Gray & Pape adds office, service line

Gray & Pape is excited to announce that the HRA Gray & Pape, LLC Houston Office and Marine Services Division are now wholly owned divisions of Gray & Pape, effective 1 January 2016.

We have been invested in the development of the Houston Office and Marine Services Division through our joint venture with Historical Research Associates. Bringing the Houston office and Marine Services under Gray & Pape ownership will foster greater collaboration between offices and allow us to offer our clients fully integrated services across a broad, multi-region footprint. Jim Hughey, in Houston, and Dr. Michael Tuttle, Marine Services, will continue their leadership of these business units providing heritage management services to our clients in the southeast and maritime clients across the United States.

 

Archaeologists Create 3D Model of Site

Gray & Pape archaeologists recently documented a mid-nineteenth century cellar in Pennsylvania. Along with the cellar itself, we found building materials such as bricks, nails, and window glass; household items such as fragments of cups and dishes; and other items including a gear from a pocket watch and a gunflint. The 3D model of the cellar was created by using several dozen photos to create a pointcloud, over which the photographic images themselves were laid.  

 View the 3D Model at https://skfb.ly/Kp8w

 

Project Focus – Kentuckiana Farms Site

Kentuckiana Farms Site – Scott and Fayette counties, KY
Kentuckiana Farms Site – Scott and Fayette counties, KY

Overview of project site

Kentuckiana Farms Site – Scott and Fayette counties, KY
Kentuckiana Farms Site – Scott and Fayette counties, KY

Staff prepare the site for excavation

Kentuckiana Farms Site – Scott and Fayette counties, KY
Kentuckiana Farms Site – Scott and Fayette counties, KY

Archaeologist work in excavation units. Each square in the grid represents one unit.

Kentuckiana Farms Site – Scott and Fayette counties, KY
Kentuckiana Farms Site – Scott and Fayette counties, KY

Stone pavement discovered during excavation

Kentuckiana Farms Site – Scott and Fayette counties, KY
Kentuckiana Farms Site – Scott and Fayette counties, KY

Archaeologists uncovered rock clustering at the suspected living surface level

Kentuckiana Farms Site – Scott and Fayette counties, KY
Kentuckiana Farms Site – Scott and Fayette counties, KY

Artifacts discovered during excavation.

Gray & Pape provided a suite of archaeological resource management services to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet in support of US 25 corridor improvements in Scott and Fayette counties.

Services included Phase I assessments of selected properties, Phase II investigations of seven archaeological sites, and Phase III data recovery investigations of the Kentuckiana Farms site. During the Phase III excavation, evidence of an encampment used for seasonal hunting was uncovered. The use of this type of site outside communal villages was previously thought only to occur in post-contact societies. The discovery of this site indicates Native Americans of the area used these separate living areas in pre-contact times as well.

 

 

Project Focus – Interstate 69 Corridor

Interstate 69 Greene County, IN
Interstate 69 Greene County, IN

Beginning stage of site excavation.

Interstate 69 Greene County, IN
Interstate 69 Greene County, IN

Machinery is used to mechanically strip the site before work is done by hand.

Interstate 69 Greene County, IN
Interstate 69 Greene County, IN

Archaeologists use a trowel to conduct hand excavations at the site.

Interstate 69 Greene County, IN
Interstate 69 Greene County, IN

Archaeologists pump water from a previously excavated unit.

Interstate 69 Greene County, IN
Interstate 69 Greene County, IN

After removing dirt from the units by hand, the dirt is screened to recover potential artifacts.

Interstate 69 Greene County, IN
Interstate 69 Greene County, IN

An archaeologist records information for a test unit.

Interstate 69 Greene County, IN
Interstate 69 Greene County, IN

View of the site after multiple units have been excavated.

Interstate 69 Greene County, IN
Interstate 69 Greene County, IN

During an excavation, the site is divided into grid pattern. Each square on the grid is a separate unit.

Interstate 69 Greene County, IN
Interstate 69 Greene County, IN

These pieces of debitage are material produced while making stone tools.

For more than 10 years, Gray & Pape has served as the lead cultural resources project management consultant for the 141-mile Interstate 69 Evansville to Indianapolis project. As part of the Lochmueller team, the firm has assisted the Indiana Department of Transportation and Lochmueller to proactively identify and solve cultural resources management challenges. Responsibilities included the review of proposals, task orders, cost estimates, technical reports, scopes-of-work; oversight of field efforts; participation in consulting party process; and consolidation of all GIS data. Under this contract Gray & Pape has also conducted multiple Phase Ia surveys totaling several thousand acres, completed Phase II investigations for 10 archaeological sites in Sections 1 through 5, and the Phase III mitigation of one site in Section 4. Numerous rounds of subsurface testing for archaeological sites were completing, helping Lochmueller and INDOT identify avoidance strategies for resources identified along the corridor. As work on Section 6 is underway, the firm will continue to complete cultural resources tasks as they are identified and assigned.

