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  02:16am ET, 11/22/09
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Surprise Discoveries at ''Presidents' House'' Dig Site




     
by KYW's Mike DeNardo

Archaeologists, digging at the 6th and Market Streets site where George Washington and his slaves once lived, have found remains of the actual house.

And archaeologists have found that the kitchen of the house actually had a basement, long since forgotten by posterity.

A worker used a shovel to clear soil from the brick foundation of the house where presidents George Washington and John Adams lived from 1790 to 1800. 

This is National Park Service archaeologist Jed Levin:
     
"This is a work structure where, in Washington's time, when he was here, his servants and slaves would have worked in that building.  And we didn't think any of the kitchen would have survived.  It was described in the documents as a one-story building.  But now we know it had a basement."
      
Workers also found an 1833 coin at the site, confirming documents saying the house was torn down in 1832.  

The dig will go on for another month or so, and then the site will be filled in and a permanent monument built there.

 

(Lithograph by William Breton, from John Fanning Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, 1830)

 
 
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