Decision to Preserve Dexter Site
NPS PHOTO With the support of a construction crew, archeologists excavate a deep brick lined privy shaft. The two wooden structures provide support for the shaft. The construction of the National Constitution Center will require the building of the Independence Transportation Center (ITC), a bus drop-off facility. The ITC will be built on the northeast corner of Block 3 contiguous with the Center. The facility will serve as the primary arrival point for buses carrying visitors to the Mall and to the other visitor destinations in the vicinity. The bus drop-off was an original feature of the developments planned for Block 3. However, the design for the facility was not complete at the time that the archeological assessment for the main Center building was carried out. Therefore, the assessment of the archeological impact of the bus drop-off was not included in the earlier assessment effort. In the fall of 2002, once it was recognized that early planning meetings leading to the building of St. Thomas African Episcopal Church had taken place at James Dexter’s house, within the area proposed for the bus drop-off, additional efforts were made to ensure that construction of the drop-off would not disturb this very significant site. The NPS worked with the NCC to ensure that the design for the new facility would avoid impacts to the site so that any surviving archeological or architectural remains could be preserved in-place. Preservation of archeological sites is central to the mandate of the NPS and it is always preferred, where possible, that construction impacts to such sites be avoided. The NPS also concluded that archeological excavation of the James Dexter site not relating to construction impact was not immediately warranted. Excavation of archeological sites, even when done according to best professional practices, destroys or damages the site under study. The removal of archeological deposits and artifacts destroys the complex context in which the artifacts are sealed and therefore, despite the most careful recording and documentation, some portion of the archeological record is invariably lost during excavation. No archeologist can anticipate in advance every question that will be asked of the data once excavated nor what questions researchers in the future will want to address. Nor is it possible to anticipate what techniques or methods will be available to succeeding generations of researchers. Consequently it is not possible to recognize, collect, or record all the potential information contained in an archeological site. Therefore, an archeological site should only be excavated if there is a compelling need for immediate excavation. If excavation is not sufficiently justified in the present, then the site should be preserved for the future. In-place preservation appeared to be the best stewardship option for the Dexter site because it was not slated for demolition. Archeological excavation had been completed elsewhere on the block of several sites occupied by African Americans. These were located in areas that would have to be destroyed to allow excavation for the basement and foundation of the NCC building. It was felt that the information learned from the study of the sites slated for destruction would significantly expand our knowledge of the early history of Philadelphia’s African American community and that sites not subject to destruction should be preserved for study by future generations. |
Did You Know?
Did you know Benjamin Franklin had a pet angora cat? When it died, he asked artist and natural historian Charles Willson Peale to preserve it through a taxidermy process.