New Discoveries at Jamestown | Page 4

a smaller (1,200 square feet), but imposing, house located near the present shoreline, considerably downriver. One of the features of this second mansion was a basement in the center of which was sunk a square, brick-lined recess, 3.3 feet on a side and 2.7 feet deep. Among the many wine bottle fragments in this recess were 3 bottle seals--1 with "WW" and 2 with "FN" stamped on them. Whether or not this mansion can be associated with Sir Francis Nicholson, the last governor resident at Jamestown (who moved the capital to Williamsburg), we do not know. Artifacts found in the refuse indicate this house was dismantled, not burned, shortly before or after the turn of the 17th century. The mystery of the little brick-lined recess is not entirely solved, but it is probable that here was a primitive cooler, deep below the house, in which perishable foods or wines were stored.
[Illustration: JAMESTOWN HOUSE TYPES: SIMPLE FRAME, HALF-TIMBER, BRICK, AND ROW. (Conjectural sketches by Sidney E. King.)]
[Illustration: EXCAVATED FOUNDATION OF A LATE 17TH-CENTURY PROTOTYPE OF THE BALTIMORE AND PHILADELPHIA ROW HOUSES. SIX FAMILIES COULD HAVE LIVED HERE.]
Row Houses
Although row houses--a continuous row of joined family residences on unit foundations--were a common city feature in 17th-century England, apparently they did not become popular at Jamestown. But the brick foundation of one true multiple-family unit has been uncovered, and two others approach this category, thus providing the true precedent for the row houses which came to characterize miles of Baltimore and Philadelphia streets, and are a familiar pattern of some modern duplex apartment units.
This Jamestown row house is probably the most impressive foundation on the island. It is 16 feet long and 20 feet wide (inside measurement), situated east of the Tercentenary Monument, facing south, well back from the river and "the back streete." A cellar and a great fireplace terminate the east end, and 9 other fireplaces are evident in 4 main divisions, which may have housed one family or more in each division. Since artifact evidence relates it to the last quarter of the 17th century, and possibly the beginning of the 18th, there would seem little possibility of the row house having served as a public building or a tavern. There is some evidence that at least part of the structure burned.
Two other foundations might be classed as row houses, but are less clearly delineated. One is the Last Statehouse Group of five units in the APVA grounds.[1] The other multiple house is a 3-unit building midway between the brick church and Orchard Run. This structure generally fits the description of the First Statehouse in its 3-unit construction and dimensions, and has long been thought to be the original Statehouse building. The structure, however, is as close to the present shoreline as the First Statehouse is recorded to have been in 1642--a puzzling coincidence, if the factor of erosion is taken into consideration.
[Footnote 1: After the Third Statehouse burned, it was replaced on the same foundations by the Fourth (and last) Statehouse built on Jamestown Island, which burned in 1698. The Fifth Statehouse, now reconstructed at Williamsburg, also burned, continuing an unhappy tradition that includes the destruction of the National Capitol at Washington in 1814 and the Virginia Statehouse at Richmond in 1865.]
Single Brick Houses
These were once supposed to have been very common at Jamestown, but are represented by only 12 foundations, not all of which have been completely excavated. Like the other excavated structures, if these houses can be related to the ownership of the land tracts on which they once stood, we may someday know more of their possible identity.
Frame Houses
Partial or even whole brick footings do not always indicate brick houses at Jamestown. Some 30 structures have been recorded which had brick footings or isolated brick fireplace foundations, the appearance of which suggests frame houses. These may be briefly classified as follows:
Brick, or brick-and-cobble, wall-footings with central chimney bases of brick--2. Brick footing and outside chimney--3. Brick footing only--10. Brick chimney base alone remaining--12. Stone footing only--1. Cellar only, presumed to belong to frame or unfinished house, or to have had all bricks salvaged--1. Burned earth floor area only remaining, presumed to mark a frame house--1.
Some of the structures encountered in the first explorations remain to be more fully excavated and recorded. Structures in this category total 23.
Miscellaneous Structures
Because of the inadequacy of Jamestown remains and records, it is difficult to determine the purposes for which the various outbuildings were used. Doubtless, many outbuildings did exist for various purposes, and probably most of them were not substantial enough to leave a trace. Two clearly isolated, small structures properly called outbuildings (discovered in 1955) are all that will be cited here. The first is the large double-chimney foundation just beyond the southwest corner of the mansion east of