The remains of a James Fort Period (ca. 1607-1624) post-in-ground building were found towards the western corner of James Fort. Six postholes were located 34 feet from, and oriented with, the projected south wall of the fort. They likely mark the location of the northern end of a building. The postholes were spaced on exact 10' centers and formed a line 50' in length. The building itself may have been longer, but later ditches and a 1950s era excavation disturbed the areas at both ends of the line. Although no postholes from a south wall were found, owing to shoreline erosion, it is reasonable to conclude that they did once exist.

The 10' spacing between the postholes was unlike the random spacing of the fort's mud-and-stud buildings and suggests that the building was timber framed. Joinery would require even spacing unlike the mud-and-stud buildings built in other sections of the fort. Ceramic types from the postmolds were consistent with other early Fort Period collections and include Border ware vessels, delftware drug jars, Frechen stoneware jugs, a crucible with residues, a Martincamp flask, and a Merida-type dish. Other early artifacts of note include a ca. 1608 Robert Cotton tobacco pipe and a chevron trade bead.

This building is a possible candidate for James Fort's 1608 church. Multiple lines of evidence support this possibility. It was also evident from the even spacing of the posts that the building was constructed with more care and precision than most post-in-ground buildings found in James Fort. Upon arriving at Jamestown in 1610, William Strachey, the secretary of the colony, suggested that the church had been given special consideration when it was constructed; he referred to it as a "pretty chapel," but at the same time he refers to the church as "ruined and unfrequented." According to Strachey, the church was then repaired in 1610 under the direction of newly arrived governor, Lord Delaware. Strachey also wrote that the church measured "in length threescore foot, in breadth twenty-four" (60 feet x 24 feet). There was reason to believe that this building had been the same width as the 1608 church.

The line of posts for the north wall of this structure was 34'6" from the projected southern palisade. Excavations have revealed that the "street" between James Fort's earliest post-in-ground buildings and the palisade was consistently 10' wide, which substantiates Strachey's observation that the fort's houses were a "proportioned distance" from the palisade. If we assume that the building's missing southern wall was 10' from the fort wall, then the building would have been roughly 24' wide, the same width as the 1608 church. Other circumstantial evidence for Structure 184's being a church is the fact that it was located just south of the 1607 burial ground, with some graves only 10' away. Additionally, during 1896 preparations for construction of the seawall, skeletal remains were found "lying in regular order, east and west, about two hundred feet west of the [church] tower ruin," a distance that puts these burials potentially within the limits of this structure. As archaeological work continues into the interior of the fort and more buildings are found, this particular building's possible identification as a church will be reassessed.