Archeological Investigations of the Ice House and the Summer Kitchen/Stone Building at Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, St. Louis, Missouri

Archeological investigations were undertaken in the spring of 1999 at the Summer Kitchen/Stone building and the Ice House at Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site. The excavations were undertaken as part of compliance activities to mitigate the effect of restoration work on the two historic buildings, and to gain information on their origin and function. The Summer Kitchen excavations yielded a wide variety of artifacts. Their distribution suggests that the kitchen's south room was a food preparation area. The artifact analysis also suggests that both rooms of the kitchen were used for a variety of other domestic purposes, and probably indicate the structure served as a residence as well as a kitchen. The Ice House excavations did not yield definitive evidence of the building's original construction date nor of its function. The earth-floored building was used, after 1875, as a storage unit and an informal smoke house.