They dug deep for the Black Bottom neighborhood in West Philly. Here’s what was found.
The Heritage West archaeological project between Penn and local community members completed its dig in November. Now, they will sort through all of the artifacts that were uncovered.
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Penn faculty members, students and West Philly community members carefully dug below Philly’s surface during the fall and sifted through dirt and rubble, looking for pieces of history. Now, it’s time for the group to figure out exactly what was found underneath layers of the earth.
The participants are members of the Heritage West Community Archaeology Project, which aims to learn about Philly’s Black Bottom neighborhood, a predominantly Black, vibrant section of West Philly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that was cleared away to create the present-day University City. Heritage West is a collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Museum, and local community organizations.
From August through Thanksgiving, project participants, including 22 community members, dug along the 3500 block of Lancaster Avenue, mostly within the parking lot of the Community Education Center. Records indicated that several Black Bottom homes once stood there, including three brick rowhouses and twin wooden homes that may have been built as early as the 1840s.
They found bottles, bricks and bones, plus an Indian Head penny minted in 1909, the final year before Abraham Lincoln’s face appeared on them, all evidence that a neighborhood was alive here before being bulldozed. There were the bits and pieces of artifacts that appear to have once been something of value, but exactly what is less clear. The next year for Heritage West will be spent attempting to answer those questions as the group takes a closer look at the findings.
“It’s really the case that only about 20% of archaeology is the fieldwork,” said Megan C. Kassabaum, one of the Heritage West directors and an associate professor of anthropology at Penn and the Weingarten Associate Curator for North America at the Penn Museum.
“It’s a constant refrain, but we’re still kind of only at the beginning.”
Darnell Holmes’ family arrived in Philadelphia during the first wave of the Great Migration in the 1920s. His great-grandmother then moved their family from South Philly over to West Philly and Black Bottom in the ‘40s, which meant Holmes’ grandmother grew up primarily on the same Lancaster Avenue that Heritage West focused on. When Holmes, who lives in West Philly, heard about the project he jumped at the opportunity to learn more about his family’s history.
“It was not quite surreal, but [I had] a few out-of-body experiences,” he said, referencing the many Friday afternoons he spent digging with Heritage West. Holmes studied archaeology as both an undergraduate and graduate student, and now works as an educator and consultant paleontologist at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel.
“It just made me think about all the stories and knowledge that my grandmother had that I did not know about,” he said.
“So many people had lived there, been part of the area, been part of the community, and for it to be torn down and thrown away and then covered up as if it did not even exist was something that was a little bit spellbinding.”
Holmes spent most of his excavation time in the area where the brick rowhouses stood until they were bulldozed in the 1960s. Using shovels, hand trowels, sifting trays and brushes, he and other project members uncovered pieces of green, light blue and gray plaster that would have made up the interior of the homes, and fragments of metalwork, glass work and fine China. They also found evidence of the sheer destruction that took place, such as large curbstones that once lined the street.
At other excavation sites, such as a privy, or outhouse and trash pit dug several feet below the surface, Heritage West also found an intact, empty glass bottle of wheat beer from the 19th century, plus organic material such as beans, seeds and animal bones that together revealed some of the things people ate and drank on a daily basis.
Beginning this spring, Heritage West is inviting community members to continue working on the project as it moves on to lab work and study. No prior participation is necessary. Anyone interested in helping with the lab work or offering memories of the neighborhood can contact Heritage West through its website, heritagewestphl.org.
The first step will be washing and cleaning everything, before continuing on with research and analysis. The project will study everything that has been discovered, from identifying the animal bones pulled from the privy to working with other archaeologists to learn about the distinct layers in the soil record.
The project directors said that eventually they will build a digital archive of the material. There may also be museum exhibits and art pieces made from the artifacts, but they are seeking community input to figure out what those should look like.
“We want to talk to community members about what they want to see with this. Where, where does it end up? Do they want to see it on display somewhere in the community? Is it important that the Penn Museum makes some space for this community story, as well? Or is that not the right place for it?” said Sarah Linn, another Heritage West director and an associate director of academic engagement with the Penn Museum.
“I think those are all the conversations that we need to have.”
Holmes plans to keep working on the project as long as he can. He is fascinated by archaeological projects, in general, but this has a special personal attachment.
“These people lived here, they are part of the community, and it was essentially thrown away and covered up like it did not matter,” he said.
“And it actually did matter.”