Nantucket and Other Native Places: The Legacy of Elizabeth Alden Little

1 The “Ancient Dwelling” on Sunset Hill: Preliminary Archaeological Investigations at the Jethro Coffin House

1 The “Ancient Dwelling” on Sunset Hill Preliminary Archaeological Investigations at the Jethro Coffin House Duncan Ritchie The Jethro Coffin House is one of Nantucket’s (Massachusetts) important historical landmarks, representing the dwelling of a prominent early settler on the island. This historic structure, constructed in about 1686, is owned and maintained by the Nantucket Historical Association (NHA). An element of the Nantucket Historical District since 1955, the Jethro Coffin House was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1968. In observance of the 1986 tercentennial year for the Jethro Coffin House, the NHA initiated a comprehensive study of this historic site. Located on the crest of Sunset Hill, the house is a highly visible symbol of Nantucket’s past that has been visited by tourists and photographed since the Victorian era. With its enigmatic wishbone/horseshoe design in raised brick on the chimney and association with the Coffin and Gardner families, it is an icon of early European-American settlement on Nantucket. Initial consideration of an archaeological investigation began in 1984 when plans to construct a Colonial-period garden at the Jethro Coffin House raised the possibility of conducting an excavation in the proposed location of the garden bed. Elizabeth Little, as vice chairman of the NHA Archaeology Committee, proposed that the archaeological survey be expanded to include the entire Jethro Coffin House property. In January 1985, she prepared a draft proposal for a project with the primary goal of locating the archeological remains of outbuildings, fence lines, garden plots, or other features within the Jethro Coffin House lot to reconstruct land-use patterns and the lifeways of past occupants of 1 2 Duncan Ritchie this property. The proposal reflected her interest in a multidisciplinary approach to the study of archaeological sites. A grant proposal prepared by Victoria Hawkins (NHA curator of Collections) was submitted to the Massachusetts Council on Arts and Humanities as a source of funding for the proposed archaeological study. Innovative in its use of interdisciplinary approaches to collecting information about this historic property, the Jethro Coffin House project employed architectural history, documentary research, folklore, remote sensing, archaeological survey, and paleobotany. Research utilizing various primary and secondary sources such as deeds, probates, maps, and historic photographs was conducted by knowledgeable NHA staff. The Public Archaeology Laboratory (PAL) was among the organizations and individuals that participated in the study. It became involved in the Jethro Coffin House project through the invitation of Little, who was the head of the NHA’s Archaeology Committee. The following section of this chapter presents the general objectives and a research framework for the archaeological survey conducted by PAL. This is followed by a summary of the construction, occupation, and abandonment of the Jethro Coffin House based on architectural study and documentary research. The results of the remote sensing study, subsequent archaeological survey of the property, and paleobotanical analysis are then discussed. Project Background The primary goals of the archaeological survey conducted by PAL were: (1) a review of the documentary materials assembled by the NHA; (2) an intensive (locational) archaeological survey of the house lot to identify potentially important subsurface features and deposits; and (3) the analysis and synthesis of the archaeological information, incorporating what had been learned from documentary research. Recommendations for managing and protecting the archaeological component of the property were also developed. The award of a technical assistance grant to the NHA from the Massachusetts Council on Arts and Humanities in February 1986 provided funding for the archaeological survey. Fieldwork for the survey was conducted in April 1986, and a report was submitted to the NHA later that summer. Primary components of the research design for the project were a review of documentary sources, remote sensing, and archaeological surveys of the Jethro Coffin House lot and paleobotanical analysis of soil samples collected from suspected garden plots. Completion of these 3 The “Ancient Dwelling” on Sunset Hill tasks was a group effort, reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of the project. The documentary information related to the Jethro Coffin House included deeds, probates, tax lists, federal census data, and other vital records. Other sources were photographs taken over the last 130 years, several architectural studies, and research on the Coffin family done by NHA members Helen Winslow Chase (1986) and Elizabeth Little (Little 1986; Little and Morrison 1986). The remote sensing survey of...