Northeast Historical Archaeology Volume 39 Article 4 2010 Stories from the Rubble: Analysis of Mortuary Artifacts from the Spring Street Presbyterian Church Vaults Rebecca L. White Douglas B. Mooney Follow this and additional works at: http://orb.binghamton.edu/neha Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation White, Rebecca L. and Mooney, Douglas B. (2010) "Stories from the Rubble: Analysis of Mortuary Artifacts from the Spring Street Presbyterian Church Vaults," Northeast Historical Archaeology: Vol. 39 39, Article 4. https://doi.org/10.22191/neha/vol39/iss1/4 Available at: http://orb.binghamton.edu/neha/vol39/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). It has been accepted for inclusion in Northeast Historical Archaeology by an authorized editor of The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). For more information, please contact [email protected]. 40 White and Mooney/Analysis of the Mortuary Artifacts from the Spring Street Vaults Northeast Historical Archaeology/Vol. 39, 2010 41 Stories from the Rubble: Analysis of the Mortuary Artifacts spread by vapors or odors that permeated a 26 year period of use of the vaults spanning place and created an unhealthy environment. from 1820 to 1846. In most cases, the gaps rep- from the Spring Street Presbyterian Church Vaults The burial grounds and vaults of New York resent a single year or two with the exception City were identified as contributing to the out- of a three-year span from 1836 to 1839. Since breaks of disease. The Common Council two new vaults were built a few years earlier Rebecca L. White and Douglas B. Mooney enacted Laws of Interment to prohibit burials in 1831, it seems unlikely that there were no Archaeological investigations of the Spring Street Presbyterian Church vaults resulted in the in the southern, heavily populated portion of interments during this three year period. A recovery of coffin plates, hardware and other burial-related artifacts that convey information regarding the the city. Apart from the fear of disease, there new church was under construction on the site individuals interred within these chambers. These interments also offer a glimpse at mortuary customs and was also the less noble desire to develop these in 1835 and completed in 1836 (Meade 2008: practices in vault burials during the first half of the 19th century. parcels of land for the use of the living. In the B:II-5, see also Meade this volume). The lack of 1830s, the establishment of rural cemeteries plates dated to 1836 might reflect difficulty in Les fouilles archéologiques des caveaux de la Spring Street Presbyterian Church ont permis de récu- offered alternative burial places with a natural accessing the vaults during the construction of pérer des plaques de cercueils, des articles de quincaillerie et d’autres artéfacts associés aux inhumations, ce park setting away from the bustling city the new church. It is also possible that the qui amène de nouvelles informations sur les individus enterrés dans ces chambres funéraires. Ces inhuma- (Simon 1980: 53). From the mid-1840s through vaults constructed in 1831 were the vaults des- tions dans des caveaux offrent également un aperçu des pratiques et coutumes mortuaires de la première the 1860s, there were occasional newspaper ignated as Vaults 1 and 2 during the archaeo- moitié du XIXe siècle. descriptions of church vaults in New York City logical investigations. These two vaults were being cleared out as a condition of the sale of impacted during construction activities prior Introduction coffins. The coffin plates and other mortuary the property. The human remains removed to the discovery of the human remains and hardware from the Spring Street Church vaults During the winter of 2006/2007 construc- during such clean outs were reinterred else- only a single fragment of a coffin plate was present an opportunity to examine the transi- tion crews working on a condominium hotel where. The coffin plates from the Spring Street recovered from Vault 2. The surviving piece tion of the industry from hand-crafted to complex in New York City discovered human Presbyterian church show that those vaults was the right upper corner of a plate engraved machine-manufactured mortuary hardware. remains. Historical research determined that were still in use until 1846. with the middle and surname “Howard The first half of the 19th century represents the site was the former location of the Spring Harriott.” A brief mortuary notice for Edgar a transitional period in mortuary practices. In Street Presbyterian Church from about 1811 to Coffin Plates Howard Harriott reported his date of death as the 18th century, it was common for family 1966 (Meade 2008: I-1). Subsequent investiga- February 15, 1840. His brother Franklin died a and friends to prepare the body for burial. The most informative artifacts recovered few days later on February 19th; they were the