Wool’d You Be My Neighbor: Excavation of a German Immigrant Household in Providence, RI

Summary

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

Since 2015, Brown University’s “The Archaeology of College Hill” class has excavated the former home of A. Albert Sack and his family. Sack was a German immigrant to Providence, who owned several wool mills in the city and was of some local prominence. Built in 1884, the house was occupied by Sack and his descendants for some fifty years. In 1939, Moses Brown School acquired the property, and the house was demolished and covered by a sports field. Our excavations have uncovered many quotidian artifacts that speak to life in turn-of-the-century Providence. We have also documented substantial architectural remains and collected hundreds of samples of construction materials which illustrate the nature of Providence’s built environment at a time of great industry, expansion, and immigration. Previous papers about this class have focused on its didactic merits; this is the first to discuss our archaeological findings from the A. Albert Sack site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 517