The story of this project starts on July 15, 2002 when my parents bought a house in Hebron, Connecticut next to a historic farmhouse. The address was 180 Old Colchester Road, for which the title of the project, “180 OCR” derives its name. Already a burgeoning archaeologist at eleven, I always dreamed of excavating my neighbor’s yard. The idea would tug at the back of my mind throughout college as I grew into a professional. Upon entering George Mason’s Digital Public Humanities Graduate Certificate in the fall of 2016, I encountered the unique opportunity to put these long time plans into action when the final project was assigned: Do a Digital Humanities project.
Hebron, Connecticut is located in Tolland Country and contains residential neighborhoods, farmland, a business district and protected forest. The population as of the 2010 census was 9,686 people, of which 96% were white and the average household income was $105,104 a year.1 The town primarily consists of white middle class white-collar workers who commute the Hartford area. 180 Old Colchester Road sits on a little less than an acre, containing a 2,274 square foot home, small garden and shed. 180 OCR is neighbored to the south by 182 Old Colchester Road, the original farm house built in 1760, and 178 Old Colchester Road to the north, which was also built in 1985. Until 1984, 178, 180 and 182 Old Colchester Road were one contiguous property.2 A stone wall surrounds the three parcels, with a small forest to the west that extends to the yards of the homes facing Attawanhood Trail. Old Colchester Road, also known as “the highway from Hebron to Colchester” in several deeds, forms the eastern boundary.
The suburban character of Hebron is relatively recent; the transformation from farmland to suburb began in the 1980’s. Historical documentation provides snap shots of this transformation, but the archaeological record can serve to fill the gaps. The immediate goal of this project is to propose a Phase I archaeological survey of my parent’s property to assess the cultural resources of the land. This you can find in the Assessment page. That is a small part of this website, however. More space is dedicated to presenting my research as support for the proposal. The Timeline is intended to provide both myself and readers a visual narrative of how the property boundaries changed. The Narrative, again for both my edification and yours, stiches these visual snapshots into a coherent story.
A caveat before you go exploring- I have provided of a rough sketch of 180 Old Colchester Road’s history. Family members and business partners made several small contracts between major transactions. I selected the warrantees that 1) were directly connected to my parent’s land, and 2) demonstrated times land ownership changed families. Perhaps future work will add the missing details, but I did not consider legal minutia necessary for the purpose of determining archaeological relevance.
In the long term, I hope this website will act as a case study for the archaeological process. I plan to continue working with this project through as many stages of archaeological inquiry as the land can support. I would like this site to serve as a record of my progress, a platform for communication with both interested parties and other professionals, as well as a space for pre-publication.
About the Author
Greetings, I am Hannah Lents- archaeologist. I received my Bachelors in Anthropology from Temple University in 2013 and my Masters in Ancient Greek and Roman Studies from Brandeis University in 2016. I also have a certificate in GIS from Pace University. I am currently enrolled in George Mason’s Graduate Certificate in Digital Public Humanities. I have been working in the private sector as a cultural resource management archaeologist for nearly a year.
1 2010 Census. “Hebron town, Tolland Country, Connecticut.” American Fact Finder. US Census Bureau. Accessed 12/14/2016. https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml
2 Hebron, CT Town Office Land Records, vol 11, p474.
The 180 OCR Project 