Downtown Wilmington archaeology lab faces uncertain future; seeks community help

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY-TV) – A non-profit archaeology lab in downtown Wilmington is wishing for a new home this holiday season.

The Public Archaeology Corps must move out of their donated space by Feb. 2.

Tucked away in an alleyway off south Front Street, a 20 foot hole with exposed beams. For the past four years, the Public Archaeology Corps has been digging the pit and bringing to light hundreds of thousands of artifacts, after the owner of the property asked for their help.

“He went to dig to do a renovation and make a restaurant and they dug up artifacts,” said Marian Wyatt, one of the PAC volunteers.

Wyatt said the pit has become a classroom for the Wilmington Community.

“We’ve been digging every Saturday at the site and we have kids from all ages, we’ve had people in their 80s in the pit to young wipper-snappers,” Wyatt said.

And what they find is buried history.

“There was an emancipated slave that had an oyster house that was there, and we found all these oysters,” Wyatt said.

Then those artifacts are transported steps away to this unmarked lab, located at 27 Front Street.

“We take the artifacts, we bring them back here and we sort them into metals and glass and pipe stems, we’ve found cannonballs, it’s amazing,” Wyatt said.

Though this donated space, which is run completely by volunteers, is facing an uncertain future. The owner of the building, where the lab is located, plans to renovate and bring in new businesses beginning of February.

“Now we have to close, and move and we don’t have a place to go,” Wyatt said.

Now instead of digging, the volunteers are packing up with no place to move to. Mary B. Relotto, another volunteer, said this lab has become her home.

“You fall in love with the task of preserving history but then you meet some amazing people here,” Relotto said. “I get choked up just thinking about it.”

Wyatt said they are in need of the community’s help to find a new space.

“We don’t have the funding, we’ve got the people power and we’ve got the passion and the love but we need community support,” Wyatt said. “Somebody who has a space.”

The volunteers said they will continue to dig even without a lab, but they will still be without a space to store their artifacts.

Click here to learn more about The Public Archaeology Corps.