tions conducted by archaeologists from AKRF from the Spring Street Presbyterian Church Inc. and URS Corporation recovered the skel- During that period, coffin building was a side- sons of Edgar Harriott. Although the ages of excavations were the metal coffin plates. Each etal remains of over 200 individuals and docu- line business of the cabinetmaker or other the boys were not provided in the notices, of the plates was engraved in elegant script mented the remnant foundations of four burial related occupations. At the beginning of the census records show that their father was 32 with the name of the deceased, their date of vaults (Mooney et al. 2008, see Morin, Meade, 19th century, a rise in the population coupled years of age in 1850. death, and their exact age recorded in years, Mooney, Crist, and Ellis this volume). The with the rapid development of urban centers A variety of different types of metal were months, and days. Within the burial vaults, mortuary and personal artifacts recovered to create an increased demand for a variety of used to manufacture the coffin plates. Plates these thin metal plaques functioned in a sim- from the Spring Street Church vaults provide goods and specialized services. Various occu- recovered from Spring Street Church vaults ilar role as gravestones in a cemetery; they temporal data on mortuary practices in New pations evolved or expanded their roles to were made of silver, plated copper alloy, an identified the individual within each coffin. In York City during the first half of the 19th cen- meet the necessity to bury the dead unidentified white metal, and a soft white general, coffin plates were not exclusively for tury. Despite the disturbed nature of the skel- (Habenstein and Lamers 1995: 139–156). In alloy, probably Britannia metal. The majority etal remains, the recovered artifacts provide 1826, Silas Wright was the only coffin manu- use in burial vaults; they were also placed on of the whole coffin plates and fragments were useful information on mortuary practices. facturer listed in the New York City Directory. the lids of coffins destined for in-ground inter- plated copper alloy (n=177), 14 fragments Coffin plates recovered from the site sup- By 1846, the year of the latest-dated coffin ments (Thomas et al. 2000: 5.24; Audin, Hlubik were of soft white metal, one plate was silver, plied personal information that revealed the plate from the Spring Street vaults, the direc- and Kavountzis 2005: 40–41,45). In the mid- to and one was formed from another type of identities of some of the individuals interred tory listed 21 coffin warehouses and 38 under- late 19th century, a coffin plate was sometimes white metal, possibly nickel silver. Most of the in the vaults. In addition, the dates from the takers in the city. Advertisements for the coffin displayed during a viewing or wake then copper alloy plaques appeared to be plated coffin plates extended the period of use of the warehouses show that they maintained a stock retained as a momento by the family when the with a white metal, probably tin, that gave vaults beyond the surviving documentary evi- of coffins, along with a variety of coffin hard- coffin was interred. them the appearance of silver (Hacker-Norton dence to between 1820 and 1846. The recovery ware and burial attire. The undertaker pro- In all, 29 whole or nearly-complete coffin and Trinkley 1984: 12). While the numbers of wood shavings, pieces of ribbon, and deco- vided a range of services from laying out the plates were uncovered and several additional seem to suggest a preference for the copper rative bows hints at the furnishing and embel- body to providing the transportation to the plaques were pieced together from the alloy plates, it should be noted that the soft lishment of the interior of the coffins. The pres- burial ground or vaults. remaining 164 fragments. Even the smaller white metal examples were poorly preserved, ence of ceramic vessels in association with The increase in population during this pieces provided portions of engraved names and it is possible that other plates made from some of the burials afforded the occasion to period combined with close living quarters to and dates that set the estimated minimum this material had completely deteriorated. explore various circumstances and mortuary accelerate the spread of contagious diseases. number of coffin plates recovered at 40. The A search of period newspapers confirmed customs that might result in the inclusion of Among the early medical concepts of disease dates from the coffin plates that could be the availability of coffin plates in New York vessels in burial vaults or inside of individual was the belief that they were caused and deciphered represent 17 distinct years of the City during the interval of interments in the 42 White and Mooney/Analysis of the Mortuary Artifacts from the Spring Street Vaults Northeast Historical Archaeology/Vol.