In 1893 the APVA (now Preservation Virginia) acquired the 22 1/2 acre traditional site of "old James Towne" surrounding the old church tower on Jamestown Island. Mary Jeffery Galt soon began a ten-year excavation of the ruins of the church, "finding with her own hands" what was thought to be the corner of the rebuilt fort church of 1608. Samuel Yonge, the engineer responsible for constructing the seawall, concluded that the dual foundation found at the church belonged to the churches of 1617 and 1639, not the colony's first church.