DATE: Monday, October 6, 1997               TAG: 9710030851

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COLUMN 

SOURCE: GEORGE TUCKER

                                            LENGTH:   83 lines

ARCHAEOLOGICAL TREASURES LONG PART OF NORFOLK'S HERITAGE

Virginia Archaeology Month (October) could not be more fittingly celebrated locally than by recalling the April 1966 dig south of Norfolk's historic Willoughby-Baylor House at the southeast corner of Freemason and Cumberland streets, an excavation that suggested that almost any other areas within the city's pre-Civil War limits might have been equally important archaeological treasure troves.

Unlike most of these presumably rich areas, however, the Willoughby-Baylor site had never been built over with business structures that either disturbed or totally destroyed the tell-tale fragments of the past that lay beneath them.

The 1966 excavation in the Willoughby-Baylor area unearthed several priceless time capsules, the artifacts from which have subsequently enabled experts to interpret everyday life in Norfolk covering a period of almost three centuries.

Even so, the dig would not have been possible had it not been for the Norfolk Historic Foundation, a group of dedicated citizens who had only recently rescued the Willoughby-Baylor House by a timely purchase from the wrecking crews of the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Once the handsome brick townhouse, erected shortly after 1787 by Capt. Thomas Willoughby, a local merchant and building contractor, had been saved, the foundation hired Norfolk archaeologist Floyd E. Painter to conduct a series of test excavations to the south and east of the house hoping that any artifacts discovered there might contribute hints toward the restoration of the house that is now owned by the city and administered by the Historic Division of the Chrysler Museum of Art.

Among Painter's most important finds were portions of the foundation of Norfolk's pre-Revolutionary Freemason's Hall that occupied the excavated area as well as the Brewer and Freemason street corner on which the Willoughby-Baylor House now stands from the middle of the 18th century until the borough was destroyed by fire and bombardment in 1776. This structure gave Freemason Street its name. It was also in its great meeting hall that Norfolk's most memorable pre-Revolutionary social event took place.

In 1774, John Murray, Fourth Earl of Dunmore, the last royal governor of Virginia, and his wife and two of his daughters were entertained there at a ball when they visited Norfolk two years before the outbreak of the American Revolution. At that time, according to the memoirs of ``The Old Burgess,'' published in the Norfolk and Portsmouth Herald for July 3, 1818, one of the daughters ``made a mighty pretty cheese with her hoop,'' (her hoop-skirted ball gown) during one of the minuets that opened the affair.

Besides the foundations of the Freemason's Hall, Painter discovered hundreds of artifacts that linked that particular area with Norfolk's remote and near remote past. The former consisted of shards of 17th century pottery identical with those recovered at Jamestown and other early Virginia sites. This proved that the excavated area had been occupied as early as the middle years of the 17th century. Besides these shards, Painter also uncovered fragments of 18th century Chinese porcelain, 19th century blue and white-transfer printed Staffordshire pottery as well as the remains of hundreds of hand-blown glass bottles. Also besides the remains of identifiable early wrought iron objects, the dig also cast up a small white clay artifact, the use of which remained a mystery until a member of the Norfolk Historic Foundation identified it. Later, when he wrote up an account of the Willoughby-Baylor dig for the June 1966 issue of the Chesopiean, Painter amusingly recorded his initial puzzlement until ``one of the Foundation ladies identified it as a wig curler; she had seen them displayed in Colonial Williamsburg. Trust the ladies to know the use of such an object. We learn something every day.''

Painter's brief subsoil delvings had to be discontinued after a few weeks in order that that the architects and gardeners who restored the house and its surroundings could get on with their parts of the project. Before concluding the dig, however, Painter stated that he was confident that many other buried treasures could still be discovered if the archaeological project was ever resumed.

Now that the handsome late Georgian house, that was subsequently occupied by the Baylor family, thereby giving it its present name, had been beautifully restored and furnished with period antiques, it is a part of an ongoing educational program conducted by the Chrysler Museum of Art under the direction of T. Patrick Brennan to acquaint the Norfolk public and local schoolchildren with the arts and crafts linking their city with its 17th, 18th and early 19th century pasts.

According to Brennan, this popular program will be accelerated with additional exhibits of early Norfolk-crafted furniture and silver, as well as paintings, prints, china, glass and other furnishings contemporary with the house to attract tourists once the MacArthur Center mall is completed.

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