With the recent ribbon cutting at the CAPE we have reached the exciting end of a long journey. In 2010 we purchased the Edge Hill Service Station and embarked on a dream to transform this 1930s gas station into a regional center for the archaeological, preservation and education efforts of the Fairfield Foundation. The […]
Fairfield Foundation: 15 Years and Going Strong
In 2015, the Fairfield Foundation celebrated its 15th anniversary as a non-profit dedicated to archaeological research and education at Fairfield Plantation in Gloucester County and at historic sites across the Middle Peninsula and beyond. In January and July of 2015, we shared in the Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal a selection of our favorite artifact finds and a sample […]
The Main Street Oral History Project
We recently launched a special page on our website dedicated to local oral history. Our first contribution to this initiative is The Main Street Oral History Project: preserving and presenting the remembered history of Gloucester’s Main Street community, through its people, places and buildings. It began with the 1930 Edge Hill Service Station, which is currently […]
Virginia Archaeologists converge on the Middle Peninsula
Last Friday, the Fairfield Foundation and the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust (GMSPT) co-hosted the winter meeting of the Council of Virginia Archaeologists (COVA). COVA is Virginia’s professional archaeology organization, and is dedicated to the preservation and study of Virginia’s archaeological resources through fostering public awareness, advancing archaeological knowledge, and facilitating interaction between professional and avocational archaeologists and Virginia’s Department of […]
What is the C.A.P.E?
The Center for Archaeology, Preservation and Education (The CAPE!) at the former Edge Hill Service Station in Gloucester is going to be our new home and headquarters. But it will be so much more than that! As a regional preservation center and archaeology lab, the CAPE will be a place where the public can learn […]
CAPE Update: Restoring Our Preservation Headquarters
We all know the saying “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Well, this feels particularly true of our recent work at the CAPE. Volunteers and local craftsmen continue to work diligently on the center’s restoration, but it’s hard to tell as you drive by. So we’re here to give you […]
Rotten Eggs and Other Mischief: Halloween Traditions on Gloucester’s Main Street
The following is the third installment in a series of blog posts focused on the oral history project directed by University of Florida graduate student Jessica Taylor, aimed at recording oral histories about the Edge Hill Service Station and Gloucester’s Main Street community. Prior to conducting the interviews, Jessica outlined for us the importance of oral history. […]
“The cool guys in Gloucester, the cool girls in Mathews”: Oral History Reveals Courtship Strategies of Gloucester Youth in the 1940s and 50s
In August, The Fairfield Foundation wrapped up interviews for an oral history project directed by University of Florida graduate student Jessica Taylor, aimed at recording oral histories about the Edge Hill Service Station and Gloucester’s Main Street community. What struck Jessica as a common thread through many of the interviews was the interplay between the spread […]
We Need To Talk: The Importance of Oral History
The following is a guest blog by Jessica Taylor, doctoral candidate at University of Florida, and Lead Interviewer on our project to record oral histories about the Edge Hill Service Station and Gloucester’s Main Street community. As easy as it is to have a conversation about the old days over dinner, the prospect of doing an […]
Fairfield Foundation Launches The Center for Archaeology, Preservation and Education (CAPE)
This week a plumbing leak in our long-time lab facility covered the floor with an inch of water, making the space temporarily unusable. Although we were better prepared for this lab flood than an identical one in April 2012, we are left without a fully operational lab. We are forced once again to shift our operations to a temporary facility, limiting our […]
