Black history unearthed

Dug from the earth beneath a Beacon Hill townhouse, what once was considered trash has become unexpected treasure: doll fragments, hat pins, children's marbles, and a bottle that once held ``sarsaparilla," a mood-altering cure-all of yesteryear that packed 40 percent alcohol.

Found accidentally during renovation work on Joy Street, the discovery has led to the first excavation in Boston of a free-black household, archeologists said. And if not for the quick-thinking intervention of the homeowner, the long-forgotten artifacts might have been reburied by construction workers.

``It's a wonderful piece of history," said Mary Beaudry, a Boston University archeology and anthropology professor, who is helping lead the excavation. ``To get a look at a free African-American household -- wow!"

The dig, which began Thursday and is expected to finish today, will be an invaluable addition to the 19th-century history of free black families in Boston, Beaudry said.

The 3 1/2-story house was built about 1840 by Robert Roberts, a free black man who was an active abolitionist and worked as a butler for Governor Christopher Gore. Roberts was also known for writing ``The House Servants' Directory" in 1827.

Despite the national influence of the city's black families in the abolitionist movement, the archeological record of their day-to-day lives is almost nonexistent.

Instead, Beaudry said, ``we have property owners who want to tear down buildings and not investigate the past."

Those Beacon Hill residents do not include Michael Terranova, a 45-year-old computer programmer who hired a contractor to repair an adjacent rental property he owns.

As workers peeled away what Beaudry called the ``architectural layer cake" of an attached shed, they exposed a line of brickwork beneath the floor.

Unaware of what they had found, the workmen quickly covered the bricks. But Terranova, who has a keen interest in Boston history, suspected something special might lie there. At his request, the workers dug a little deeper and found a rectangle of bricks.

``They had been getting ready to cover it up with cement," Terranova recalled yesterday at his home. ``That was an upsetting thing to me."

Terranova asked for guidance from staff at the 19th-century African Meeting House, a free-black church and community center whose Beacon Hill site is now affiliated with the National Park Service. They, in turn, pointed him toward Beaudry and Ellen Berkland, the archeologist for the city of Boston.

``I hadn't thought it was possible to get archeologists here," said Terranova, who was not legally obligated to report the discovery of historical artifacts on his property. ``I was going to dig it up myself, and I have a heart condition."

After Terranova called, Beaudry and Berkland showed up at his doorstep the next day. They sent out a request for volunteers, and soon college students from as far away as Rutgers University and as close as Boston converged on the scene.

They helped to sift and screen the dirt that Berkland had shoveled from a brick privy that the archeologists found underneath the cramped, leaking shed.

In this 5 1/2-foot-deep vault, which served double duty as a household latrine and catchall trash bin, the detritus of everyday life had been deposited. Here were medicine bottles, vials, and buttons.

Leather shoes, beads, and bits of pottery. In all, Beaudry said, several thousand artifacts have been recovered, many of which also provide clues to the little-documented roles of women in 19th-century black Boston.

``These people were poor, but they did great things," Terranova said. ``They fought for integration in transportation, theaters, and the schools."

Although Roberts used the 71 Joy St. townhouse as rental property, notable occupants included Hosea Easton, Roberts's brother-in-law and a nationally known abolitionist, and Peter Lew Freeman, a descendant of a Revolutionary War fifer who fought at Bunker Hill and Fort Ticonderoga.

Berkland and Beaudry hope the artifacts unearthed on Terranova's property help kindle an interest in history in others.

Once the on-site work is completed, the lengthy task of washing the items, cataloguing them, entering the finds in a database, and writing a report will begin.The artifacts are Terranova's property, but he said he intends to donate them to the city, universities, or cultural institutions .

Although Terranova's renovations have been put on hold, he has a greater affection for the historical significance of Beacon Hill. And maybe, he said , his efforts will have a ripple effect. ``Ideally," he said, ``other people might be encouraged to do the same thing."

Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at b_macquarrie@globe.com.