Researching the History
History books often focus on the buildings that people lived in.
Archaeologists working in a city are much more interested in people’s
backyards. This is where, in the days before garbage collection, people
often disposed of their rubbish. Sometimes these discarded bits and
pieces formed a scattering across the yard that archaeologists call
sheet
refuse. Other times, people threw their rubbish into backyard
holes such as disused privies
and wells. Before sewers were connected, almost every city backyard
had a privy, basically a hole in the ground with a seat and an outhouse
built over it. When the sewers were finally connected to a house, the
privies weren’t needed anymore. The disused hole became a convenient
dumping spot for the household’s rubbish. When archaeologists excavate
a privy or well, they can analyze the artifacts to get a snapshot in
time of the people to whom they once belonged.
Historic
documents allow archaeologists to identify backyard areas within the
project area that are likely to contain archaeological deposits, for
example, the parcel in San Francisco at 540 Folsom St. on the block
bounded by Folsom, Clementina, First and Second streets. Drawings and
photographs of San Francisco during the Gold Rush showed that a small
gabled house was built on the lot as early as 1854. Maps by the Sanborn
Fire Insurance Company that prepared precise plans for cities
all over America during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, show
that the house was still existing in 1887 and that it had an outbuilding
along its rear fence line.
Records from the U.S. Census, which was conducted every ten years,
together with city directories that gave people’s addresses, show that
the
Peel family lived in the house from 1856 to 1879. Jonathan and Mary
Peel arrived in California from England at the height of the Gold Rush
in 1852 with their son. Jonathan Peel was a successful brewer. He died
in 1871, but his wife, Mary continued to live in the house at 540 Folsom
until 1880. A photograph from the mid-1880s shows that the house still
existed although three-story flats now loomed over it from either side.
Later the house was occupied by the Hanks family before it burnt in
the fire that followed the 1906 earthquake. 
DIG DEEPER: When Historic Documents
Don't Agree...
The
historical research told us that the Peel house at 540 Folsom St. had
been occupied from the Gold Rush years until the early 1900s. After
people had lived there for that long, there was a very good chance that
archaeological deposits would be located in the backyard area. The research
further showed that even after the Peels’ house had been destroyed in
the 1906 fire it had never been replaced by any other buildings that
might have destroyed those deposits. This made the backyard area at
540 Folsom St. a prime candidate for excavation to see whether any archaeological
material could be found. Accordingly, in the Research Design and Treatment
Plan it was identified as a Historic Sensitive Area and archaeological
testing was recommended.
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