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Buildings r
and s
The
remains of Building s were well preserved. The southern and portions
of the western foundation walls remained intact. Along the western
wall, remnants of a Southern Yellow Pine sill log were uncovered,
indicating that Jefferson's specification of chesnut logs was
ignored by the builders. A considerable section of the quarter's
earth floor remained intact. It was comprised of clay packed into
a stone pavement that provided a level surface on the naturally
sloping terrain. Cutting into the prepared clay was a 3.75 by
3.75 feet square sub-floor pit. Remnants of a wooden box lined
this feature and the top edge was lined with dry laid bricks,
brick bats and some stones. Finally, portions of a dry laid, stone
chimney base, measuring 2.5 by 3.5 feet were uncovered along the
southern foundation wall.
The only surviving architectural evidence for Building r is a cluster of cobbles and boulders that represents part of the chimney base. The conjectured location and plan of Building r on the archaeological plan above is based on the 1796 Mutual Assurance plat. They perfectly align with the cobble location.
Unlike
Buildings s and t, Building r apparently lacked a sub-floor pit.
Why? If, as we have conjectured, subfloor pits functioned as "safe-deposit
boxes" to secure personal belongings, then the lack of a subfloor
pit may indicate a lessened concern for security on the part of
r's residents, perhaps because of access to door locks or locking
furniture. Building r was unique in other ways as well. Preliminary
quantitative analysis of the ceramic assemblages associated with
the three structures revealed that Building r's residents broke
fashionable ceramic tea wares and dinner plates at significantly
greater rates. These differences might point to greater access
to resources for r's residents. The limited data that are currently
available do not permit strong claims on this topic, but they
do indicate that the Reassessment will produce exciting new insights
into the economic and social dynamics on Mulberry Row.