Remnants of boozy village found beneath downtown San Francisco

By the time it boasts all its glory, the Grand Central of the West will actually sit on the site of an ancient village archeologists recently dusted off one relic at a time on their hands and knees.They found dozens of vestiges - dolls, a piece of a tent, tableware and many, many liquor bottles - that tell stories dating as far back as 1848 under a roughly 100-square-foot portion of a parking lot near First and Minna streets by the future Transbay Transit Center. Underneath the asphalt, archeologists rummaged through what used to be shopkeepers' and entrepreneurs' homes that once sat between two enormous sand dunes.

This working class came from all over. Eleven feet down, there was tableware manufactured in Philadelphia and coins not minted as money that also came from Philadelphia, lead archeologist Heather Price said. And from the ground surface all the way to 12 feet below, we found fancy serving platters ... and many, many liquor bottles.

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