The Wade House and Centennial Hotel

Jim and I have been discussing strategy for the upcoming ASM Volunteer Weekend at Port Tobacco. We plan to conduct shovel test pit excavations in three different locations during the weekend. This will allow volunteers to get a feel for the variety of deposits that exist in the project area. Depending on the number of volunteers, we may also open up some larger 3 by 3-foot or 5 by 5-foot units to further explore some interesting deposits.

The first location to be surveyed ASM weekend will be the area of the Wade House and Centennial Hotel. The Centennial was one of three hotels/boarding houses in Port Tobacco during the late 1800s. The picture above is of the Centennial in 1915. The Wade House is on the left. The picture below is of the same two buildings, taken from the opposite angle. From this picture it seems as if the Wade House has a prominent double chimney, like the Chimney House. This picture also suggests that the Wade House may have had a brick-lined cellar like that at Chimney House.

The Wade House and Centennial Hotel area of the site should be very rich in artifacts and provide valuable data for our research questions. We are particularly interested in comparing artifact assemblages from the Centennial with that of the St. Charles Hotel, excavated in the 1960s.


-April