Weaver Pottery Site: Industrial Archaeology in Knoxville, Tennessee

Summary

Nineteenth century archaeological sites in urban areas of Tennessee have been consistently neglected by archaeologists. This neglect has been primarily due to the erroneous belief that these late historic sites, even if reasonably well preserved, would not contribute substantial knowledge about cultural development in the American South. It has become increasingly apparent that although extensive surface modifications have occurred in our urban centers, extensive filling of areas has often preserved considerable architectural and material culture remains. Also, and most importantly, it is in such a setting that the greatest shifts have taken place in the social and economic patterns in Tennessee's population; former rural dwellers becoming urbanites and small family or "cottage" manufacturers becoming increasingly industrialized. The archaeological expressions of these social and economic shifts are an indispensible component of an accurate interpretation of the dynamics of urbanization in the late 19th century Middle South.

A site that should exhibit a change from traditional manufacturing to a more industrialized pattern is the small family industry in an urban setting. Such a site is the Weaver Po~tery (40KN63) in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. The Weaver site was first discovered by Samuel D. Smith and Stephen T. Rogers in their survey of historic potteries in Tennessee (1979). The site was described as a late 19th century industrial stoneware pottery operated by the Weaver family and manufacturing stoneware vessels, flower pots, sewer pipe, and chimney tops. A small collection was made on the Weaver site located directly under the I-40 viaduct on the north side of McGhee Street and adjacent to the right bank of Second Creek where McGhee crosses this stream (Smith and Rogers 1979: 47) (FIGURE 1). No buildings stood on the Weaver site, the irrmediate area being leveled and gravelled for a park ing lot under the viaduct.

No 19th century historic sites were located and evaluated for signifiance in the survey of those areas to be affected by improvements to the interstate system in Knoxville (Prescott 1978), nor was further work done at the Weaver site after the Smith and Rogers survey. However, in In early May, 1980, bottle collectors reported large quantities of stoneware ceramics exposed in the profile and back dirt of these two viaduct pier trenches. On May 26, 1980, a Department of Anthropology survey team visited the site and collected a large sample of sherds and kiln furniture from the profiles and back dirt piles. Based on the earlier research by Smith and Rogers and a maker's mark of WEAVER & BRO., KNOXVILLE, TENN on some of the sherds, it was definitely established that this was the location of the Weaver Pottery.

This report describes the additional archaeological investigation and historical research at the site.

This resource was originally a citation record only. In 2016, Michael Trinkley made a digital copy of the report available and it was uploade and this metadata record expanded. The original information in this record was migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• National Archeological Database (NADB)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contributor(s): Charles H. Faulkner; Linda F. Carnes

Project Director(s): Charles H. Faulkner

Sponsor(s): Tennessee Department of Transportation

Prepared By(s): Dept of Anth, University of Tennessee

Submitted To(s): Tennessee Department of Transportation

Record Identifiers

Tennessee Department of Transportation Project #(s): I-40-7 (94) 389

NADB document id number(s): 475072

NADB citation id number(s): 000000064590

Notes

General Note: Sent from: Dept of Anth, University of Tennessee

General Note: Submitted to: Tdot

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