Hawkins-Davison Houses, Frederica, St. Simons Island, GeorgiaCate, Margaret Davis
History
Hawkins-Davison Houses, Frederica, St. Simons Island, Georgia
Cate, Margaret Davis
Dwellings -- Georgia -- Saint Simons Island; Fort Frederica National Monument (Ga.); Saint Simons Island (Ga. : Island) -- History
that I think we may conclude that they were, in fact, brick. The remains
of a tabby floor covered part of the room area and it is possible the
entire floor was so paved. There is a suggestion of steps down from
outside to the northeast corner of the room, but very little remained in
this section and the size of these steps cannot be determined. Just
north of the Davison house a narrow ditch running parallel to the front
wall was found. It is not certain what this represents except that it is
clearly some sort of front fence.
Samuel Davison ran a tavern and it seems the lower floor of his house
was the tap room. The large quantity of bottle fragments and stoneware
mug fragments found around the house support this view. A total of 651
pieces of clay pipe bowls and stems were found in and around the house.
They reflect the 18th Century custom of smoking in the taverns and give
some idea of the frequency of smoking as well as the fragility of the
pipes used.
The Davison lot was supposed to be completely fenced and efforts were
made to locate the evidences of these fences along the east, west, and
south sides. A row of postholes was found along the west side to the
southwest corner and followed a short distance along the south side. The
east side seemed to have another fence, but it was obscured by a series
of wells as that along the west side of the Hawkins lot had been.
South of the Davison lot an open space fourteen feet three inches wide
was found. South of that tabby remains were found, but time and funds
did not permit their exploration. The Miller map of 1796 gives the width
of the first street south of Broad Street as 14 feet. The open space
south of the corner of lot 2 fits this width quite nicely. The 1736
Auspourger map says that the width of street “C” is sixteen feet. Only
more thorough excavation will clear up this point. In any case the tabby
to the south would be the remains of a building on South Ward Lot 19,
belonging to Thomas Sumner, or to South Ward Lot 20, belonging to Daniel
Prevost. The southwest corner of South Ward Lot 2, Samuel Davison, was
located with some accuracy. Measuring north ninety feet, along the line
of the party wall, the northwest corner was found to be three feet north
of the northwest corner of the Davison house. The front stairwell of the
Hawkins house extended out into the street alignment a matter of six
inches. This line between lots 1 and 2 was taken as the base for laying
out the grid of town lots as shown on the Miller and Auspourger maps.
The town grid fits very well with the present contours that seem to
represent colonial features. It can be assumed that the town grid of
Frederica has again been determined. It should be possible to locate any
specific town lot from the information now in hand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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