Saints' Rest / Saints' Rest Excavation

Saints' Rest, also, Saints' Rest Excavation. . Here, on December 9. 1876, the first dormitory of the new Agricultural College of the State of Michigan burned. The college was founded in 1855 and Saints' Rest - as the building was later called in reference to a popular nineteenth century devotional guide - was built the following year in an "oak opening” of the original campus., Unadorned and flat-roofed. Saints Rest suited the college's modest beginnings. The building included a basement kitchen, a laundry and washroom, a dining room, a parlor, and a steward apartment. The two floors of bedrooms were shared by up to 100 male students who lived four in a room and slept two in a bed., College Hall, the first academic building in the nation dedicated to the study of scientific agriculture, was also built in 1856 on the current site of Beaumont Tower. It contained classrooms, a chemistry laboratory, a library. and a museum. Saints' Rest and College Hall provided the foundation for the emergence of Michigan State University., The remains of Saints' Rest-the first dormitory of the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan-were excavated by Michigan State University archaeology students at this site in summer 2005. The information recovered added archaeological research to archival material, providing a more complete portrait of early student life., The excavation revealed that following a fire in 1876, the building's remains were pushed into the basement and covered over. This process preserved the exterior foundation. as well as three interior walls, which were found just six inches below ground. On the basement floor, four feet below the surface, the contents-including the remains of five wooden barrels still in a row-were relatively undisturbed., Several wood-burning stoves, inkwells, pitchers, basins, slate pencils, a toothbrush, and other personal items from the upper floors were also discovered within the rubble. The presence of tobacco pipe stems, liquor bottles, and shell casings suggested that students at Saints' Rest did not always follow the rules.