WE THE PEOPLE
How did we reconstruct buildings which had wooden sills instead of foundations , yet ensure they would be easy to maintain and stand for many years ? We crafted cast-concrete sills to look like wooden sills . Hand-hewn boards became our concrete forms , and the concrete was tinted to match the appearance of weathered wood . The result : a concrete foundation that looks like weathered , hand-hewn timber .
The seemingly contradictory aspects of these four buildings still remained a mystery . Why did they maintain some economical characteristics of outbuildings while standing so close to the main House ? Discoveries made on the kitchen and oldest slave dwelling during the 2016 field season provided the answer : the kitchen and remaining slave quarter were 18th-century in origin . Several clues told us the buildings dated to the 1700s — the continuous brick foundations ; the buildings ’ location on 100-foot intervals from the core of the 1765 House ; and the presence of 18th-century artifacts .
As archaeologists revealed the footprints of these two structures through the summer and fall of 2016 , the discovery of an exceptionally rare brick feature near the kitchen brought a moment of celebration . The kitchen chimney cap had toppled to the ground and been preserved !
This chimney cap can be seen as the Rosetta Stone of the South Yard . It has two intact flues , a corbeled brick top , and a purely decorative plaster band called a “ necking .” This level of detail was only seen on
The team from Salvagewrights Ltd . reconstructing the South Yard smokehouses .
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