Architectural Remains, Unit B, Sub-unit 62, Jamestown, James City County, Virginia

Significance: The architectural remains recorded in the HABS drawings reference the gambrel-roofed dwelling built by Edward Champion Travis after 1755. The house stood through 1781 and likely until 1803.

The house (Structure 6) was built of brick and had a central passage plan with internal end chimneys. It was one-story in height, over a basement. The basement walls were English bond while the watertable was laid in Flemish bond with chamfered headers and stretchers. Rubbed and gauged bricks suggest jack (flat) arches surmounted the door and/or window openings, while the recovery of blue and white delft tiles hint at the fireplace surrounds. The basement was accessible via a bulkhead in the east gable end. The bulkhead stairs were made of brick with wood nosings.

Structure 7 was likely an ell built to the rear of the house at the northeast corner. After mid century chambers yielded their place in the front of the house to dining rooms as social patterns and preferences dictated.

Accompanying the house were several outbuildings, including a kitchen and a dairy or meathouse. These were identified in the archaeological assessment as structures 8/9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.

This house site was excavated by the archaeologist Zaharov in 1934, and the HABS report exerted from a report by Henry Chandlee Forman that identified the structure as "architectural remains, unit b, sub-unit 62 (S6)" and that noted the foundations at the east end of the building had been excavated and left exposed for some time. The HABS drawings include Structure 6 and Structure 7 (see sheet 1 of 4) as well as some of the hardware discovered on site.
Survey number: HABS VA-28
Building/structure dates: after 1755 Initial Construction