A Capitol Hill Cellar: Analysis Of The Cellar Feature From The Shotgun House Archaeology Project In Washington, D.C.

Summary

This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

A modest, one-story frame Shotgun style house located in the historic Capitol Hill neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C. was once home to German immigrant families and their descendants from the first half of the 19th century through the 20th. Archaeological investigations within the footprint of the house uncovered a backfilled, brick-lined cellar, full of fragmented household objects. Preliminary background research and analysis of the artifact assemblage have offered much insight into the day-to-day lives of these former residents and the larger working-class immigrant community of an earlier Capitol Hill. However, which occupants constructed this cellar and who subsequently had it backfilled? Does this context represent one household or several? Whose stories are we telling? This paper examines the cellar feature and fill to help answer these questions and add to the history of our early Nation’s Capital while also remembering the communities that helped build it and called it home.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• 2020 SHA General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 792