Archeological Survey of the Riverfront Augusta Project: Management Summary

This Management Summary addresses the results of an archeological survey conducted by Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. for the City of Augusta's Economic Development Office on the Riverfront Augusta property in downtown Augusta (Figure 1). The fieldwork and literature review were conducted between 5 and 20 June 1989. The Riverfront Augusta property covers approximately 13.7 ac of land. The property is bounded on the north by the Savannah River levee, on the south by Reynolds Street, on the east by Ninth Street, and on the west by Tenth Street. A small segment extends west across Tenth Street into the next block between Tenth and Eleventh Street in the northwest corner of the project area (Figure 2). On the property, the City of Augusta plans to construct a conference/convention center, a 14-history hotel, a 9-story office building, parking garage and lots, and various other improvements such as a pool, fountain, walkways, etc. An archeological survey was required because matching Federal funds (HUD) are being used. A large railroad yard with numerous sets of tracks and freight warehouses occupied most of the northern half of the project until recent years. Residential and commercial structures lined the southern edge of the project area along Reynolds Street. Currently most of the project area is vacant and in an abandoned state (Figures 3 and 4) with the exception of a few businesses in the area of Reynolds and Ninth Streets. Most of the property is open and covered with patchy herbaceous growth intermixed with asphalt, concrete, and graveled areas. The southwest corner along Reynolds and Tenth Streets is being used for parking by employees of nearby Bankers First Bank. Almost all of the railroad tracks have been removed; a large railroad warehouse still stands on the property stretching west from Ninth Street toward Macartan Street approximately 60 m north of Reynolds Street. The northeast corner of the property near the levee and Ninth Street is being used as a staging ground for other construction currently in progress. The goal of this project was to survey, identify and evaluate the types and integrity of potential cultural resources present in the impact area. Based on an examination of readily available archival sources (primarily Sanborn Insurance maps), a series of 15 backhoe trenches were placed across the project area to locate possible buried eighteenth and nineteenth century occupations of early Augusta. It was known that there was heavy residential and commercial development throughout the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century in the project area. The survey found a buried and mostly intact nineteenth century ground surface in 13 of the 15 test trenches. Numerous brick piers, brick walls, postholes and post molds, and various pit features were recorded in the excavated trenches. Late eighteenth through present day twentieth century cultural materials were identified.