Hawkins-Davison Houses, Frederica, St. Simons Island, Georgia

A vivid portrait of early colonial Georgia unfolds as archaeologists peel back the layers of Frederica, a once‑bustling outpost founded in 1736 to guard the new colony against Spanish incursions. Listeners will hear how the town’s grid of eighty‑four lots sprang to life under the hands of forty families, their homes built of brick, tabby and timber, while a fortified moat and stockade kept the settlement secure. The narrative brings the daily rhythm of the settlement into focus—taverns, shops, craftsmen, and the Methodist missionaries who oversaw its spiritual life—all set against the backdrop of Oglethorpe’s ambitious military enterprise.

The story then tracks the town’s rapid rise and sudden decline after the British victory at Bloody Marsh and the disbanding of the regiment that had sustained its economy. As soldiers left, the houses fell into ruin, their materials repurposed by later plantation owners, and the visible traces of the community vanished. Yet the tale also follows the later preservation efforts, from early 20th‑century donations to the Colonial Dames to the creation of a national monument, offering a glimpse of how memory and archaeology revive a long‑forgotten “Dead Town.