The Church on the Hill: Inter-related Narratives, Conflicting Priorities, and the Power of Community Engagement

Summary

Fort Stevens is a well-known fort within the Civil War Defenses of Washington. Prior to the Civil War, the land was owned by Betsey Butler, a free black woman, who sold the land to the trustees of Emory Chapel in 1855 for the construction of a church. The church was razed for the construction of Fort Massachusetts in 1861, which was later expanded and renamed Fort Stevens in 1863. The congregation rebuilt the church following the Civil War. The context of the Emory Church is entwined with the Civil War, both with the physical fortifications associated with the CWDW as well as the growth of the African-American community that developed in the shadow of the fort in the years following the war. The paper looks at the role that archeology plays in integrating significant aspects of a diachronic landscape that has resulted in conflicting values of place. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Urban Public Archaeology of the Washington, D.C. Region   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 908