Metal Key Excavated in Anacostia

Object Details

Date

After 1867

Medium

Metal.

Dimensions

3/8 × 3 1/16 × 1 in. (0.9 × 7.7 × 2.5 cm)

Caption

In the early 1980s, archaeologists excavated land along Howard Road, SE before construction began on the Anacostia Metro Station in southeast Washington, D.C. Their discoveries included household objects, like this metal key. Though popularly known as a skeleton key, it is a “bit” or “barrel” key designed to open a singular lock, rather than a skeleton, or “master,” key. The bit is no longer attached to the barrel, either broken off or rusted away. The key might have fit a lock in one of the eleven residential buildings that once stood in the 1000-1100 block of Howard Road, SE. Prior to the Civil War, the area had been a plantation known as Barry Farm. The Freedman’s Bureau purchased the farm after the war and divided it into one-acre lots. Formerly enslaved African Americans bought parcels for $125-$300, which included lumber and an obligation to build a house. They worked, often by lantern light after returning from day-time jobs downtown, to construct homes in the neighborhood that came to be known as Hillsdale.

Accession Number

1991.0064.0015

Type

key

See more items in

Anacostia Community Museum Collection

Data Source

Anacostia Community Museum

Restrictions & Rights

CC0

Metadata Usage

CC0

GUID

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dl8d6f95bbe-3b9b-4e67-b4c8-3cacf2fa283d

Record ID

acm_1991.0064.0015