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For the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), the Louis Berger Group, Inc. conducted archaeological data recovery investigations at the George Town Site, in association with proposed road improvements to route 3 in Culpeper County, Virginia. The site was a small roadside hamlet established around 1790 by George and Deborah Haywood. By the early 1800s, the community had grown to include a store, a hotel, a coach factory, a blacksmith shop, and six or eight private dwellings. After the 1840s the town went into decline, and by the Civil War there may have been only two structures left.
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Foundation elements of George Town
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Numerous artifacts and architectural materials were encountered during the initial archaeological testing. As a result, Berger's investigation focused on recovering data that contributes to our understanding of the development of rural hamlets in Northern Virginia during the the first decades of the nation's existence.
Investigations at the site included hand and machine-assisted excavation techniques as well as electro-magnetic and ground penetrating radar surveys. Four stone foundations and other evidence such as fence posts, pits, trash scatters, brick piers, and a road bed were identified at the site.
Today only a single one and a half-story residence, the Massey Place, remains of George Haywood's dream.
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