Dendroarchaeological analysis of the Terminal Warehouse in New York City reveals a history of long-distance timber transport during the Gilded Age

Abstract

The Gilded Age of the late 19th century marked a period of rapid development and urbanization in New York City, U.S. To accommodate the high demand in wood products during that time, the timbers used for development of the city were increasingly sourced from locations distant from the northeastern United States. The Terminal Warehouse in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City was one of many large buildings erected during this period of city expansion, and is an important symbol of New York City commerce during the late 1800s. To determine the history and provenance of timbers used in the construction of the Terminal Warehouse, we used tree-ring analysis on longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) joists that were original to the building. The ring-width patterns on the joists crossdated well internally, suggesting a common origin of the sampled lumber. Further, our Terminal Warehouse tree-ring chronology (1512-1891 C.E.) correlated strongly with existing treering chronologies from western/central Georgia and eastern Alabama, indicating that the timbers were extracted from this region of the southeastern United States. The provenancing and dating of the Terminal Warehouse timbers underscores the important role that southern pines played in the expansion and development of New York City during the Gilded Age.

Dendrochronological dating and provenance determination of a 19th century whaler in Patagonia (Puerto Madryn, Argentina)

“…Cross-dated BG2 samples cover the period between 1679 and 1848. The association between the individual series and the reference chronologies, evaluated using both r and t statistics, is similar to those reported in other archaeological studies dating material from the same region (Leland et al, 2021), including the shipwreck at the World Trade Center in New York (Martin-Benito et al, 2014). With the individual samples correctly dated against the reference chronologies, it was possible to assemble a white oak chronology from BG2 site showing a mean intercorrelation of r = 0.528, a value within the expected range for the species in the region or even higher than, for example, those observed by Dewitt and Ames (1978) for Quercus alba ring-width chronologies in a network of sites from the northeastern United States.…”

“…It was developed using tree-ring chronologies from different woody species in the USA. Therefore, it represents a robust species-independent hydroclimate reconstruction that can be used as a reference pattern to detect the spatial domain of a dendrochronological series (Leland et al, 2021). We computed the Spearman rank correlation between the BG2 chronologies and each grid-cell of the NADA for the dating period obtained previously with the individual and regional tree-ring chronologies.…”

“…Despite the problem of ambiguity in relation to the dating against the Choccolocco Mtn and Lake Louise chronologies with a date-lag of 27 years, the large area of significant correlation with the NADA for the period 1638-1810 (based on the initial dating with the Choccolocco Mtn, AL, reference chronology) allowed us to affirm that this period corresponds to the BG2 yellow pine tree-ring chronology. Using the same methodological approach, Leland et al (2021) identified the provenance of southeastern US yellow pine timbers from the Terminal Warehouse, Chelsea, New York City. The dating of both BG2 white oak and yellow pine tree-ring chronologies against a Drought Atlas, such as NADA, is a completely novel approach for shipwreck dating.…”

“…Yellow pine wood and other lumber from the southeastern states were transported by sea to the northern shipyards (Burns, 2003). Recently, Leland et al (2021), through the dating and provenance determination of timbers from the Terminal Warehouse in New York City, demonstrated that in the 19th century there was a significant commercial exchange of yellow pine timbers from the southeastern United States for building construction.…”

Understanding the historic legacies of empire from the timbers left behind: Towards critical dendroprovenancing in the British North Atlantic

“…For example, an increasing number of dendroarchaeological studies have focused on providing narratives around the selection and use of timber (Daly et al, 2021; Houbrechts & Fraiture, 2011), the behavioural and environmental aspects around the use of wood (e.g., Bleicher, 2014; Čufar, 2007), and the societal and environmental aspects around the cutting of wood (e.g., De Graauw & Hessl, 2020; Thun & Svarva, 2018). More specifically, research has illustrated the use of historic timber to explore historic resource exploitation (e.g., Bridge, 2012; Daly et al, 2021; Leland et al, 2021), and this is a goal shared by this work. It is not enough for dendroarchaeologists to simply date buildings anymore, most modern dendroarchaeological studies also seek to understand the context behind the choice of a specific tree for a specific use, how the tree grew in its original forest (was it managed or wild?…”