Hall Farm

Site Name:

Hall Farm

WSUMA Accession Nos.:

1149, 1188

Site No.:

20WN300 (aka 20WN-H45)

Excavated By:

Charles Martinez, Stephen Demeter

Excavation Year(s):

1973, 1978-79

Site Description:

This site is located on a sand ridge on the west side of West Jefferson Ave., just north of Brownstown Creek in Brownstown, MI . Hall Farm is in close proximity to, and just west of the West Ridge-Gibralter site (20WN10). This site was used by McLouth Steel Corporation until 1960. Stephen Demeter led excavations at the site in 1973 and 1978, however field notes are not on file at the WSU Museum of Anthropology.

In the late 1800's and early 1900's the Hall Farm was occupied by the Hall family. The property included the main residence, cattle barns, other barns for farm equipment, and a pigeon loft to the south of the residence. Fred Hall had a boat house on the shore across from Horse Island . Also, Edmund Hall had a blacksmith and carpenter's shop, along with a carriage house, ice house, and granary on the property. There was also an orchard and vegetable gardens on the property.

Artifacts:

• Ceramics: 

  • earthenware
  • stoneware
  • transferprint (blue, red, turquoise, hand tinted)
  • Gaudy Dutch/Hand-painted pearlware
  • blue and green edgeware
  • decalware

• Clay Pipe:

  • stem fragments

• Construction Materials:

  • plaster

• Faunal Remains:

  • large mammal

• Glass:

  • bottle sherds (colorless, green, white, brown)
  • colorless glass candle stick holder
  • brown bottle

• Metal: 

  • spike
  • small copper disk
  • nails
  • spoon
  • unidentified fragments

• Wood:

  • comb fragment

• Misc.:

  • white button
  • bird feeder

Cat. Nos.:

1W380117-1W380133, 1W257797-1W258014

References:

• Bobier, Doris and Nancy Benyo (1976) Gibralter: Our Story, 1776-1976 . Gary Printing. [WSUMA #11W1521]
• Demeter, C. Stephan (1993) Phase I Archaeological Survey and Literature Search of the Proposed Woodland Meadows Van Buren Expansion Wetland Mitigation Site (Parcel IIID) Gibralter, Wayne County, Michigan. Commonwealth Cultural Resources Group, INC. [WSUMA #11W2461]