Living and Working in the Heart of Seattle: An Archaeological Examination of an Early-Twentieth Century Site in the Cascade Neighborhood

Summary

In 2016, Historical Research Associates, Inc., conducted archaeological testing at an urban site in the Cascade neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Below 15 feet of fill, we identified an archaeological site dating to the early twentieth century. Data recovery excavations at the site focused on four features, including two intact privy shafts containing domestic debris deposited between 1905 and 1910. This paper provides an overview of the project from identification and testing of the site, through data recovery excavations of the intact features, to archival research and artifact analysis that inform our interpretation of the site. Archival records indicate that site occupants were working-class families and individuals, who rented rooms in buildings on the lot. The artifact assemblages from the privies, which included tableware, servingware, pharmaceutical bottles, toys, clothing, and faunal and macrobotanical material, reveal a great deal about the lifeways of working-class residents of Seattle in the early twentieth century. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions) 2018   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 947