Basement Dig Uncovers Treasure Trove

By Chris White, 205 Union Street

They ate lots of meat, smoked pipes and broke more than a few dishes. This is the rudimentary conclusion which I have contemplated over the course of some 20+ hours of carefully sifting through a pile in the basement of our house.

We know a lot about our house at 205 Union Street. We know about many of the people and families who lived here, what the house looked like over the centuries and what was happening in the world that impacted their daily lives. I also get excited about the more mundane aspects of life in this nascent city. To that point, think about the story your trash tells every week when that truck rumbles down the street. Generations past, not having been afforded such a luxury, were left to discard of their waste a bit closer to home. In my case, it ended up in a dirt pile in my basement (literally) centuries later.

At the base of a chimney, or at least what’s left of it before it was removed at some point over the last 250 years, was a pile of dirt, debris and bricks. It appears the arch that once supported the hearth above had collapsed. It was there I set my attention last November, hoping to check off another in a long string of projects.

Since before we even bought this house, to become the latest in a long line of caretakers, I have wanted nothing more than to find a clay tobacco pipe. It took about eight hours of sifting carefully through the soil to strike proverbial gold. And then it kept happening!

Hour after hour, fighting through the sore muscles of sifting dirt and of being hunched over digging for so many hours, the artifacts kept emerging.

After several days, I finally reached the original brick floor. But carefully spread out in front of me was the story of this home and the people who lived here. Hundreds of pieces of broken pottery and glass, animal bones of all shapes and sizes, broken bottles, oyster shells and nails. And clay pipes — in all, pieces to at least eight clay pipe bowls and numerous stem pieces.

Though much more research is required, a few experts and some online research, suggests these artifacts likely date to the early 1800sOnce cast away, never to be seen again – but after decades covered in soil, these myriad treasures are out of hiding and telling their story to all who listen.