Excavations of an early extension to the core James Fort revealed an L-shaped hole located at the end of a 50 foot palisade wall trench extending east of the triangular Fort. Complete excavation of the feature discovered that the hole was actually a cellar built in two stages under a building supported by up-right posts in the ground. The cellar has steps descending from on corner, had once been partially walled with timber, had a fire place area, and two barrels buried in and below the floor to drain it. This could have been used as a jail or even the dungeon where John Smith once held a Powhatan Indian captive.

More postholes north of the cellar building and in line with it indicate that the entire structure was 72 feet long and had at least three rooms, a room over the cellar, a cellarless room and mailto:apva@apva.org cellarless room with two brick hearths. Long after the building disappeared from above ground this portion of the site became part of the adjacent churches' burial ground around the first quater of the 18th century. Over a dozen graves cut into the early fort building fill inadvertently disrupting the earlier soil layers. No human remains were exposed but a long-lived wooden fenceline was defined, marking the heretofore unknown extent of the church yard cemetery.