The Great House, and later, The Three Cranes Tavern, stood at this location from 1630 to 1775, when it was burned down by British Troops during the Battle of Bunker Hill.
"In 1629, Thomas Graves, an English engineer, and a work party laid out Charlestown’s streets which centered around City Square (then Market Square). A year later a band of about 1000 English settlers led by Governor John Winthrop arrived and settled in the City Square area. Governor Winthrop resided in the recently erected Great House and the other settlers in primitive huts. In the fall of 1630, Governor Winthrop and many of the settlers moved to Shawmut Peninsula (Boston)." SOURCE
"The Great House served as an inn and tavern for almost 150 years. A busy marketplace developed around this center of community activity shortly after its creation. Stocks and whipping posts stood in the vicinity; and, as was the custom in the Puritans' native England, these instruments of punishment were put to use to discipline offenders of the law. It was fitting that the Court of Assistants was established outside the Great House. The Court served as the precursor of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and the Massachusetts Legislature.
Remarkably no drawings or pictures exist of the Great House, which stood for over 145 years." SOURCE
A bronze plaque is set into the ground next to the remnants of the Great House and Three Cranes Tavern. The plaque reads:
Great House and Three Cranes Tavern
1629 - 1775
This reconstructed foundation outline represents the tavern
uncovered by archaeologists during the 1980s. Postholes
from the Great House timbers were also found among the
stones. Concrete bands have been added to complete the
outline of the two-story tavern. The building was burned
during the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775.
An informational sign, along the sidewalk, near the remains of the building reads:
GREAT HOUSE / THREE CRANES TAVERN
HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY
In the 1900s, as part of the major highway reconstruction project that built the tunnels beneath this park, a team of archaeologists studied City Square and its history.The investigators researched historic documents and conducted an archaeological dig to determine what happened in City Square's past. This research was supported by the Federal Highway Administration and the Massachusetts Department.
The archaeology uncovered a very important aspect of Charlestown's history beneath City Square, the Great House, which was first public building erected by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. the Great House was built as part of the Charlestown settlement in 1629 for Governor John Winthrop. As the Governor's residence and a meeting place for his Court of Assistants, the Great House was the Company's seat of government for several months during the summer of 1930. Governor Winthrop and the operations of the Massachusetts Bay company moved across the river to Boston (then called Shawmut) in October 1630. The company sold the Great House to the town in 1633.
The Great House was then uses as a meeting house and center of community life. It later became the Three Cranes Tavern when it was purchased by Robert Long in 1635. The Three Cranes Tavern served merchants, sailors, and craftsmen that required lodging, and provided a meeting place were ideas as well as goods could be exchanged.
The building in City Square were razed by fire during the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775. The square was left as an open marketplace after the battle and the remains of the Great House/Three Cranes Tavern site were preserved beneath the ashes.
A TIME LINE
The archaeologist carefully removed about four feet of fill from the surface of City Square before they hit a layer of demolition and ash. This burned layer was from 1775 when most of Charlestown was destroyed during the battle of Bunker Hill. An excellent time market, the archaeologists knew that what lay beneath and among this rubble was older than 1775.
WHAT ARE THESE STONES?
The stones in the lawn in front of you are the actual foundation stones of the Three Cranes Tavern that were uncovered during the archaeological dig. Post holes marking the location of the original wooden posts of the Great House structure were also found among the foundation stones. These structural elements are reused here to designate the foundation as a "trace" of the original building.
WHAT THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS REVEALED
In addition to the tavern foundation, several privies were also uncovered. Privies were used as both outhouses and trash pits. The artifacts found in these privies allowed archaeologist to date the site and tell us how people lived or used the site. The privies in City Square contained important pottery, fine wine glasses, and butchered animal bones, which tell us that the occupants were wealthy colonists. As you walk around the stones, you will find yourself in the kitchen, the wine cellar, and the main hall of the tavern.
"Time came to a standstill in Charlestown on June 17, 1775. While battle raged on nearby Bunker Hill, the British Army set fire to the town itself. Flames swept through the heart of Charlestown and destroyed the Three Crane Tavern. Much of the town was later rebuilt and then changed time and again, but the tavern site became City Square and has remained an open space in the city landscape ever since. This was no ordinary site, for the tavern had originally been Governor John Winthrop’s “Great House” in 1630 and briefly served as the seat of government in Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Archaeologists recently completed a four month “dig” at the site and are now busy analyzing their discoveries. For more than 200 years, a great store of 17th and 18th century artifacts remained undisturbed by the ravages of time and development. Sealed beneath a thin layer of black ash that could be dated exactly, debris at the site provides excellent clues to the way people lived in colonial Charlestown, now a section of Boston. The archaeologists found definite striations in the ground which allowed them to date each layer of objects, and they expect to learn how those lifestyles changed over time.
At the City Square site, most of the artifacts dated from the period when the building served as a tavern, but that was not surprising. Winthrop remained at the Great House only four months before moving to Boston, and it was soon converted into the tavern. The most interesting discoveries came from nine trash pits and five separate privies that could be dated in almost exactly twenty-year periods that spanned an entire century. Everything in the privies was preserved in the damp clay. “It was a perfect anaeorbic muck,” Gallagher explained. And the surviving items are remarkable. Among those discovered were feathers, leather goods, peach pits, wooden plates and even a complete sewing kit with needles and thimble intact.
Some fascinating questions arise, too. Specialists have already been able to tell that some of the English China plates were seconds. “They probably just shipped them to the colonists, thinking they’d buy anything,” speculates Anne Turner, the lab supervisor. “It would be interesting to find out whether they charged full price.” So much for colonial mercantilism. Still, the variety of finery belies the common image of struggling rubes in the countryside. Charlestown was clearly a cosmopolitan center, as evidenced by fine imported porcelain, Dutch tin-glazed bowls, a German chamberpot crafted in the Westerwald for British export (an identical example was found in Williamsburg), and French champagne bottles, some with the corks still in place. There was even an exquisite French or Venetian wine goblet in among the ubiquitous broken clay smoking pipes and locally crafted bowls found in great abundance at the site. The tavern obviously served the: high and the mighty as well as regular locals." SOURCE
News stories about the archaeological discoveries can be found at New York Times and The Day - New London, CT