Saxonburg playground construction uncovers 19th-century artifacts
Last fall, the Saxonburg Area Rotary installed and opened a new playground at the corner of North Rebecca and Water streets at Roebling Park in Saxonburg. However, while construction crews were clearing dirt at the playground site, they also uncovered long-buried artifacts from the 19th century.
Although Fred Caesar stepped down as curator of the Saxonburg Museum in 2024, he still takes an active interest in the borough and its history. When the playground was under construction in fall 2025, Caesar documented the process for his public Saxonburg community Facebook page.
“I had been taking pictures for the Rotary people to document the work on the project,” Caesar said. “And the more I was taking pictures, I noticed that there were some pieces that started showing up in the dirt.
Caesar realized a unique opportunity, as the playground site is located near the original location of John Roebling’s old wire rope workshop. The workshop, where the borough’s founder perfected the wire rope during the 1840s, was originally built by Roebling at the corner of Rebecca and Water streets before it was relocated to its current site near the Saxonburg Museum during the 1970s.
According to Caesar, people in the area had expressed interest to him about the possibility of conducting archaeological digs at the former site of the workshop.
“When I was the museum curator, for years, people would say, ‘Hey, maybe there should be an archaeological dig someday where the workshop used to be,’” Caesar said. “When they started clearing the site for the playground, it dawned on me that they were very, very close to where the workshop originally stood. It was like an ‘Aha’ moment.”
After doing some research, Caesar believes one of the artifacts recovered from the construction site was a Civil War-era smoking pipe manufactured by a company based out of Appomattox County, Va.
“I am 98-99 percent sure that this is a Civil War-era pipe … a clay pipe. And I do believe it was made in Virginia,” Caesar said. “It matches the ones that seem to have been made by that company in Virginia. The design makes it so unique.”
Another artifact found at the playground site, which was found in four fragments, has been identified as pieces of a “Boyd’s Genuine Porcelain Lined Cap.” According to Caesar, these caps were produced during the late 19th century as an alternative to more common, lead-lined caps for food storage jars.
“People would have Mason jars and then you would have the metal screw-on cap,” Caesar said. “They would put on these cap liners so that the lead from the lids wasn’t sinking into the food that they had stored in these glass jars.”
Although the artifacts were found at the site where Roebling’s wire rope workshop was originally located, Caesar believes that they date back to after Roebling’s time in Saxonburg.
“I really don't believe any of those pieces came from when Roebling was there,” Caesar said. “He left here in 1849. Most of these pieces are probably from later than that.”
Caesar says he plans on turning over the artifacts to Saxonburg for display at the museum, although he says he “(hasn’t) worked out” when to do that yet.
