This pit under the floor was probably used by the Williams family to store vegetables, such as sweet potatoes, corn, and squash. Called a "root cellar," the underground pit kept the vegetables cool during the hot summers, so they did not go bad, since there were no refrigerators at that time. The sides of the pit probably were lined with wood and layers of grass, and the top would have been covered with a door.

The pit, or root cellar, is just in front of the square arrangement of stones that once was the fireplace and chimney. The archeologists are taking measurements and photographing the pit. At this point, they have no idea what the pit was used for. After they talked to the descendants of people who grew up on farms in the area, and read many books about life on a farm, they learned that underground root cellars were a common fixture in 19th-century farmhouses.