Archeological Investigation of the First Howell Cobb House Site 9CA208, 698 North Pope Street, Athens, Clarke County, Georgia

This report documents the results of archaeological field work conducted on the former site of the first Howell Cobb House in Athens, Clarke County, Georgia. The house was built for Howell Cobb ca. 1836. Howell and his family lived in the house for only a few years until they lost the home due to financial troubles. Their second home in Athens was built on Hill Street around 1850. The project was sponsored by the Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc., a non-profit corporation based in Thomson, Georgia, which owns and operates the T.R.R. Cobb House as a historic house museum. The field work was conducted by Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. (SAS), at the request of Sam Thomas, curator of the T.R.R. Cobb museum, to determine if intact archaeological deposits remained on the site. The project also provided the opportunity to introduce students from Athens Academy, Chase Street Elementary, and other schools to archaeology through exposure to fieldwork on site and at their school. Field work was conducted in late March and early April 2016 under the direction of the senior author.

The Howell Cobb House project area (9CA208) is located in the northwestern portion of downtown Athens in the central part of Clarke County. The house site was originally located on a larger tract on the outskirts of town during the early nineteenth century and the house remains standing today on a smaller portion of the original tract. The site area, which is defined by the limits of the current property boundaries, also contains two of the original out buildings, an ice house and smoke house, and brick wall landscaping associated with a formal garden. The field work consisted of systematic shovel testing, test unit excavation (which were expanded into two short trenches) site mapping, and photographic documentation. A limited amount of surface collecting and metal detecting was also conducted. The original plan called for remote sensing investigations (Ground Penetrating Radar and thermal imaging) but unfortunately that work could not be conducted in time.

The fieldwork indicated that much of the back-yard area had been disturbed during the late twentieth century when it was used as a parking lot. More recent disturbance to this area occurred when the graveled lot was scraped as a part of the current landowner’s landscaping activities. However, sheet midden deposits and subsoil-intruding features dating to the mid-nineteenth century (and later) were found to remain on the edges of the site. These included several large post pits thought to be associated with a mid-nineteenth century structure which is most likely a slave cabin. The site retains preserved cultural deposits that may contribute important information relating to the early history of Athens. Submission of this report to the organization fulfills the requirements of the investigations for the archaeological project.