Archaeologists explore Oatlands barn in final phase of renovation

The first phase of the excavation of Carter Barn, built into a hillside on the centuries-old Oatlands estate in Leesburg, is complete. But the quiet that surrounds the 19th-century building is temporary.

"The archaeologists are coming back," said Trish McNeal, director of development and the interim executive director of Oatlands. As she rounded the corner outside the three-story brick bank barn Monday, McNeal gestured toward the grassy area adjacent to the building. "There's still a lot of work to be done in the courtyard there."

Structural engineers will soon provide guidance for the 12- to 14-month restoration effort, which will include stabilizing the multiple floors of the barn so they are safe for visitors, McNeal said. Signage and exhibitions throughout the restored building will teach visitors about the uses and historical significance of the barn, she said.

The Oatlands estate, once a lucrative wheat plantation owned by George Carter and tended by more than 100 slaves in the early 1800s, includes several early 19th-century brick buildings. Among them are Carter's elegant mansion, the country's second-oldest working greenhouse and a four-acre, terraced garden. The property, which is owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, encompasses 360 acres of the original 3,400 acres Carter inherited in 1798.

The Carter-era bank barn, built in 1821 and extensively damaged by a fire in the 1880s, is the last of the structures on the property to undergo restoration. The project was begun in June and involves a team of consultants led by Li/Salzman Architects, a New York firm known for the restoration of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and Sing Sing prison. The excavation of the surviving barn structure, conducted by Rivanna Archaeological Services of Charlottesville, was concluded weeks ago. The archaeologists are now on a hiatus, McNeal said, until Oatlands can clear the adjacent courtyard area of two maintenance buildings built in the 1950s. Archaeologists will then will try to uncover the foundation of the "lost" section of the barn that burned, which is far bigger than the surviving structure suggests. Records indicate that a horse-powered grain mill once operated on its ground floor, said Steve Thompson, a principal investigator with Rivanna.

The multifaceted barn is an unusual structure on the property. Attached to one gable is a two-story stone ice house, originally thought to have a below-ground shaft where ice was stored, Thompson said. But excavations showed that the ice was stored aboveground, on a sturdy wood floor.

A later-period milking parlor is attached to the opposite gable, and a large stone-walled area on the barn's second floor might have been a grain silo, McNeal said. The other face of the barn has a row of four arched "extant bays," possibly used as stalls to house cows or oxen.

"They were so good at figuring out how to use what they had," McNeal said. The barn was built so that air circulating through it would help keep the grain dry.

Archaeologists who jackhammered through the floor of the milking parlor expected to find the intersection of two walls from the original barn, McNeal said, and so they were surprised to uncover another old stone barn wall that suggested an additional bay opening on the southern end of the building.

The physical detective work is supplemented by "good, old-fashioned library work," McNeal said. "We're delving into the written history," she said. Scouring diaries and records left by the families who owned the property also provided clues about the barn, she said.

Although the excavation and written records have provided some answers regarding the use of the last building to be restored on the property, other mysteries remain at Oatlands.

Walking back toward the mansion, McNeal pointed to a small pile of dirt in the corner of the walled garden. The exposed hole in the ground revealed the stones of a building's foundation line.

They have no idea yet what that building might have been, McNeal said. Archeologists have yet to uncover the quarters that housed Carter's slaves, she said, and it's too soon to know what the digging in the corner of the garden may have uncovered.

That's part of the intrigue and excitement, she said, as she peered into the hole. "It could be anything."