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university employees and other professionals left town. Those who could support themselvesby farming, as did Watson, were able to remain in Chapel Hill (Vickers 1985:78). As the warprogressed some of this economic loss was mitigated as refugees from other occupied towns(e.g., Wilmington, Edenton, and Newbern) took up residence in Chapel Hill until the warended (Battle 1907:746, 751).Watson was able to hold on to the eastern portion Lot 11, and after the war ended hesubdivided the lot. In a deed describing a land transaction in 1883, Henry N. Brown is listedas having purchased a strip at the southern end of this property from Jones Watson on March22, 1869 (Deed Book 47:568–569). This property is described as “The land whereonformerly stood a row of Brick offices called the “Poor House” One hundred & twenty feetlong & Eighteen feet wide on the Extreme Southern end of the lot on which Jones Watsonformerly resided now owned by said Roberson” (Deed Book 47:568–69).The stone-foundation structure excavated on Lot 11 by the Research Laboratories ofArchaeology is almost surely the “Poor House” described in the 1883 deed. The Universityhad been plagued by shortages of student housing for most of the nineteenth century.Student letters and diaries of the 1830s and 1840s indicate that housing space was at apremium and that students rushed into town to compete for rooms (Tolbert 1993). Becauseof the market for housing, many entrepreneurial Chapel Hillians rented rooms or constructedseparate buildings in their yards to serve as student housing. Vickers (1985:79) states that bythe 1850s “almost every substantial residence had one in it yard.” These buildings wereusually small two- and three-room shanties or shacks (Henderson 1949:175). Studentsbaptized these homes away from home with quaint names, including “Pandemonium,” “BatHall,” “Crystal Palace,” “Possum Quarter,” and “Poor House” (Battle 1907:593; 1912:40).Student Thomas Brown was a resident at the building known as the “Poor House.”He wrote to his sister on August 6, 1853 that he was “rooming in a brick row in front of theCampus two doors below Mr. Nicholson a very quiet and good place to study” (Tolbert1993:97). His account seems to fit the location and general description of the structure at thesouthern end of Lot 11. Brown was not fortunate enough to obtain either campus housing ora room at the “Poor House” in his next year of school. For the remainder of his Universitycareer, he lived farther and farther from campus. He wrote in the late summer of 1855:I would have written sooner but when we arrived I found all the Collegerooms occupied and also the room that I expected to get was also filled too, sothat it took all my time hunting a room and was obliged to take a very bad oneat last. The increase of students is so much more than anyone expected that allcannot get rooms and every place that is fit to stay in is full, and I believe thatsome have even gone home again on that account. But I understand that theFaculty intend making immediat [sic] provision for more rooms for thestudents. ¼ We are rooming together about a quarter of a mile from College inthe Village and it is quite boring going to prayers then [sic] mornings as wehave to run all the way to get there in time. I am boarding at Miss Hargraves aprivate house in the village with four other boys [Gordon and Hackett FamilyPapers]. 198