducted and construction on Pier 6 was allowed to proceed.
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