A message from our friends at New Quarter Park ……….. Written by Sara Lewis, Park Interpreter New Quarter Park

Our Partnership (Still) Makes History Happen at New Quarter Park . . . And You Can Help
Twelve years ago, archaeology was a two-hour, once-every-year-or-so interpretive program at New Quarter Park. Today, the public archaeology program is a much-anticipated hands-on program that takes place over the course of 5 to 6 days each year. Now in its seventh year, the public program is supervised by professional archaeologists from the Fairfield Foundation. In addition, public artifact Wash and Talk days are held at the York County park on second Fridays each month year-round to help process the thousands of compelling artifacts retrieved from the Armistead Manor site. Public archaeology began at the New Quarter Park in 2013, when financial support from the Tidewater Virginia Historical Society and the Middle Peninsula Chapter of the Archeological Society of Virginia made it possible for Fairfield Foundation co-directors, Dave Brown and Thane Harpole, to answer a long-standing request from the park’s interpreter, Sara Lewis, to spend more time on the site exploring questions about the park’s past. Although named in 1976 for the nearby plantation quarter established by Lewis Burwell of Fairfield Foundation sometime around 1700, the only thing historians knew at the time was that Robert “King” Carter wrote in a 1723 diary post he had waited at “the new quarter” for transportation across the river to his daughter-in-law’s home, Fairfield, in Gloucester. Also, mid-20th-century historians knew the label “New Quarter” appeared on a 1782 map in a location that is today’s Cheatham Annex. Dave and Thane were intrigued by the Fairfield and Burwell connection, so they keep Sara’s request on their project “back-burner” until funding finally allowed them to dedicate time to archaeology work. From their first
Fairfield@FairfieldFoundation.org


