Archaeological Investigations for the HAM-The Banks Street Grid Project, City of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio PID # 77164/80629
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Archaeological Investigations for the HAM-The Banks Street Grid Project, City of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio PID # 77164/80629 G R AY & PA P E , I N C. ARCHAEOLOGY HISTORY HISTORIC PRESERVATION August 17, 2011 Lead Agency: Ohio Department of Transportation Prepared for: City of Cincinnati 801 Plum Street, Room 450 Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 Prepared by: Gray & Pape, Inc. 1318 Main Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 Gray & Pape Project No. 10-0801.001 Project No. 10-0801.001 Archaeological Investigations for the HAM-The Banks Street Grid Project, City of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio PID # 77164/80629 Lead Agency: Ohio Department of Transportation Prepared for: City of Cincinnati 801 Plum Street, Room 450 Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 Contact: Keith Pettit Tel: (513) 352-3224 Prepared by: Karen Niemel Garrard, Ph.D. Jennifer Mastri Burden, M.A. Gray & Pape, Inc. 1318 Main Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 Tel: 513-287-7700 ____________________________ Karen Niemel Garrard, Ph.D. Senior Principal Investigator August 17, 2011 ABSTRACT Gray & Pape, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, was contracted by the City of Cincinnati to conduct archaeological investigations for the HAM-The Banks Street Grid Project (PID 80629) in the City of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio. The project will impact archaeological deposits associated with Site 33HA780, which is eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. The archaeological work combined elements of a Phase II/III level of effort and was completed in accordance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended (36CFR800). The lead agency for this project is the Ohio Department of Transportation. Site 33HA780 encompasses the area of intact, nineteenth-century historical deposits buried beneath the parking lot between the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge and Paul Brown Stadium in downtown Cincinnati. In May 2010, Gray & Pape, Inc., excavated at the former northeast corner of Water and Race Streets—in the approximate center of the parking lot— where 116 and 118 Water Street once stood. These buildings were constructed in the early 1850s and consisted of three-storied structures with pitched roofs and footprints measuring 16 by 39 feet. The ground floor once held a saloon and grocery store, while families and individuals lived in the upper stories. At the turn of the twentieth century, much of the neighborhood was demolished as part of the construction of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. A railroad depot sat at the northeast corner of Water and Race Streets until the 1960s, when it was removed for stadium construction and parking lots. The railroad’s purchase of numerous parcels in the area makes it difficult to determine ownership of 116 and 118 Water Street in the 1800s. Names listed within the City Directories were cross- checked with Deed Indexes; however, none were found. It is likely that the two properties were not owner-occupied, but served as rental units. This also is supported by the fact that most of the residents listed in the City Directories worked as laborers, or in other working- class professions, and were likely a transient population. Gray & Pape, Inc., excavated the basement remains of 116 and 118 Water Street, portions of the passageway to the east that led to an interior courtyard, as well as part of the courtyard itself. The building fill was characterized by the near absence of artifacts, which suggests the contents of the two buildings mostly were removed prior to demolition. Relative to the total excavation area (3520 square feet), only a small quantity (n=605) of glass, ceramic, metal, and faunal artifacts was recovered. Most of the artifacts date between 1850 and 1900. The interpretation of the artifact assemblage focused on the participation of the building’s inhabitants in local, regional, and international markets. The results show that the residents of 116 and 118 Water Street were engaged in all three markets, as well as the cultural developments that were local, regional, national, and international in scale. This is reflective of nineteenth-century Cincinnati itself, which had reached its zenith as a national center of production and distribution. The excavation of this small portion of a remnant of what was once the heart of Cincinnati supports and enhances our knowledge of events in Cincinnati’s history. i TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... i LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. iv LIST OF PLATES ................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................. viii 1.0 INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................................1 1.1 Project Description ......................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Organization of the Report ............................................................................................. 4 1.3 Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................... 4 2.0 RESEARCH DESIGN ........................................................................................................6 2.1 History of Project Research ............................................................................................ 6 2.2 Research Questions....................................................................................................... 13 2.3 Curation ........................................................................................................................ 15 3.0 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF CINCINNATI ..............................................................16 3.1 Cincinnati...................................................................................................................... 16 3.1.1 Historical Exploration and Settlement ................................................................... 16 3.1.2 Cincinnati Established as a Town: 1802 to 1820 .................................................. 17 3.1.3 Cincinnati’s Rise to Prominence: 1820 to 1860 .................................................... 18 3.1.4 The Industrial City: 1860 to 1914 ......................................................................... 22 3.1.5 The Modern City: 1914 to Present ........................................................................ 24 3.2 Cincinnati Riverfront and Property Specific Histories ................................................. 25 4.0 EXCAVATIONS ..............................................................................................................40 4.1 Methods ........................................................................................................................ 40 4.2 Excavation Results ....................................................................................................... 44 4.2.1 Feature 1 ................................................................................................................. 51 5.0 ARTIFACT ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................54 5.1 Methods ........................................................................................................................ 55 5.2 Artifact Analysis ........................................................................................................... 57 5.2.1 Feature 1 Artifacts .................................................................................................. 57 5.2.2 General Provenience Artifacts ............................................................................... 61 5.3 Artifact Origins ............................................................................................................. 74 5.3.1 Ceramics ................................................................................................................. 74 5.3.2 Beer and Liquor Bottles ......................................................................................... 79 5.3.3 Soft Drinks ............................................................................................................. 82 5.3.4 Miscellaneous ......................................................................................................... 83 5.3.5 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 85 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONT'D) 6.0 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ...............................................................................88 7.0 REFERENCES CITED .....................................................................................................89 APPENDIX A: Artifact Inventory APPENDIX B: ODOT Archaeology Scope Of Work iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. The Banks Master Development Plan ...................................................................... 1 Figure 2. Location of Site 33HA780 on the Covington, Kentucky–Ohio Topographic Quadrangle (1981) .............................................................................................................. 3 Figure 3. Northeast Corner of the Intersection of Water and Race Streets as Depicted