Post Office dig reveals a slice of Downey family life

Enough history lies beneath the ground around the Carson City Post Office that an archaeologist will have to monitor any future digs on that federal property.

Archaeologists this week found hundreds of nails plus bottle, plate and glass fragments near a buried brick foundation dating back about 100 years.

The unexpected discovery last month of what is believed to be an outbuilding built by Martin A. Downey triggered the federal Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, part of the National Historic Preservation Act. This requires that cultural resources inventories are kept when historical items are found on federal property.

The Downey property was discovered as three trenches and holes for 56 light poles were drilled around the federal building. The federal General Services Administration may continue work to brighten up a block that sits in darkness after nightfall.

"We're allowing them to augur for lightposts with monitoring from archaeologists," said Barbary Mackey, project manager for Summit Envirosolutions, which is doing the archaeological work. "They will be able to complete their project."

The $205,000 light post project started in August but stopped soon thereafter when a State Historic Preservation Office employee saw possible historic artifacts in a pile of dirt. It is unclear when the light posts will be in place and turned on, said Mary Filippini, spokeswoman for the federal General Services Administration.

The dig revealed a sliver in the life of Martin Downey, a turn-of-the-century furniture dealer and undertaker who acquired a house at 310 E. Robinson St. in 1883, state archivist Guy Rocha said.

Downey came to the United States from Ireland in 1866 and raised four children in the Robinson Street house. He died in 1917 and there was no further reference to his wife, Mary, or a son in city directories after 1925, Rocha said.

Mackey's team also believes the find involves the Downey family. The discoveries confirm children roamed those grounds at one time.

Archaeologists found a marble, a toy tractor and part of a post-1916 Coca-Cola bottle. A porcelain doll leg was supposedly spotted before the Summit Envirosolutions team arrived, but the archaeologists never found the rumored leg.

"If you were to pursue (the research), you would be able to study their daily life," Mackey said.

The Summit Envirosolutions project simply assessed the significance of an unexpected discovery. More research or full-scale excavation would require another project, she said.

The archaeologists focused their attention on the dirt piles from three trenches and a one-meter square probe hole that was scientifically dug to a depth of 50 centimeters. The probe and trench were on either side of the only archaeological feature found - a two-brick thick foundation wall about six feet long.

All the artifacts were found within eight inches of the surface, Mackey said.

The lamp post work comes as the Federal Building transitions from part post office, part office building to a full-scale office building. Filippini said office workers had raised security concerns with the lack of outside lighting.

The post office wants to start moving out of the Federal Building in mid-November. The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs will fill the post office's 17,000-square-foot vacancy

The BIA will move from Hot Springs Road, where its lease expires in June. The 53,000-square-foot Federal Building also houses offices for the Bureau of Reclamation, the Federal Highway Administration, the FBI, the Defense Logistics Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.