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News and Events
Events
PAL Senior Archaeologist Suzanne Cherau will be the guest speaker at the Fort Devens Museum Open House on Saturday May 19, 2012 10 AM to 4 PM to celebrate Armed Forces Day. Ms. Cherau will be speaking on the "Archaeology of Fort Devens", which will focus on over 25 years of archaeological investigations conducted on the lands that comprise the former Fort Devens military installation in east-central Massachusetts. Fort Devens was one of the largest U.S. Army induction and training centers in New England in the twentieth-century, occupying over 5,000 acres in the towns of Lancaster, Harvard, Ayer, and Shirley on the Nashua River. The archaeological presentation will describe evidence of human occupation at Fort Devens that dates back nearly 10,000 years from pre-contact Native American times through colonial period land uses and the arrival of the mliitary at the onset of World War I.
For more Museum information, please visit http://www.fortdevensmuseum.org/index.php
Saturday, April 21 & Sunday April 22 PAL archaeologists Nichole Gillis and Alan Leveillee will present the results of recent excavations at Cedar Swamp in Westborough, Massachusetts. The excavations were completed in support of a rail terminal redevelopment project for TRANSFLO Terminal Services, Inc. Cedar Swamp is part of an archaeological district that includes Native American sites occupied as early as 8,000 years ago. While archaeologists have been studying Westborough’s Cedar Swamp for more than three decades, PAL’s most recent excavations revealed new information about Native American settlement patterns, subsistence practices, and technology.
Mr. Leveillee will also present a paper in the Sunday morning symposium Recent Advances in PaleoIndian Research of the Northeast and Maritimes. His paper "The Waters Around You Have Grown: What’s New About What’s Old in the Narragansett Bay Drainage" will describe the results of recent Cultural Resources Management surveys and a re-examination of museum collections that indicate a strong Riverine PaleoIndian presence prior to the formation of southern New England’s Narragansett Bay.
Location: Memphis, TN Dates: April 18-22, 2012
For more conference information visit their website:
http://www.saa.org/aboutthesociety/annualmeeting/tabid/138/default.aspx ">http://www.saa.org/aboutthesociety/annualmeeting/tabid/138/default.aspx
PAL is a proud sponsor of the 27th Annual Rhode Island Statewide Preservation Conference, April 21, 2012.
Organized by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, the Preservation Conference is an annual event that highlights the important values of historic preservation in our state. The focus of this year’s conference, entitled “Heritage in America’s Great Outdoors,” will focus on the movement in Congress to establish the John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park and the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative. The new national historical park, which is currently being considered under concurrent bills before the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, would be administered by the National Park Service and consist of a number of historical sites within the existing John H. Chafee Blackstone River National Heritage Corridor. The Great Outdoor’s initiative was recently launched by President Obama and seeks to develop a 21st century conservation and recreation agenda that will reconnect American’s with nature.
The conference events will be held in Woonsocket and will feature bus and walking tours of several historical sites within that city and other areas of the Blackstone River Valley. For more information, please visit the conference website:
PAL is a proud sponsor of the 27th Annual Rhode Island Statewide Preservation Conference, April 21, 2012.Organized by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, the Preservation Conference is an annual event that highlights the important values of historic preservation in our state.
The focus of this year’s conference, entitled “Heritage in America’s Great Outdoors,” will focus on the movement in Congress to establish the John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park and the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative. The new national historical park, which is currently being considered under concurrent bills before the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, would be administered by the National Park Service and consist of a number of historical sites within the existing John H. Chafee Blackstone River National Heritage Corridor. The Great Outdoor’s initiative was recently launched by President Obama and seeks to develop a 21st century conservation and recreation agenda that will reconnect American’s with nature.The conference events will be held in Woonsocket and will feature bus and walking tours of several historical sites within that city and other areas of the Blackstone River Valley.
For more information, please visit the conference website:
http://www.preservation.ri.gov/conference/
Massachusetts Archaeology Month – October 2011
Begun in 1992 as Archaeology Week, Massachusetts Archaeology Month is a month-long celebration of archaeology in Massachusetts and around the world. Museums, libraries, archaeologists, and many more people and institutions join Secretary Galvin and the State Archaeologist in hosting exhibits, lectures, walks, and events for adults, children, and teachers.
Wayland
Rail Tales: History and Archaeology of the Wayland Center Railroad Complex
DATE & TIME: Saturday, October 29, 2pm
LOCATION: Wayland Town Building, Large Hearing Room, 41 Cochituate Rd.
INFORMATION: Richard Conard at 508-358-4597, rrconard@earthlink.net
SPONSOR: Wayland Historical Commission, www.wayland.ma.us/pages/waylandMA_BComm/Historicalcom/index, and Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc.
ADMISSION: Free
Suzanne Cherau, Senior Archaeologist at PAL, Inc., will discuss the archaeological remains of Wayland Center's 19th-century railroad steam locomotive servicing facility found in 2000, including the more recently exposed turntable pit. Hear about the renewed interest in the site as an interpretive archaeological park in conjunction with a future rail-trail.
Archaeology Fair- Boston Museum of Science
DATE & TIME: October 8, 2011 9:00am- 4:00pm
PAL archaeologist Alan Leveillee hosts Small Things Remembered, a hands-on opportunity for children of all ages to touch the past. Museums often have a policy of “please don’t touch the exhibit”- this event is just the opposite- everything from the archaeologist’s tool kit, to artifacts of all kinds and ages can be picked up, studied, and explored. Shake a screen full of gravel to discover modern and ancient bits and pieces of the past, and discover their hidden stories.
