The 2004 field school completed its first full week on May 21 at the Ward Site.  We've initially placed four units on the site:  One in the front yard over an early porch foundation, a second in the side yard (which was originally the street), a third in the backyard (shown above and right), and a fourth on the alley line near where an outhouse was placed in the late-nineteenth century. The backyard is today mostly covered by a circa 1940 cinder block garage and a laid concrete pad that extends off the porch.  This unit (right) revealed a laid brick walk directly beneath the surface that runs from the house to the garage.  The soil around the walk contained a 1943 penny, so the walk likely dates to the construction of the garage.

The unit on the left was placed directly behind (east) of the current garage.  In the late-nineteenth century an outbuilding was placed along this alley line, and this was almost certainly the Beltz family's outhouse and was in use into at least the 1920's.  The 1898 Sanborn map below left shows this structure at the red arrow; in 1950 (below right), a garage sat in this portion of the yard.  The construction of the garage may have covered the outhouse, so we're hoping that the garage was inched into the yard just far enough to leave the outhouse archaeologically accessible.

For more on the Ward excavation and the field school's survey at Arsenal Tech High School, visit the June 12 Field School report.

Last updated June 12, 2004