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

NEW CASTLE COURT HOUSE PLAZA
NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE
5.0 INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS
similar to the primary sand deposit. The dates derived from the archeological fieldwork strongly
corroborate the Delaware State Museums historical research, and the current evidence may
indicate a slightly earlier build date of circa 1813 for the original plaza (Appendix III).
The 1845 plaza addition, corresponding to the western 40 percent plaza section in front of the
1845 wing, was constructed in a different manner from that employed for the circa 1820 section.
Although sand was used as the primary foundation material, the bulk of fill was composed of
destruction debris consisting of brick and mortar rubble. This material overlies the intact topsoil
that was not removed as previously seen. The destruction fill probably originated during the
dismantling of the earlier 1765 wing prior to the construction of the extant 1845 addition. The
pre-1845 wing is shown in Latrobe’s 1804-1805 survey of New Castle (Figure 3). No
archeological evidence of the earlier wing was present in the tested portions of the plaza.
Attempting to further date the stratigraphic layers within the plaza area is very difficult due to the
paucity of diagnostic artifacts. In fact, only four dateable artifacts were recovered from the three
upper-most stratigraphic units, while a fourth layer did not contain any diagnostic material.
Discussion will be limited to the brick demolition layer and to the buried topsoil beneath it. A
terminal end date of approximately circa 1810 was calculated for both stratigraphic units. The
demolition layer yielded a slightly later date of 1811.2, while the lower topsoil contained an end
date of 1805.1. Both dates are fairly tentative due to a relative lack of diagnostic material.
The majority of the identified features relate to the construction of the plaza and to the Court
House building. The circa 1820 and 1845 mortared fieldstone retaining walls are dressed in a
similar manner; the exterior side is faced, white washed, and topped with a slate capstone
crowned by a wrought iron railing. Aside from the outward similarities, the construction of the
walls was quite different. The circa 1820 retaining wall measured approximately 2.75 ft. in
thickness while the 1845 wall measured approximately 1.9 ft. in thickness and was constructed
directly atop the buried topsoil.
The most commonly identified features on the plaza were post holes, which comprised
approximately 60 percent of the total feature count. Most of these features were located within 5
ft. of the exterior Court House foundation and likely related to periods of construction of the
Court House and its additions. Approximately 63 percent of the posthole on the west and central
plaza measured 5.5 to 6 ft. on center and were located 4 to 5 ft. from the exterior edge of the
foundation. This placement of posts could relate to rear scaffolding standards or post supports,
with the front section tied into the brick façade of the Court House during construction. This
method, described by Fitchen (1992:86) is known as the “bricklayers’ scaffold.”
By contrast, a similar patterning of scaffolding posts was not seen in the portion of the east plaza
that was excavated to subsoil. Approximately 81 percent of the post features on the east plaza are
located within 5 ft. of the foundation walls, and 85.7 percent of these were adjacent to the circa
1732 section, the majority clustered at the corner of the circa 1732 and 1765 sections. Regardless,
the post holes are indicative of the temporary falsework erected for Court House construction and
may be due to overlapping scaffolding footprints related to the distinct building episodes. Located
within the center of the plaza, the remainder of the post holes appears too far distant from the
Court House walls for scaffolding and may relate to earlier fence lines or to some land use prior
to the Court House construction.
The second largest feature class related to erosional events within the plaza footprint. A total of
nine features were identified in this group. The features were identified as erosional trenches and
drip lines. Approximately 67 percent of these are adjacent to the southeastern portion, of the circa
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