UGA's First Building? Bicenquasquigenary Jubilee Series, Pt II

"June 30, 2009
"by Matt Weeks
"Athens, Ga. – Remnants of a former building and artifacts dating back more than 200 years have been uncovered beneath the foundations of New College on the University of Georgia’s North Campus, allowing a glimpse into a long-lost chapter of UGA history."

“Awesome!” was my first internal response, and perhaps verbal, to the news that construction crews and afterward archaeologists had uncovered the foundations of what could represent the University of Georgia’s very first building underneath the foundation of New College while renovating the building.

Having lived and worked near an archaeological dig for two years, my second thought was, “I want to see it.” Pictures are nice and all, but if anyone has an ‘in’ with Danny Sniff and can get me into the belly of the beast (i.e. the basement of New College while this is going on), I’d be ever grateful.

And finally in the slow machinations of my brain, as I was walking across the North Quad and ruminating about material that could be the focus for my next post, it clicked. It probably had something to do with the fact that I glanced over at New College while I was thinking about it, but really, should it have taken me that long to come up with that? No, never.

The official press release notes some pretty interesting bits from what they’ve uncovered, and by the looks of the pictures, the remains of the earlier building cover a fair amount of the floor (see below). Apparently you could have used the basement of New College as a dungeon as well or a nice oubliette, perhaps.

Fortuitous finds for my blog. Thank you, New College construction crews. Love, me.

Some interesting bits from the find:

• The foundation, and therefore the building, was there before the 1819 construction began on New College (a la the Romans constructing buildings on top of buildings, though I doubt we’ll find any catacombs on campus). No direct connection has been established with Josiah Meigs, UGAs first acting president.
  
• Because of construction, the uncovered brick floor was 7ft below the current ground level at New College.
• The brick, unlike later building materials for UGA, was made locally, which you can apparently discern from their color.
• The crew found a Lamar period pottery bowl. For those not familiar, it means it’s very old, as it would have pre-dated even the founding of the colony of Georgia (1350-1600), which means that whoever left the bowl was a collector of some sort. My guess would be a professor, who though much later than intended had his wish in preserving Lamar culture.
• “. . . other artifacts found are a handmade spoon, wrought iron nails, blown-glass bottles, glazed cookware and an instrument that resembles a modern fire poker.”

In my history-geek brain, that’s just awesome. Rumor has it that they’re going to try to have it where folks can see it when they finish the renovation, but at this point, it is just that, unfounded rumor. But it’s a rumor with which I’d definitely be satisfied should it come true.

As a result of this, I'm trying to sort out in my head the relative/exact age of the buildings on campus. There will be a list that I'll post soon. Why? Because I'm going to create it if it hasn't already been done!

AFN
DCC
5 August 2009
Athens, GA