Excavating the truth

Andrew Lehman
Assistant Lifestyles Editor

Excavations on Lemp Avenue in St. Louis have shed a new light on the Underground Railroad in St. Louis.

Chip P. Clatto, instructor at Gateway Institute of Technology and co-director of the Lemp Avenue Excavations, will be giving a lecture on his findings at 8 p.m. Thursday at St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley in the Multi-purpose Room. His students, Abha Doshi and Dennis Yungbluth, will be assisting in the presentation.

The site for Clatto's excavations is a demolished 19th century house at 3314 Lemp Ave. in Benton Park. The site has been rumored to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad during the Civil War. An entrance to the Cherokee Cave and tunnel system was found near the house's basement door.

Only an unpaved carriage path allowed access to the house because at the time it was built, Lemp Avenue did not exist. Many buildings, features and artifacts have been unearthed in what would be the back yard of the house.

Clatto, Doshi and Yungbluth will give a historical review of slavery and the Underground Railroad in the St. Louis area. They will focus on an analysis of the structures and artifacts found at the Lemp Avenue site.

Plans for the site will also be made public at this lecture, and information for students interested in joining the project will be provided.

The lecture is sponsored by the St. Louis Society, the Archaeological Institute of America and the Arthur and Helen Baer Foundation Millennium Lecture Program.

For more information, contact the AIA office at (314) 721-1889 or Patricia K. McWhorter at (314) 991-1148.