Days 10 & 11

Saturday November 23
Sunday November 24, 2002


The Lancaster Intelligencer
http://www.lancasteronline.com/articles/452.shtm

Digging in Lancaster's Dirt
By Brian M. Christopher
Nov 25, 2002
Intelligencer Journal


A backhoe stripped away the top layer of macadam behind 45-47 S. Queen Street in September.

A foot down, they found another layer of macadam-like material.

But below that, they found a brick courtyard and two cisterns filled with secrets from the past.

Mary Ann Levine, and her husband, James Delle, have spent every weekend since September in the mud searching for artifacts to give them a picture of the life and times of Thaddeus Stevens.

The couple have been joined by a group of student volunteers from Franklin & Marshall College and Millersville University. In the middle of that courtyard, the diggers found the first of two old water cisterns, filled with hidden treasure.

"It actually took a sledge hammer to break it open," said Levine. "It had withstood the centuries. The craftsmanship was superb."

But rather than water, the large rectangular brick-lined space held a collection of potential museum exhibits, dating back to the 1860s or 1870s.

Hundreds of plastic bags have been filled with English pottery, pipes and broken stemware.

"It's been very exciting back at the lab," said Levine. "Each piece has a fantastic story to tell."

The former residents of Stevens' house and occupants of the Kleiss Saloon, 49 S. Queen St., had dropped all forms of refuse into the cisterns.

Levine and Delle are both professors of anthropology - she at Franklin & Marshall College, he at Kutztown University. They were hired by the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County to investigate the site.

The dig concludes in March, when several buildings on the east side of the first block of South Queen Street will be demolished to make room for a downtown convention center.

The Stevens home, the former Kleiss Saloon, and the home of Lydia Hamilton Smith, 21-23 Vine St., will be restored and will be included in the convention center as museum space commemorating the Underground Railroad.


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