Construction crews at the site of Carr Hospitality's future Hotel Indigo have unearthed a major remnant from Alexandria’s 18th-century past: the timber foundation of a warehouse that may have been the city’s first public building.

The discovery was made while digging through clay and sand eight feet below ground, the Washington Post reports. The crews found floor planks, huge beams and what may be a repurposed ship’s mast, all intact. The history of the site indicates that a 100 by 24-foot warehouse was constructed there in 1755 and believed to have been destroyed sometime later that century, but the foundation remained underground in surprisingly good shape.

The timbers have been removed and tagged for posterity with the assistance of the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory. It will be interesting to see what else turns up with so many projects in the works along the waterfront. Just last month, City Interests and Rooney Properties received approval for a multimillion-dollar development just six blocks north at the Robinson Terminal North warehouse, the site that was once home to a tobacco inspection warehouse. [WaPo]