An Event Hosted by the Westborough Historical Commission
DATE & TIME: October 27, 2011 7:00-8:00pm
Westborough, Massachusetts
45 W. Main Street, Westborough, MA
“Time Travel in Cedar Swamp via Archaeology”
Archaeologists have been studying Westborough’s Cedar Swamp for more than three decades. The result is a 6,000 year old Native American odyssey. Join Archaeologist Alan Leveillee of the Public Archaeology Laboratory (PAL) as we explore the stories that a place and its artifacts can tell.
2011 Preservation Celebration featuring the Rhody Awards for Historic Preservation
PAL is proud to again be a sponsor of the Annual Preservation Celebration.
This October, Preserve Rhode Island and the RI Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission (RIHPHC) present the third annual Preservation Celebration on Friday, October 14th in the Rhode Island State House. The Rhody Awards, the highlight of the event, will honor great preservation achievements, people who have made a difference in their community, and projects that inspire others to protect special places in Rhode Island.
PAL is the historic tax credit consultant to Rhode Island Tool Company, RI (Amaral Revite Corporation) and the Pawtucket Hair Cloth Mill, Central Falls, RI (501 Roosevelt, LLC) two of the award recipients and would like to congratulate both firms on their achievement.
Rhode Island State House
Friday, October 14, 2011
5:30-8:30 pm
October 1, 2011
Roger Williams University, Bristol, Rhode Island
Historic New England and Roger Williams University School of Architecture, Art and Historic Preservation, in partnership with PAL and others, will convene a new generation of today's preservationists and challenge them to articulate a vision for what is to be preserved in New England over the next one hundred years. The day-long symposium on Saturday October 1, 2011 at Roger Williams University features student and recent graduate papers, moderated by preservation professionals, and keynote speaker, Ned Kaufman, Ph.D., adjunct associate professor, Pratt Institute; director of research and training, Rafael Vinoly Architects, New York; author, Place, Race and Story: Essays on the Past and Future of Historic Preservation (Routledge, 2009).
Click here for more information: Looking Forward Symposium
News
PAL, under contract to the Paul Revere Memorial Association (PRMA), has recently completed archeological investigations at 5–6 Lathrop Place in Boston, Massachusetts. The ca. 1835 building sits on land that was formerly part of the rear yard space for several structures fronting North Square, including the Pierce-Hichborn House (ca. 1711) and the Paul Revere House (ca. 1680), and is undergoing renovations to be used as an education and visitor center for the historic complex. The investigations focused on the investigation of a previously identified privy feature, and also resulted in the identification of a buried cobblestone walkway, a cistern, and the exposure of nineteenth-century drainage features. Thousands of artifacts dating from the eighteenth through twentieth centuries were recovered, and analysis is currently underway to develop a more detailed landscape history for the property, and how its occupants (both famous and not-so-famous) used that landscape over time.
See full article in NorthEndWaterfront.com:
After nearly two decades at 210 Lonsdale Avenue, PAL will be relocating its offices to the historic To Kalon Club building at 26 Main Street, Pawtucket, in the spring of 2012. The move represents the culmination of a long search to find a building that both provides the room we need to grow and appropriately represents our corporate identity as a cultural resource management firm.
The To Kalon Club was formed in 1867 when Pawtucket was experiencing an economic boom as an important northeastern industrial center. It was an exclusive men’s club dedicated to providing recreational and social networking activities for its membership, which was comprised over the years by many of city’s most prominent businessmen and industrialists. After several moves, the club purchased the former Pitcher Estate on Main Street in 1894 and occupied the main house until it burned in 1909. They decided immediately to rebuild and the current building was completed in 1911. It was designed by local architect Albert H. Humes in the Classical Revival-style, one of the most popular styles applied to major public and institutional buildings in the early twentieth century. The first floor featured a lounge, reading room, main dining room, barroom, and kitchen. The second floor had another dining room, several private function rooms, billiard and card rooms, and a meeting room. The third floor contained apartments for overnight guests and much of the basement was occupied by a bowling alley.
The To Kalon Club remained a prominent Pawtucket institution until recently when declining membership and increasing costs to maintain the large clubhouse forced the trustees to put the building on the market. In order to take advantage of this unique opportunity, members of PAL’s senior management team incorporated Pitcher Street Realty LLC for the purpose of purchasing the building and converting it for office use. The sale was consummated in March 2011. Since then, Pitcher Street Realty has been working with Durkee, Brown, Viveiros & Werenfels Architects to prepare plans to rehabilitate the building in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. The estimated $1.5 million project will utilize tax credits available through the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives program. The City of Pawtucket is fully backing the project and has provided valuable support in the planning for the rehabilitation of this important historic landmark building.
Please click on the link below to view the building as it exists today before the rehabilitation. New pictures will be added throughout the project, so please come back often to check out the progress!
PAL Senior Archaeologist Duncan Ritchie and alumni Mary Lynne Rainey have
authored contributions to an important new book on New England archaeology and
history. Dedicated to the memory of Elizabeth Alden Little, the book focuses on
both the indelible legacy of a remarkable social scientist and the material
record of Nantucket Island as an American archaeological landscape; a landscape
shaped by, and reflecting, Native American and post-colonial lifeways before and
after the heyday of its whaling fame.
Mary Lynne Rainey served dual roles as co-editor of the book and as a
contributing author. During her years of research and excavation on Nantucket,
Mary Lynne developed a close collegial relationship with Betty Little, and
following her death, Mary Lynne orchestrated the effort to memorialize Betty,
through this contributed volume, co-edited by Elizabeth Chilton, associate
professor of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst. Duncan Ritchie’s contribution to the volume focuses on the history and
archaeology of the Jethro Coffin House, one of the longest standing structures
on the island. The book is co-published by SUNY Press and the Massachusetts
Archaeological Society.