29.2
0648
Rock Creek Park
District of Columbia
NATIONAL
PARK
SERVICE
The Sarah Whitby Site
and African-American History
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
LIBRARIES
NOV 25 2009
DEPOSITED BY
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
BO
3 9015 08543 4366
a
es
The Sarah Whitby Site and African-American History
Rock Creek Park
The Sarah Whitby Site
black, and then Hugh McMahon
and Patrick Ryan, both Irish.
options limited by racism.
Thousands of women worked as
domestic servants, many men as
laborers.
African American Migration to
Washington
Sarah Whitby was an African-
American woman whose family lived
in Rock Creek Park between 1870
and 1900. The remains of her house
were discovered by archeologists in
2005. Excavations of the Whitby
house cellar, and documentary
research done as part of the same
project, have opened a window into
Washington's African-American
past.
Delancey Gill and Black
Washington
not vacant, and dozens of people
lived within its boundaries. The
residents of the future park included
property-owning farmers, tenants,
and even a few pioneering
suburbanites. The most prominent
residents were the Shoemaker
family, which owned Peirce Mill and
took their legal battle against the
Park Commission to the United
States Supreme Court. Among the
other residents were several African-
American tenants. During a four-
year archeological and historical
study of the park, completed in
2007, these unknown African-
American families were a major
focus of the research.
who lived there. Detailed
descriptions were made of the
properties purchased for the park,
including the value of the buildings
on them. Lists were also made of
the tenants who leased land in the
park. A few of the houses on land
bought for the park were torn down
within a few years, but many
survived and were rented out until
at least 1900. By comparing the lists
of owners and
tenants with the U.S.
Census, we can
discover the ethnic
identity and
occupations of the
park's residents.
After the Civil War, many thousands
of African-Americans left the South
and moved north to Washington
and other cities. Black Washington
was booming in those years. The
The People of the Valley
Among the many African-American
families that moved to Washington
were the Whitbys. In 1895 the
Whitbys rented a house on a small
parcel of land that had belonged to
Isaac Shoemaker. According to the
census, the family came from North
Carolina. One part of the 1895
rental lists the family under the
name Elijah Widby, but in the other
part of the rental and in the 1900
census the family is headed by Sarah
Whitby, probably Elijah's widow.
According to the census, Sarah
Whitby worked as a laundress. She
had nine children, and although she
was herself illiterate, all of her
children could read. Because the
property was small and included
only one house, archeologists
thought it gave them a good chance
to find the home of an identifiable
African-American family.
Many of Washington's new African-
American residents settled around
the fringes of the city, including the
heights overlooking Rock Creek. We
have a good idea of the kind of
houses occupied by black migrants
to Washington in the 1880s because
of a series of remarkable drawings
by Delancey Gill. Gill was an artist
with the Smithsonian's Bureau of
Ethnography, and his professional
specialty was drawing Hopi pueblos,
Navaho hogans, and other Indian
structures from the southwest. But
while he was in Washington, Gill
made at least a dozen studies of the
homes occupied by black migrants.
Today Rock Creek Park is a wooded
refuge within the crowded city of
Washington, a place of recreation
and relaxation. It is easy to imagine
that this landscape is ancient, these
trees a remnant of the primeval
forest. But the park has a rich
human history stretching back
10,000 years. When the park was
established in 1892, the land was
11
A Diverse Population
IL
Many records were made when
Rock Creek Park was established
that help us learn about the people
T. Blagden
DATOS
The census shows
that the tenant
population of the
park was racially
diverse. Samuel
Dominess, Louis
Savoy, Fannie
Bouldin, Charles
and Jane
James Wormley's Hotel, One of Washington's Premier Black-Owned
Businesses in the 1800s."
Dickson, Elijah
and Sarah
Whitby, and Hannah Williams black population of the city grew
were African-Americans. Hugh from around 14,000 in 1860 to
McMahon was an immigrant 87,000 in 1900, more than half of
from Ireland and James Fegan them immigrants from the South.
was the son of Irish
Many African-Americans were able
immigrants, while Mason to move up the economic ladder,
Anderson and David Duley entering skilled trades, founding
were white men born in the businesses, and owning their own
District. One segment of the homes. A few even got rich, like
1880 census could represent a James Wormley, who built his
line of tenant houses along famous hotel at 15th and H streets
Blagden Road. It lists, in order, in 1871. But most African-
Robert Cross, Augustus
Americans in Washington remained
Johnson, and Thomas Sharp, all relatively poor, their economic
K. Valbeing
J. Peirce
HE
Pierce Shoemaicer
J. Peirce
H.HD
Dº Lancey W. Gill
1883
Historic Map Showing Peirce Mill, the homes of the Blagdens and Shoemakers, and the Mix of Farms and
Woodlands along Rock Creek in 1860.
