ASM HISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY DIVISION

SERVICES

ASM Historic Archaeology team provides a full range of services relating to historic site archaeology:

• Phase 1 survey and site assessment
• Site testing and data recovery
• Historical land use histories
• Archival research
• Construction monitoring
• Remote sensing studies
• Historic artifact analyses

AWARDS

Dr. Jerry Schafer and Scott Wolf received the City of San Diego Historic Resources Board 2011 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award for their excavations at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Old Town State Park.

Outstanding Technical Report, Association of Environmental Professionals, San Diego Chapter for Archaeological Investigations at Block 138 (CA-SDI-16,822): Location of the Heerandner Planing Mill and Residence, The Eureka Hotel/Ocean House Hotel, and a Lodgings House, Downtown San Diego. Jerry Schaefer, Sinéad Ní Ghabhláin, and Past Forward Inc. Submitted to Centre City Development Corporation.

RECENT PROJECTS

Casa de Bandini/ Cosmopolitan Hotel, Old Town State Park.
ASM Affiliates, Inc. conducted archaeological and architectural field investigations on the historic Casa de Bandini/Cosmopolitan Hotel in Old Town State Park, San Diego. Spanning over a year of investigations, ASM and our historical architectural subconsultants, Iona Stiegler and Michael Martinez of IS Architecture, documented both subsurface remains and original historical fabric to inform the restoration of this important landmark on the central plaza of Old Town. The original one-story adobe hacienda was built by Juan Bandini between 1827 and1829 as his family home. The extensive excavations, under the management of Dr. Jerry Schaefer and the field direction of Scott Wolf, documented the foundations of the lost north wing and many of the interior walls of the original Bandini Adobe that had been removed in the American period. Early walls that may even predate the adobe and may be contemporary with the Spanish Presidio on the hill were uncovered deep below the central plaza. Many other aspects of the original massive cobble foundations that still support the adobe walls were exposed for the first time, which allowed for a more accurate rendering of what the Mexican era building looked like than ever before.

REPORTS

Jerry Schaefer, Sinéad Ní Ghabhláin, and Steve Van Wormer and Susan Walter (2009) Labor And Life-Styles among San Diego’s Working Class: Historical Archaeology On Block 112,(CA-SDI-19,435). Submitted to Centre City Development Corporation.

ASM’s excavations on Block 112 in downtown San Diego, provided insights into a working class San Diego neighborhood of the late 19th century. This was a place of diverse languages and cultural traditions representing a veritable melting pot of lifeways, including Chinese laundrymen, Japanese laborers, Mexicans, African Americans, and Euro-Americans. Many of the same ethnic groups that characterize eastern cities at the turn of the century are represented on this block, some integrated in lodgings of mixed cultural origins, others clustered into households of shared culture and language. The lives and material remains of these working class residents reflect important aspects of the city’s social, and economic conditions.

Sinéad Ní Ghabhláin and Jerry Schaefer (2007) Archaeological Investigations on Block 139 (CA-SDI-18140): The Location of The El Paso Saloon Lodgings Houses, and Brothel at the Fifth Street Wharf in Downtown San Diego.

Block 139 was located adjacent the Fifth Street wharf, a strongly working-class area of the city, where longshoremen, teamsters, railroad, and warehouse workers lived and worked. The materials recovered from Block 139 provide interesting insights into the consumer patterns and living conditions of these working-class men. Trash deposits recovered from two privies associated with the El Paso Saloon and adjacent boarding houses and restaurants attest to Spartan living conditions with few domestic comforts. The physically demanding working conditions endured by the day laborers, stevedores and other wharf workers and spartan conditions of local boarding houses appear to have been compensated for in part by heavy drinking and comraderie in local saloons, and a hearty diet provided in local restaurants.