Drawing The Line: A Reevaluation Of Northeastern Fence Lines On The Leonard Calvert House Site

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Bastions, Buttons, and Burials: Recent Research at Historic St. Mary’s City", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Leonard Calvert House (ca.1630s/1640s - ca.1710) served originally as the home of Maryland’s first governor and was later converted into the colony’s first statehouse and public ordinary. The varying functions and occupants of this structure are reflected in its complex yardscape. Here, seven fence lines oriented off its northeast corner were analyzed with specific attention paid to their artifact composition and stratigraphic relationship. This information was used to infer the date of construction and method of manufacture of each. From there, they were compared to a model of changing fence lines proposed in 1986 by Henry Miller. In it, Miller divided the landscape into five phases, spanning the 75-year occupation and coinciding with changes to the house and surrounding structures. By incorporating new fence line evidence, this reanalysis will enhance our understanding of how the landscape of the Leonard Calvert House site continually changed throughout the 17th century.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Bastions, Buttons, and Burials: Recent Research at Historic St. Mary’s City   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow