Historic Anderson Kitchen

I am working on this 1770 kitchen which is in front of the Williamsburg Blacksmith shop off Duke of Gloucester Street in Historic Williamsburg. What is interesting is that the fire place and excavation of several buildings from this era have brick and in some cases no foundations. People built cheap and with an idea that later they would add substantial construction to replace the relative "fast and cheap" construction started. These wants and needs of Colonial era do not seem to have changed much. The slaves would live in the room above the kitchen.  The kitchen was always a place of activity because it was warm and  food was always being prepared. In the summer  the openings would have provide little ventilation  from the summer heat.

We are recording  the artifacts and building of earlier periods so that the reproduction of this kitchen and armory can be reconstructed. It is interesting that this kitchen would have provided food for both the Tavern which is about thirty feet away and the armory which provided forges for metal work to be done.  England stopped its supply of manufactured products after the war of 1776. Therefore, buildings which had heavy forging and iron forming were important for the colonists. The foundations of a storage accessory building to the armory has have only partially been revealed by the archaeologists. To see a webcam of the progress go to:

http://www.history.org/webcams/anderson.cfm

Foundation of the Storage Building Behind the Armory which was indicated on the Tax and insurance Maps but only recently discovered