lancaster

Philadelphia County

Site Name:

Metropolitan Detention Center Site (36 PH 91)

Borough, Township:

Philadelphia

Author:

Richard J. Dent, Charles H. LeeDecker, Meta Janowitz, Marie-Lorraine Pipes, Ingrid Wuebber, Mallory A. Gordon, Henry M.R. Holt, Christy Roper, Gerald Scharfenberger, and Sharla Azizi

Representing:

Louis Berger & Associates, Inc.

Date of Site:

Historic,
late 17th to 20th century

Project Sponsor:

U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons

Brief Description: The Philadelphia Metropolitan Detention Center Site was first settled in the late seventeenth century, but it remained on the city's periphery until the early nineteenth century. During the early nineteenth century, it was a somewhat fashionable neighborhood, but commercial and light industrial development crowded out most affluent residents by the late nineteenth century. While the site contained a physical record of the block's entire developmental sequence, the archaeological excavations focused on remains from the mid-eighteenth century through the early nineteenth century.
Perhaps the most unexpected finding was the preservation of deposits from the mid-eighteenth century, a period when the site was essentially vacant land. Midden deposits from this period reflected a wide range of crafts and industrial activities that had been carried out on the outskirts of the city. These included metallurgy or metalworking, brewing, production of straight pins, button making, cordwaining, the fabrication of stained glass windows, and possibly the manufacture of white clay tobacco pipes.
A wide range of bone refuse was also recovered, suggesting that a group of animal- processing trades operated in the neighborhood, including slaughtering, butchering, tanning, extraction of oil from hooves, and processing of horn cores into objects such as buttons, combs, and spoons. The excavations also yielded a large amount of material associated with pottery production, providing important information about the Lower Delaware Valley red earthenware ceramic tradition..

Philadelphia County
Site Name:	Metropolitan Detention Center Site (36 PH 91)
Borough, Township:	Philadelphia
Author:	Richard J. Dent, Charles H. LeeDecker, Meta Janowitz, Marie-Lorraine Pipes, Ingrid Wuebber, Mallory A. Gordon, Henry M.R. Holt, Christy Roper, Gerald Scharfenberger, and Sharla Azizi
Representing:	Louis Berger & Associates, Inc.
Date of Site:	Historic, late 17th to 20th century
Project Sponsor:	U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons
Brief Description: The Philadelphia Metropolitan Detention Center Site was first settled in the late seventeenth century, but it remained on the city's periphery until the early nineteenth century. During the early nineteenth century, it was a somewhat fashionable neighborhood, but commercial and light industrial development crowded out most affluent residents by the late nineteenth century. While the site contained a physical record of the block's entire developmental sequence, the archaeological excavations focused on remains from the mid-eighteenth century through the early nineteenth century. Perhaps the most unexpected finding was the preservation of deposits from the mid-eighteenth century, a period when the site was essentially vacant land. Midden deposits from this period reflected a wide range of crafts and industrial activities that had been carried out on the outskirts of the city. These included metallurgy or metalworking, brewing, production of straight pins, button making, cordwaining, the fabrication of stained glass windows, and possibly the manufacture of white clay tobacco pipes. A wide range of bone refuse was also recovered, suggesting that a group of animal- processing trades operated in the neighborhood, including slaughtering, butchering, tanning, extraction of oil from hooves, and processing of horn cores into objects such as buttons, combs, and spoons. The excavations also yielded a large amount of material associated with pottery production, providing important information about the Lower Delaware Valley red earthenware ceramic tradition..