Standing structure archaeology: the Debaun/Waters Farmstead Site (11MS2258), Madison County, Illinois

Mitigative work at the DeBaun/Waters Farmstead site (11MS2258) in Madison County's Godfrey Township provided an unusual opportunity to conduct complementary historical, archaeological, and architectural research into the early settlement period of southwest Illinois. Founded in 1829 by George DeBaun, a recent immigrant from Kentucky, and continuously occupied until very recently, the property included three extant pre--Civil War structures that could be directly linked to a view published in an 1873 county atlas. The survival of these structures led to an analysis that addressed both the origins of the vanity press publications of the Victorian era and an assessment of their representational accuracy. Further investigation of the standing structures, with particular respect to a brick-nogged, timber-frame residence, provided significant new information relative to domestic architecture of the 1830s and 1840s, and highlighted potential linkages to broader Upland South cultural traditions.