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

NEW CASTLE COURT HOUSE PLAZA
NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE
5.0 INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS
5.0 INTERPRETATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
The current plaza represents not only an enclosed context for its construction in the first half of
the nineteenth century, but also serves as a protective cap for the pre-1820 features contained
beneath the construction fill. Fieldwork indicates that the plaza and its underlying foundation
layers have remained largely intact. The central block of the Court House dates to circa 1732 and
overlies an earlier government structure. Width of the east and west wings are comparable, with
the construction dates for the eastern wing dating to 1765 and 1802, and the west wing to 1845.
Documentary and archeological evidence exists that the west wing replaced an earlier addition
that measured approximately 20 ft. on its frontage, the approximate dimension of the 1765
addition on the east side.
A number of features were documented during the fieldwork, and some of these were similar to
the types documented during the 1995 archeological investigation. Identified features include
scaffolding post holes, erosion trenches, and drip lines. The secondary feature class relates to
known, but previously unexamined features. Features within this category include the retaining
walls associated with the circa 1820 and 1845 plaza sections, the portico foundation adjacent to
the main entryway into the center block. The final feature category relates to previously
undocumented features corresponding to a series of possible palisade trenches, a large burned
area in front of the 1845 wing, a brick drain west of the original circa 1820 plaza, a brick
foundation wall on the west plaza, and an unlined cellar hole in front of the 1765/1802 wing.
5.1 HISTORY AND ARCHEOLOGY OF PLAZA CONSTRUCTION
Historic documents indicate that the current plaza was constructed circa 1820 as part of a public
works project. This construction replaced an earlier brick retaining wall that was probably built as
a result of the public works project.
Underscoring the historic documents is the 1804-05 Latrobe drawing of New Castle (Latrobe
1805; Toro 1971). Latrobe’s survey illustrates the south side of the Court House and clearly
shows that the plaza had not yet been built by that time. Latrobe’s survey was completed for a
proposed street improvements and grading project. Sometime during the five-year period between
1805 and 1810, the public works project graded and leveled the streets within the town of New
Castle “with the surface of the streets on the southwest side of the Green lowered about four feet”
(Roberts 1987). This improvement project drastically changed the appearance of New Castle’s
landscape and greatly affected the Court House, a prominent civic structure that had been
constructed on a knoll on the south side of the New Castle Green. In order to effectively grade
and level the streets the Court House knoll was severely cut. It is likely that this change to a
landscape already prone to erosion expedited the deterioration of the intact portion of the original
landform and exacerbated the need for the construction of a retaining wall to stop or at least slow
the rate of erosion.
In 1820 the New Castle County Levy Court appropriate monies for the construction of a stone
retaining wall to replace a preexisting brick wall that was situated against an earthen bank. It
appears likely that this reference pertains to the street grading activities and an earlier brick wall
that was built prior to the current plaza’s inception. This wall was necessary after the landform
was cut sometime during the first ten years of the nineteenth century.
Additional construction activities also occurred around this time. Levy Court records mention
appropriations for three sets of stone steps, of which one of the steps was explicitly described as
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