 

Ft. Norfolk Project Showcases Suite of Services

Overview of 1810 Powder Magazine
Overview of 1810 Powder Magazine

A powder magazine was a building used to store fuses, gunpowder, and munitions, protecting them from the elements. This newly excavated powder magazine was 25 feet wide, 35 feet long, with a deep cellar.

North wall and dripline of powder magazine
North wall and dripline of powder magazine
West wall of magazine
West wall of magazine
Fort Norfolk
Fort Norfolk

Bringing together archaeology, history architecture, and GIS, our recent work at Fort Norfolk is a great example of Gray & Pape’s suite of services. Our team excavated an 1810 powder magazine, located one of the gun emplacement, performed a remote sensing survey using GPR and magnetometer, and conducted an architectural survey of the fortification and associated structures. Fort Norfolk is the last remaining of 19 harbor-front forts authorized in 1794 by President George Washington.

Preserving Our Recent Past

Often when we think of historic preservation, we think of buildings, structures, or events that are hundreds of years old. But preservation can also be about recent history. Ohio Modern: Preserving Our Recent Past examines the decades following World War II and the important social, political, and economic trends shaping land use decisions, architectural styles, property types, and building technology in Ohio’s recent past.

In 2009 the Ohio Historic Preservation Office of the Ohio Historical Society retained Gray & Pape to develop a statewide historic context document. The time period begins in 1940 with World War II and the massive socioeconomic transformations that occurred in the following years. The events of the war years set into motion trends and patterns of historical development that shaped Ohio for the next three decades. The time period ends at 1970, as the early 1970s marked a period of transition for Ohio that included deindustrialization, assumption of new responsibilities by state and local government, and demographic and socioeconomic trends as the state’s metropolitan areas grew and the population transitioned from rural to suburban settings. During this project, Gray & Pape established significant themes and identified important property types and examples of the work of seminal architects, builders, and developers in Ohio’s recent past.

Ohio Modern: Preserving Our Recent Past provides a context for other states to use as they continue to address the issue of modern-aged resources.

Calling All Richmond Environmental Professionals!

Environmental professionals happy hour in Richmond, VA

Are you an environmental professional looking for networking opportunities in Richmond? You’re in luck; a new group has just formed. Yesterday a group of environmental professionals from the A/E industry and state government agencies met at Ardent Craft Ales in Richmond for happy hour. It was a great turnout, with 15-20 people stopping by over the course of the evening. Good news – another meeting is being planned for May. If you are interested, reach out and we’ll put you in touch with the organizer.

Pictured, from left to right: Carolyn Keeler (Jacobs), Brad McDonald (Gray & Pape), Tracey Harmon (VDOT), Robin Bedenbaugh (HDR), Kristen Shacohis (Resource International), Sarah Woodford (Stantec), Laura Meadows (McCormick Taylor), and Michael Keeler (Stantec).

 

Adams County, OH Excavation Underway

Adams County Excavation Landscape
Adams County Excavation Landscape
Fencing around the site perimeter
Fencing around the site perimeter
Working the grid
Working the grid
Screening
Screening

Despite the snow and cold, Gray & Pape crews are in Adams County for a phase III data recovery project. Over the next several weeks an archaeological excavation of a large, multi-component prehistoric site along the Ohio River will unfold. 

Good News from the City of Cincinnati

Gray & Pape has been awarded an Historic Architecture/Archaeological Services Contract with the City of Cincinnati. Our staff looks forward to continuing this long standing and successful relationship with the city.

Gray & Pape Proud to Sponsor Rabbit Hash Fundraiser

Join Gray & Pape for a night of fun, filled with live music, silent auctions, photo ops with Mayor Lucy Lou and a showing of the movie “Rabbit Hash, The Center of the Universe.” Tickets are just $10 and all proceeds benefit the Rabbit Hash Historical Society.

When: Saturday, December 13

Time: Doors open at 7 PM with movie showing at 7:30

Where: The Madison Theater, 730 Madison Avenue, Covington, KY

Be sure to visit the Hash on Facebook to learn more about this event.