Below are a few of the projects and activities we have undertaken since our founding in 2020.
Creating an Archaeological Research Center
Many people don’t realize that for every hour archaeologists spend out in the field, there are many more hours of “lab time” spent cleaning, processing, cataloging, and analyzing everything that is recovered. It takes a lot of room to store and process artifacts. In 2021 we completed renovations to a 2,800 sq. ft. former gas station on Route 11 in Mount Crawford, Virginia. The conveniently located property is near the Town Hall and backs up on the North River. What was once Monger’s Service Station now houses MVA’s collections, field equipment, and educational, laboratory, and administrative space. We’re thrilled to have a great working space to serve as our home base for projects and volunteer opportunities.
Read a story about our founding in The Harrisonburg Citizen here.
Gathering Community Stories
MVA works with communities in various ways to help tell their stories. For example, the small community of Mount Crawford, where our laboratory is located, is celebrating its bicentennial in 2025. MVA, with help from JMU volunteers, has hosted photo scanning days for residents to bring in pictures of family and community history to be digitized. These images connected to personal memories and local stories provide an invaluable historic perspective on the community.
“Green Book” Home in Harrisonburg
In April of 2024, MVA received a grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities to work with several partners on the nomination of the Ida Mae Francis Tourist Home in Harrisonburg to the National Register of Historic Places. Here is a description of the home from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources:
The Ida Mae Francis Tourist Home is in the city of Harrisonburg, northeast of the downtown historic district. The house has a corner location in a portion of the historically African American neighborhood known as Newtown. Constructed ca. 1908 for Ida Mae Francis and her husband, Henry, the house became known to African American travelers as a safe place to stay when coming to or passing through Harrisonburg. The home was listed in several editions of The Green Book, a guide featuring businesses across the nation that welcomed Black travelers during Jim Crow, in the 1950s and into the early 1960s. 1962 was the last year the Ida Mae Francis Tourist Home was listed in the Green Book and the last year the house operated as a tourist home. The family continued to live in the home, with Ida Mae passing away in 1976 at the age of 101.
More details and photos from VDHR can be found here.
Read the National Register nomination document here.
Education and Training
MVA has hosted many local and regional organizations for intensive seminars on Native American archaeology, scout troops for merit badge work, and ASV Archeaological Certification Program students (shown right) for hands on artifact workshops.
Morris Pottery Kiln
The Archaeological Society of Virginia owns the Morris Pottery Kiln near Lilly in western Rockingham County. The ASV’s local Massanutten Chapter maintains the site and has been researching it extensively. In 2024, MVA, working with ASV volunteers, documented and cataloged thousands of pieces of pottery from digs there over many decades.
Virginia Indigenous Nations in Higher Education
MVA has assisted this group of tribal nations, colleges, and universities by serving as fiscal agent for contributions supporting three Virginia Native Nations Higher Education Summits in 2023, 2024, and 2025. Learn more at: https://www.schev.edu/for-institutions/vinhe
Assisting Cemeteries
Many cemeteries — particularly those in early settlements, on family farms, and connected with formerly enslaved communities — have more graves than they have gravestones. Markers may be lost over time, buried or sunken naturally, or some graves were simply never marked. MVA, in partnership with JMU and others, has been using traditional archaeological methods combined with ground penetrating radar and local trained cadaver dogs to systematically map several graveyards. Sites include: the Newtown Cemetery in the Northeast Neighborhood of Harrisonburg; a small cemetery near Briery Branch in western Rockingham; a black church cemetery near Staunton; and the Dutch Hollow Hanger Cemetery in southern Augusta County.
Documenting Collections
MVA is honored to document archaeological collections and learn about sites from members of the community. The old cigar boxes filled with points and stone tools bring important information when we have the chance to talk with families who collected them. This is a collection from the Raphine area (northern Rockbridge County) that was made by a young boy in the 1950s.