Archaeological Monitoring at the Wylie House Museum (12Mol310), Bloomington, Perry Township, Monroe County, Indiana

Abstract

The Wylie House Museum (12Mo1310), located at the northeast corner of East 2nd Street and South Lincoln Street (307 E. 2nd St., Bloomington, IN 47401) in Bloomington, Indiana, was the residence of the first president of Indiana University. Today the property is a museum administered by the Indiana University Libraries and the site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NR-0047, IHSSI 105-055-80110). The property is surrounded by a retaining wall believed to date to the original inhabitation of the site. Over time, this wall has suffered catastrophic failure along the Lincoln St. side in 2005 and the wall along 2nd St. was also beginning to buckle. The Indiana University Architect's Office removed the wall along 2nd street in the spring of 2016. An archaeological permit (#2016010) was granted for work conducted under IC 14-21-1 to Ors. Meghan E. Buchanan, April K. Sievert, and Melody Pope from the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology to monitor and document the removal of the wall, the removal of fill behind the wall, the demolition of the sidewalk along 2nd St., to document any archaeological features encountered, and to collect and analyze artifacts associated with the wall and sidewalk demolition.