Blandwood
History A. J. Davis Architecture Directions Archaeology
2008 Bicenntennial Archaeology Project
Blandwood is pleased to announce a joint archaeological project with Dr. Linda France Stine, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). Stine and Blandwood Director/Curator, Ashley Poteat, applied for and were awarded a grant through the History Committee of the 2008 Greensboro Bicentennial Commission.
Presently, interpretation of daily life on this urban plantation is limited to information gleaned from a limited number of primary sources, like letters, census records, and maps that post date 1870. Using this information we can speculate on daily life in the house and on the grounds, but we need to have additional information that an archaeological survey could provide to expand our interpretation, particularly interpretation of slave life at Blandwood. This project should yield research that will provide answers to questions concerning early settlement of Greensboro, the earliest construction date for a house onsite is 1795; antebellum life on an urban plantation, location of outbuildings that would help explain daily living; slave life, the 1850 Slave Census tells us that 37 enslaved workers were at Blandwood, we know little to nothing concerning their lives here; and what happened to the property after the death of Governor Morehead, his descendents owned the property for three decades and then the Keeley Institute was opened. An archaeological survey of the back quadrant of Blandwood’s property should reveal artifacts and features that will enhance our understanding of life on the estate, whether owner, laborer, or enslaved worker. As an historical site many items may still remain to be found below ground: yard features, outbuildings, and possibly fence lines spanning the late eighteenth through twentieth centuries.
The archaeological dig is scheduled to take place in Blandwood’s back yard bounded by 
Edgeworth Street, McGee Street, and Blandwood Avenue. The Blandwood Carriage House will be used for staging purposes, storage of equipment, and public facilities. The dig will be run through an archaeological field school at UNCG under the direction of Stine. The dig will also be open for the public to participate. The dates for this dig are planned to correspond with the first session of summer school at the UNCG. Those dates will take place roughly the last two weeks of May and the first week of June 2008, exact dates will be finalized when UNCG issues its annual calendar.
When undertaking an archaeological project such as this, the major question is where to dig? In the past, archaeologists would lay out a grid and dig small test holes, hoping that items would be discovered, which would then lead to an area of interest for a larger dig. However, the last twenty years have brought new technological advances to the field. A method finding common use is ground 
penetrating radar, (GPR). This is a non-invasive form of discovering items below the surface. Simply put, a grid is laid out on the ground and an antenna is pulled along the surface. The antenna transmits electromagnetic pulses into the ground, and then measures the time between when the pulses are sent and when they are received back at the antenna (called two-way travel time). As the radar pulses are transmitted through various materials on their way to the buried feature, their velocity will change, depending on the physical and chemical properties of the material through which they are traveling. The elapsed time between these pulses is then measured. When many thousands of radar reflections are measured and recorded as the antenna is moved over the grid, a three-dimensional picture of soil, sediment, and feature changes can be created. Most importantly, GPR methods can gather a great deal of information in a non-destructive way, allowing large areas with buried remains to be studied efficiently and accurately, while at the same time preserving and protecting them.
Blandwood was recently the recipient of this new technology. Local archaeologist Shawn Patch, who works at the Greensboro affiliate office of New South Associates, an archaeological firm based out of Georgia, donated the equipment and time to employ GPR 
on a segment of Blandwood’s back yard. A grid was laid out off the southwest corner of the mansion stretching through the yard to the base of the large willow oak. Patch with the help of Stine, Chris Espenshade, and Roy Stine walked the antenna back and forth, first horizontally and then vertically through the grid. The information was downloaded onto his laptop, providing a preliminary look at squiggles and spots created by the pulses, referred to as hits. Patch remarked that he was “pleasantly surprised” at the number of hits he received. While some of these hits will turn out to be false or tree roots, Stine and Poteat are excited about the prospect of what potentially lies under the surface awaiting discovery when the actual dig occurs in 2008.
Additional non-invasive testing methods will continue to take place over the next year prior to the dig. The results of these tests will ultimately determine where the actual dig will occur in the yard. Stay tuned as we enter this very exciting year of exploration!
Preservation Greensboro and Blandwood would like to extend a special thank you to New South Associates, Shawn Patch, Chris Espenshade, and Roy and Linda Stine for their help on this project.
Some information for this article was taken from the University of Denver’s website: http://www.du.edu/~lconyers/SERDP/GPR2.htm