Archeological treasure from 19th century found under Hydro-Québec parking lot in Montreal | CBC News

When a construction crew began to dig beneath the asphalt of a Hydro-Québec parking lot in downtown Montreal weeks ago, they stumbled upon a piece of history from centuries past.

They found a stone house with a wood floor dating back to sometime between 1801 and 1825. The archeological treasure trove tells the story of wealthy residents who lived in what is now the heart of the Faubourg Saint-Laurent.

“It was a working-class town that developed outside the fortification walls around the middle of the 18th century, where artisans, people of lesser means and farmers came to settle in response to the growing densification inside the fortification walls,” said Martin Perron, the archeologist taking charge of the site.

Although Perron said he expected to find new artifacts because other remains had been found during the construction of surrounding buildings, he hadn’t expected to find the building and its items in such good condition, not far below the surface of the asphalt pavement.

“We were lucky,” said Perron. “This building is exceptionally well-preserved.”

The excavation team unearthed a large quantity of artifacts, mostly from the 19th century, but they also found pieces of stoneware and earthenware pottery from the 18th century, around the time of English colonists. This finding leaves Perron with questions about who the items belonged to and for what purpose.

“You really have everything, everything that was used at the time: tableware, pitchers, plates, bowls, some of which are still richly decorated,” he said, adding that some of the items were brought from England, France and the United States.

“We also have bottles of soft drinks, beer, wine, inkwells, objects for everyday hygiene, lots of bones associated with people’s diets, many with traces of butchery — pork, mutton, beef.”

The quality of the artifacts suggests someone wealthy owned it, but at the same time, the Faubourg Saint-Laurent was originally a working-class area.

The other mystery is how the building came to be torn down by the end of the 19th century, a time when the Faubourg Saint-Laurent was booming, he said.

Stéphanie Lavallée was also at the dig site as the crew worked to piece together the history of the remains. Project manager for Arkéos, the archaeological firm hired by Hydro-Québec, Lavallée said the size of the site is unusually large.

“We have the lives of many, many people here,” she said, adding that as the population grew, the house was likely subdivided.

The goal is not only to find out who inhabited the building, Lavallée said, but also what jobs they held — a task that will take the archeological team back to archives.

Hydro-Québec said it plans to put the artifacts on display in its exhibit once the dig is complete.