Report of the Archaeological Investigations of the New Castle Court ...

NEW CASTLE COURT HOUSE PLAZA
NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE
3.0 FIELD RESULTS
Feature 65
Feature 65 may represent a section of builder’s trench associated with the circa 1820 retaining
wall within EUs 27 and 28. This feature was not excavated.
3.5.10 PORTICO FOUNDATION
Feature 78 represents the mortared stone portico foundation that straddles the front steps to the
circa 1732 block. The portico is reported as being removed from the Court House in 1936. It
measures approximately 11.5 by 9.4 ft. and extends from the foundation of the original block to
the northern interior edge of the circa 1820 plaza retaining wall (Plate 16). The feature was
identified during the stripping of the center plaza. A total of seven artifacts were recovered from
the fill deposits overlying the portico foundation. Recovered items include one redware sherd, a
clear unidentified bottle glass fragment, three cut/wrought nails, and two wire nails. In addition, a
machine-made Coke bottle dating to 1957 and a round graphite pencil fragment were recovered
directly atop the foundation stone. The coke bottle may in fact relate to the 1950 Court House
restoration (see concrete footer discussion).
3.5.11 POST HOLES
A total of 56 post features were identified within the plaza representing 58.3 percent of the total
feature count. Only 8.9 percent, or 5 of the 56 post holes, were identified as containing an
associated mold stain (Features 2, 31, 51, 67, and 82). It is also interesting to note that 84 percent
(47 post holes) are located within 5 ft. of the exterior Court House foundation (Figures 5 and 6).
This close proximity, in addition to a lack of mold stains within the majority of post holes, may
indicate that these features relate to temporary construction activities such as falsework (i.e.;
workers’ scaffolding ) and not to any longer-lasting architectural feature. One such type of
falsework, referred to as “bricklayers’ scaffolding” utilizes the brick masonry wall and one set of
wooden standards or posts in its construction with putlogs inserted in voids purposefully left in
the masonry to receive them (Fitchen 1992:85-86). The wooden standards or posts were placed in
shallow excavated holes while in use then were removed when the construction of the Court
House was completed.
Within the eastern section of the plaza, 88.5 percent of the posts were identified at the interface
with the underlying subsoil, indicating that the majority predate the construction of the circa 1820
plaza. Features 5, 8, and 9 were the only noted exceptions; these were identified above the
subsoil, within or above the lower sand layer on the eastern plaza. Seven of the posts were
sampled and only one of the features yielded a dateable artifact. A TPQ of 1670 was assigned to
Feature 10.
Identification of post holes within the western plaza occurred much higher in the stratigraphic fill
sequence indicating that more construction or restoration has occurred within this portion of the
plaza after the circa 1820 plaza was constructed. This is not surprising considering the amount of
relatively recent construction activity centered on this area; the 1845 west wing addition post
dates the construction of the extant circa 1820 plaza, as does the 1845 plaza extension. The
majority of the post features identified during unit excavation appear to cut through a portion of
the plaza fill layers, indicating the likelihood that they are related to a later construction or
restorative event. Of the 13 post features identified within the excavation units, 31 percent, or 4
out of 13, were documented within the circa 1820 sand layer. Another 46 percent, or 6 post holes,
were identified at the top of the lower fill layer, and only 23 percent, or 3 out of 13, were
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