The Indian King Tavern Museum is looking to expand, and to do that, it must start from the ground and work its way up. The work started about 20 feet below ground, to be exact.
“The archeology dig was very helpful,” Garry Stone, historian for the Indian King Tavern Museum, said. “We answered some questions we had and some new questions were brought up, too.”
The archeology dig is part of a reconstruction process that has been going on since 2009, when the museum was given a $50,000 grant from the New Jersey Historic Trust.
The initial grant was used to hire Watson and Henry Associates to conduct an architectural study on “The Ark,” which was a portion of the Indian King Tavern Museum that was demolished in 1909. The study was completed in September 2013.
“The study they did was tremendous,” Stone said. “It helped us to understand the history of the old building and allowed us to see what problems need to be addressed moving forward.”
The focus of the project is the reconstruction of “The Ark.” The current museum falls short in many areas, according to Stone. Problems he sees include no public restrooms, no handicap accessibility and a limit to the number of people who can be on the second floor of the building.
“These problems really hinder us from being able to do a lot of things,” he said. “This project can tell us how we can reconstruct the section of the building that was torn down in a way that is historically accurate.”
To truly be accurate, however, they needed to see what was left of the demolished building. In addition to the New Jersey Historic Trust grant, the museum received a $17,000 grant from the Division of Parks and Forestry and a $2,500 grant from the Haddonfield Foundation to fund the excavation.
Much of the labor was done by Hunter Research Inc., which is also responsible for the analysis and report that will come from the dig. There were also volunteers who assisted with the excavation.
“We got a lot of help from the community and the borough,” Stone said. “It was a group effort, and we worked together to make this project happen.”
While the archeology dig is complete, there is still more work to be done. The research is going to be analyzed, which will determine how the reconstruction will be done, but even before that, Stone expects there to be more studies.
“I think there will need to be two more archeology digs,” he said. One to answer any questions we may have after studying the data we just collected and another to understand how the reconstruction can happen from an architectural standpoint.”
There is also an issue with funding, which the borough must approve.
“I hope the public votes to continue funding this project,” Stone said. “It is up to them to decide how we will move further, but the bottom line is we need more funding before anything can happen.”
