ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. - A dig into the past continues at an Elizabeth City church two months after a tree removal accidentally uncovered artifacts more than 200 years old.
News 3 first stopped by Christ Episcopal Church in June, ten days after remnants of an old home were unearthed on the property, possibly among the first in incorporated Elizabeth City.
Under bricks, the church, and local and state archaeologists uncovered pottery, plates, animal bones and more — most dating back to the 1800s, but some dating as far back as the 1700s.
Watch previous coverage: Centuries-old artifacts uncovered at Elizabeth City church
Since then, church members Ian Lowry and his mother Robyn Culpepper have continued the effort to dig at the site; sifting through piles of dirt.
“I do wanna keep digging and I wanna keep finding things as long as there’s things to find," Lowry told News 3.
They've now found enough artifacts to display across a stage inside the church — including Chinese-made plates, a pipe with President Franklin Pierce's face on it and 18th-century currency from Nova Scotia.
“My working theory is that there was a house on the site, probably until about 1880, and that it burned. There’s clear evidence in the soil of a fire," said Lowry.
City and church records are also shedding light on who may have lived at the site. Lowry says in the early 1800s, the property belonged to a man named George Davis — a remarkable discovery, he says, because it was the pre-Civil War South and Davis was a Black homeowner.
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“He’s listed as a ‘free person of color’ in all the documents," said Lowry. "It’s unique to have somebody at that time owning property, making all these business deals with white neighbors.”
Lowry says Davis' daughter was married at Christ Episcopal Church, though, in the previous building. The current church building, though the oldest in the city, was built in the 1850s.
Right now, he and his mother have until September 17 to dig, but he plans to ask the church for an extension to try and learn more.
“It gives such a good window into that world, the 1820s and 1830s, of how they lived," said Lowry. "What they ate off of, what they smoked, what they drank.”
As the church prepares to celebrate its 200th anniversary next year, Lowry says whatever is left to be discovered will be shared with the congregation and the Elizabeth City community.
