Archaeological Monitoring of Proposed Sidewalk Improvements on North Campus, University of Georgia, Athens-Clarke County, Georgia

On August 25, 2020, consulting Southeastern Archeological Services' archaeologist, Tom Gresham met with the University of Georgia's Facilities Maintenance Division's Grounds Director Brett Ganas and University of Georgia historic preservation specialist Scott Messer, with the Office of the University Architects for Facilities Planning, to discuss proposed demolition and replacement of various sections of faulty sidewalks on north campus. There were four locations of the sidewalk repairs: in front of Old College (originally Franklin College), behind the Chapel, between Demosthenian Hall and the Holmes/Hunter Academic Building and north of Moore College (Figure I). At the on-site meeting, it was clarified that the project would entail the breaking up and removal of the existing concrete and then the excavation with a smooth bucket backhoe of the soil underneath to a depth of about 12 inches below ground surface. That is, about 4 inches of old concrete and about 8 inches of underlying soil would be removed. Then, about 8 inches of crusher run would be placed and tamped in the sections of sidewalk, side forms would be placed and new concrete would be poured. Mr. Ganas pointed out that an approximately 8-foot diameter area of soil around a fire hydrant behind the Chapel and next to the sidewalk to be replaced would need to be graded down about l to 2 feet. Mr. Ganas also pointed out that some additional repairs just south of the Holmes/Hunter Administrative Building would consist of replacing and resetting brick pavers and would not require back.hoe excavation. It was agreed then that no archaeological monitoring would be needed for the paver replacement portion of the project area.

Having reviewed a series of campus maps and aerial photographs from 1805 to the present, Gresham noted that the positioning of the nearby buildings had changed little over time (except for the Holmes/Hunter building), that he was unaware of any known features or extinct buildings in the project areas and that there would likely be a scattering of artifacts in the soil underneath the sidewalks in all four project areas. It was agreed that the best course of action would be to have the grounds crew remove the old sidewalk and then have Gresham present on site when the smooth bucket backhoe was grading down the additional 8 inches of soil. Thus, the project would essentially be a matter of having Gresham monitor the backhoe excavations to recover some of the expected artifacts and record any cultural features that might be exposed. It was agreed that the grounds crew would give Gresham a day's notice of when work would begin and would then telephone him shortly before beginning the excavation. As presented here, only two of the four sections were actually completed in September 2020, the Old College section and the Moore College section. As of the date of this report the other two sections had not been started.