Drawing by Delancey Gill of one of the Houses on Washington's Outskirts where Black Migrants from
the South lived, 1883.

The Sarah Whitby Site
XE3786 51NW185
ROCR YR4
UNIT 1
and more artifacts were found, including bottle glass,
pieces of ceramic dishes, a glass bead, and a railroad
spike.
LBG
10 10 06
The Cart Driver
One of the artifacts that came out of the cellar hole at
the Charles Dickson Site was an iron figurine of a man,
about 3.5 inches tall. He wore a hat and held his hands
in front of him. His very full lips suggested that he was
intended to be African-American. One of the
archeologists recognized that he resembled the negro
cart drivers that were common figures in old metal toys
(and in real life, as carting was one of the main
occupations of black men in Washington). A bit of
research led to an image of an antique mule cart toy
for sale with a driver that looked very much like the
one from the Charles Dickson Site. This little object
provides a delightful glimpse into the Dicksons' home,
where children played with the cart and imagined
having mules and carts of their own.
An Excavation Unit in Sarah Whitby's Cellar, Showing the Stone Floor.
a
walnut tree. They
dug a small hole in
the center of the
depression, and
underneath about
half a foot of sod
and recent fill they
found bricks,
corrugated roofing
metal, and artifacts
dating to around
1900. These finds
encouraged them to
go back to the site
and do a larger dig.
They uncovered a
cellar hole
measuring about
10x12 feet, with
stone foundations
and a stone floor.
Most of the artifacts
found in the cellar
ann
date to around
1900, but a few are
older. These include
two sherds of
colonoware, a kind of pottery made by slaves before
the Civil War. The discovery of these sherds confirmed
the guess that the Whitbys' house was quite old. It may
have been built as far back as the early 1800s, and it
was probably occupied by African-Americans for many
decades. More than 500 artifacts were found in the
cellar. One of the most
interesting things about
this collection was how
::
::
many buttons were
found: 52. It is very
unusual to find so many
buttons in such a small
excavation, and the
buttons may be related
to Sarah Whitby's work
as a laundress. One of
the buttons was
inscribed "Saville Row,"
Some of the 52 Buttons Found in
the street where
the Cellar of Sarah Whitby's House.
London's finest tailors
plied their trade. If this button really came from Saville
Row it shows that at least one of Sarah Whitby's clients
was very well dressed indeed.
Artist's Reconstruction of the Sarah Whitby House.
how they were related) owned nearly identical lots,
each consisting of a quarter acre of land, a small house,
and a garden. These properties caught the eye of
historians because they represent the type of provision
some slave owners made for freed slaves, and it was
thought that they might represent old slave quarter
sites. But the name Dickson does not appear among
the slaves of the Peirce family, which owned the
surrounding land. Though the chain of title for these
properties is obscure, it seems that the Dicksons
purchased these lots in the 1860s. Since the park's
property map gave nearly exact locations for these
houses, archeologists found them easily.
B
Archeologists also suspected that the Whitbys' house
might be quite old. It was not small by the standards of
the time, since it had two rooms and a stable, but its
condition was listed as "poor" and it rented for the
very small sum of $3 a month. Using the archeological
evidence from the excavation of the cellar, the
description of the house given in the rental ("two-
room"), and the Delancey Gill drawings, an artist was
able to reconstruct what the Whitby house may have
looked like.
Collectible Object.
After taking a close look at the five-acre property where
the Whitbys' house should have been, archeologists
noticed a depression in the ground close to a large
The Jane Dickson Site is
on a small wooded
hilltop. Here
archeologists dug
shovel tests across the
hilltop and found a
scattering of artifacts:
nails, brick fragments,
window glass, bottle
glass, a small china
button, and a piece of a white ceramic plate.
a
.:
a
w
A
The Charles Dickson Site is a few hundred yards away
from Jane Dickson's home. Here archeologists found
almost nothing in their first shovel tests, probably
because the area had been graded with heavy
machinery when the park was built. But they noticed
a small depression at the edge of the grassy lawn,
and a test placed in the center of that depression
produced brick pieces and a handful of artifacts. The
depression, like that at the Sarah Whitby Site, turned
out to be the surface sign of an old cellar hole. That
shovel test was expanded into a 3x3-foot excavation
The Charles and Jane Dickson Sites
0
2in.
Of all the property owners who sold land for the park,
only two were African-Americans: Jane Dickson and
Charles Dickson. The two Dicksons (we are not sure
50mm
Cart Driver Before Conservation.
Cart Driver After Conservation.
Excavating at the Sarah Whitby Site.
PROTECT OUR SITES
The Archeological Resource Protection Act makes it a federal crime
to damage archeological sites on federal lands or to remove
artifacts from federal property. Unauthorized metal detecting and
artifact collecting are strictly forbidden in the park and on all
other federal property.
Report Crimes and Park Emergencies to 1-866-677-6677 Toll Free