The Fairfield Foundation began the restoration of the Timberneck House in 2020 as part of a long-term lease agreement with the Commonwealth of Virginia to repair and use the house for exhibits and short-term accommodation. This undertaking involves many facets, including historical research, archaeological investigations, design work, building preservation, and more. One of our primary […]
Archaeology at Timberneck House
If you’ve had a chance to visit the new Machicomoco State Park, then you’ve likely seen the historic Timberneck house near the Interpretive Area. Timberneck was built c. 1793 for the Catlett family, who owned and lived on the property until the early 2000s. Previously the land had been home to the Mann and Page […]
The Hall Site, Revisited
Blog post written by Katie Brauckmann, staff archaeologist, Fairfield Foundation. In 2018 , I wrote this blog about our ongoing work at the Hall Site (44MT0173) in Mathews County. Three years later, I’m back again to give an update now that our work in the field and the lab has concluded! Ashley McCuistion excavates the […]
Three Weeks as a Fairfield Intern: Rachel Shin, 2019
Guest blog by summer intern Rachel Shin, a high-school student from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Week 1:On the first day of my internship, I got to dive into field work right off the bat. We made the short trip to Tucker Store in Gloucester Courthouse, a lot where a general store once stood. I began excavating a […]
Join us for Adventures in August!
Where else can you work with historic ruins, 3-D models, artifacts, and drones? For the seventh year in a row, Fairfield Foundation is teaming up with Adventures in Preservation to host enthusiastic and curious preservationists who want to learn how to excavate, document, and preserve our past. The week-long experience (August 12 to 18, 2018) […]
Anything But Ordinary
Twenty years ago, two young archaeology students, David Brown and Thane Harpole, surveyed a farmstead site located in Gloucester County, Virginia, dating to the late 17th to early 18th centuries. The property was originally patented in the 1670s by Robert Bryan and was eventually part of the adjacent Belle Farm plantation. After the Civil War, […]
The Hall Site: A “Hallmark” of Mathews County
Guest Blog author Katie Brauckmann has worked with the Fairfield Foundation/DATA Investigations for three years, first as a volunteer and intern, and now as a part-time employee. Katie is a sophomore anthropology major at James Madison University. The Hall Site (44MT0173) is a predominately 18th-century site located in Mathews County, Virginia. Conrad Hall, former President […]
A Long-Lost Site Reveals Many Stories at York County’s New Quarter Park
By guest blogger Sara E. Lewis If you’ve never joined the Fairfield Foundation for a public dig at New Quarter Park in York County, then you’re missing out on some exciting finds! In the most recent round of excavations, a young volunteer was excited to find this Very Cool Artifact: a locally-made tobacco pipe stem […]
Discovering history at Mathews Market Days
The Fairfield Foundation hosted a very successful public outreach excavation during Mathews County’s annual Market Days festival in September. More than 40 eager kids and adults helped us excavate four 5′ square units in two days. These units helped investigate the site of a former hotel located along Main Street, providing more clues about how this area was […]
Extraction and Excavation: Archaeology of a Collapsed House Ruin
The house is magnificent. It is everything that you would want in an 18th-century Virginia manor- symmetry, mass, rhythm- and it sits boldly on an elevated landscape surrounded by extensive cropland rimmed with forest and descending towards complex terraced gardens and a wide creek in the distance. It also stands out in the Flemish-bond land of Tidewater, with its rough, […]
