Discovering Late Victorian East St. Louis: Urban Archaeology and the New Mississippi River Bridge Project

Claire P. Dappert, Dwayne L. Scheid

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Between 2009 and 2012, teams of archaeologists from the Illinois State Archaeolog-ical Survey (ISAS) conducted large-scale excavations in East St. Louis for the Illinois Department of Transportation as part of the New Mississippi River Bridge Project. The excavations focused on the alignment of relocated 1-70, which crosses the new-ly opened Stan Musial-Veteran's Memorial Bridge. The new alignment transects for-mer residential neighborhoods and remnants of the St. Louis National Stockyards. Hundreds of features, dating from the late-nineteenth century to the early-twentieth century and spanning 76 lots across 4 city blocks, were investigated. Thousands of artifacts were recovered from dozens of privies, cisterns, wells, and cellars. The recovered artifacts and information, combined with archival research, are yield-ing new insights into the history of East St. Louis, particularly about the daily lives working-class individuals and families when the city was a booming transportation and manufacturing hub. In this paper, the excavation of late 1800s and early 1900s features are summarized and specific examples of the material culture associated with this Late Victorian East St. Louis working class neighborhood are examined in some detail.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationMAC 2014 Abstracts
Pages54-55
StatePublished - 2014

Keywords

  • ISAS

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