Cultural Resources Monitoring of Construction Activities at the West Building (16EBR165) and West Parking Garage, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Archaeological investigations of the West Building and the West Parking Garage in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. were conducted by Coastal Environments, Inc. (CEI), between June 1999 and August 2000. These investigations were performed relative to monitoring of machine excavations conducted during the construction of the West Building and the West Parking Garage. The combined project areas of both buildings encompass approximately 4.94 ha (2 ac). The current archaeological investigations were conducted in regard to construction activities associated with the construction of the West Building and the West Parking Garage, which are part of the new Capitol Complex. All structures and paving were removed from the two project areas and piling caps were excavated within each. Because of the nature of the construction project, the archaeological investigations were limited to monitoring activities and no in-depth excavations were conducted. Despite these limitations, CEI conducted surface surveys and recorded six features within the West Building project area (I6EBR165). Among the six recorded features are two cisterns, two brick piers, a chimney foundation and a gunflint cache. The 655 artifacts recovered from the West Building project area represent the entire historic occupation of the site.