Archaeological firm announced for slave marker survey, public invited to watch fieldwork conduction
In 2022, the City was notified that it been selected for the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office‘s (SHPO) 2022 Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) Grant to hire a surveying firm to conduct an archaeological survey of the historic African American section of the Lexington City Cemetery. After putting out a request for proposals in January 2023, the City received and evaluated 6 proposals from qualified firms. The City of Lexington is excited to announce Richard Grubb & Associates as the selected firm.
Richard Grubb and Associates (RGA) is a woman-owned small business established in 1988 as a full-service cultural resource management firm and has since grown to become one of the largest, independent archaeological and historic preservation consulting companies east of the Mississippi. RGA is headquartered in Cranbury, New Jersey and maintains regional offices in Wake Forest, North Carolina and Nashville, Tennessee. RGA has completed over 7,000 archaeological, historical, and architectural projects. The firm has a reputation for excellence among a diverse clientele and the federal, state, and local agencies that review its products.
Richard Grubb & Associates will conduct their fieldwork at the grave site in the Lexington City Cemetery on Thursday, July 6. The site is approximately 3,800 sf and located in the oldest portion of the city cemetery. It is a vacant space with a singular marker atop a rough stone pyramid that states that slaves were buried there before the civil war. There are no other records related to that site.
The public is invited to come watch in the afternoon of July 6. Cayla Cannon, a geophysical archaeologist, will be available at 2 pm to answer any questions and explain their data collection methods. Their final report of their findings is expected by the end of October.
