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Storehouse and Admiral Raleigh
Gilbert's House
The John
Hunt map of Fort St. George indicates that many
structures were present within the fortifications. Although there is reason to
doubt that all of these structures were actually built, at least two are
confirmed by contemporary documentation: the storehouse and Admiral Raleigh
Gilbert's house.
The storehouse was
the most important public building because it was there that most of the
colony's vital supplies were stored. In his drawing of the east wall of the
structure Hunt
delineated the individual posts. Once we had found the first post in the ground,
the others fell into line and the form and dimensions of the building emerged.
We found many artifacts
on the floor which attest to the trading and military functions of Fort St.
George.
Once the storehouse had been
found, it became a
valuable reference for locating other buildings. The
first of these to be discovered was Admiral Raleigh Gilbert's house, which Hunt
placed about 40 feet south of the storehouse according to his scale. The house
was the largest heated structure in the fort, and very close to where Hunt showed
it should be we discovered a stone chimney base and hearth area. Associated with it was the burned debris from fallen walls. Within these
remains were the personal effects of a leader of the colony.
In 2001 we began the search for other structures within
the fort that Hunt shows on his map. During the 2005 field
school we will focus on the buttery and the
storehouse.
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