ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS FOR ELEVEN SITES WITHIN THE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER PROJECT AREA, NEW ORLEANS, ORLEANS PARISH, LOUISIANA Volume III

This document describes the results of limited data reanalysis and interpretation of the materials recovered during Phase II/III Priority Testing of 40 loci at the University Medical Center (UMC) in the Lower Mid-City Neighborhood of New Orleans (Project). The overall Project examined 15 City Squares (e.g., City Squares 433 [Site 16OR496], 434 [Site 16OR497], 435 [Site 16OR498], 436 [Site 16OR493], 437 [Site 16OR494], 438 [Site 16OR490], 466 [Site 16OR491], 467 [Site 16OR495], 468 [Site 16OR492], 469 [Site 16OR487], 470 [Site 16OR488], 471 [Site 16OR489], 520 [Site 16OR484], 521 [Site 16OR485], and 522 [Site 16OR486]) and Nanny Goat Park (Site 16OR700), and it included the development of a disturbance study and probability model, Phase I cultural resources testing, Phase II non-priority investigations, and the Phase II/III Priority investigations that are the subject of this volume. Volumes I and II of this report series describe the results of those earlier investigations. <br><br>Earth Search, Inc. (ESI), on behalf of the Louisiana Division of Administration, Office of Facility Planning and Control (FP&C), completed the field investigations from ca. 2009-2013 and initial data collection and analysis subsequent to the fieldwork. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of the Department of Homeland Security, pursuant to Section 406 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. § 5121-5206) and implementing regulations in 44 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 206, provided Federal disaster assistance to FP&C through the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP), in response to damages to the Charity Hospital caused by Hurricane Katrina. FP&C, as the subgrantee of FEMA Public Assistance, assumed responsibility for performing various actions described by the Programmatic Agreement (PA) among the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, FEMA, the City of New Orleans, the Louisiana State Historic Preservation Office, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) regarding the funding to repair or replace healthcare facilities comprising the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center and the UMC. The archaeological investigations were undertaken to satisfy the requirements of Stipulations VII.B.4 and 6 of the PA. <br><br>ESI was able to complete and submit the draft Phase I report, as well as much of the Phase II report; however, a changing business environment led to the closure of ESI, leaving Stipulations VII.B.4 and 6 of the PA unfulfilled. As a result, TRC Environmental Corporation (TRC) was contracted to conduct limited artifact reanalysis and complete the various cultural resources reports, these tasks were completed between December 2022 and October 2023. This document, Volume III of the UMC report series, is the final report deliverable associated with this effort, and is intended to fulfill those PA stipulations. <br><br>As will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 2, this is not a “typical” cultural resources report. Due to a variety of factors, a complete data set for the ESI investigations was not available. While TRC strove to comply with the Louisiana Division of Archeology’s (LDOA) Field and Report Standards (Division of Archeology, Office of Cultural Development, Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism), circumstances outside of our control prevented us from doing so completely. However, we feel that this document contributes to understanding late nineteenth and early twentieth-century lifeways in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans, albeit perhaps as a smaller contribution than was intended at the outset of fieldwork.