Colonial-era artifacts found at Kempsville work site

VIRGINIA BEACH

Kempsville's early life as a bustling river port 250 years ago has only been hinted at in old city documents, its history traced by a paper trail of deeds and tax records.

But last Friday, amid a road construction site and mounds of dirt, area archaeologists got their first glimpse of Colonial Kempsville. As excavators dug trenches to reroute storm drains and sewer pipes along Princess Anne Road, the heavy equipment dug up more than just dirt.

"There was brick flying everywhere," said Tony Smith, an archaeologist who was at the site when the 18th century bricks were found. "When you get a bucketful of bricks, you kind of think, 'Hey, something's going on here.' "

After temporarily stopping construction - the site is near the Oakmears Crescent and Princess Anne Road intersection - Smith determined that the bricks were from the foundations of two buildings that likely date back to Kempe's Landing, a once-bustling, 1750s Colonial river port. That expansive waterway - now a much smaller creek- was used to transport timber and tobacco up the Elizabeth River to Norfolk for export.

The digging also turned up some 200 shards of German brown stoneware, which also dates to the mid-1700s, Smith said. It's the first discovery of artifacts from Kempe's Landing, he said.

"We've never been able to find anything," Smith said. "Now we know at least some of it is still here. When you think about all the development going on here today, it's amazing that something from the 1750s is still intact."

Although it's too early to be sure, Smith said the site may have housed a tobacco warehouse or some other commercial building because no domestic artifacts, such as tobacco pipes or glass from wine bottles or windows, turned up.

"If the city hadn't had us involved, it would've just been blown through," he said. Now, the artifacts have been sized, dated and photographed.

Mark Reed, the city's historic resources coordinator, was also at the construction site Friday. He hopes some of the pieces can be reassembled. The city plans to continue monitoring the digging, he said.

Although the road construction won't stop, Reed said it's important to have an archaeologist on site as the work is being done to note the location and depth of any finds. Already, the foundation has been covered back up, he said. The rerouted Princess Anne Road will go over the general area where the artifacts were found.

"We'll know where that feature is and can potentially go back in depending on what we find," Reed said.

"It's exciting. We can definitely say we found Kempe's Landing, or at least the village of."

Last October, the city's Historic Preservation Commission asked that an archaeologist be at the site in case artifacts were unearthed.

The Battle of Kempsville was also fought there in November 1775.

"It obviously suggests there is more to be found," Smith said. "It would be great to follow the foundation and see the size and how it's constructed. But that would take time and money."

Rita Frankenberry, (757) 222-5102, rita.frankenberry@pilotonline.com