Preston — It wasn’t the 12,000-year-old Paleoindian site discovered on the Mashantucket Reservation this week, but the week-long archaeological dig at the Long Society Meetinghouse in Preston yielded several interesting finds last week, state Archaeologist Brian Jones said.

Jones, who oversaw the excavation around the foundation of the early 19th century building to improve drainage, said the volunteers found quartzite and argillite stones commonly found in the Narragansett area of Rhode Island used by Paleoindians to make tools, and two small spear points about 4,500 years old.

“They’re pretty common, but it’s pretty neat to see it up there,” Jones said.

The volunteer diggers from the Friends of State Archaeology, the Preston Historical Society and Farmington Alternative High School, along with a few Preston residents, also found numerous hand-wrought nails and shards of glass apparently associated with building renovations over the past 2½ centuries, a 1784 Spanish coin and what appears to be a 1904 campaign button.

Jones said he researched the button based on the visible features and it likely is a campaign button for Alton B. Parker, the Democratic opponent of Republican Theodore Roosevelt in the 1904 presidential election.

“He probably threw it in the dirt when he heard he lost,” Preston Historical Society President Linda Christensen said of the button’s owner. Roosevelt beat Parker in a landslide, 336 Electoral votes to 140.

“You definitely learn a little about a lot of things,” Christensen said of the archaeological dig.

Once the Office of State Archaeology is finished studying and cataloging the artifacts, the items will be returned to the Preston Historical Society, Christensen said. She hopes to eventually put them on display.

The project had a purpose bigger than curiosity. The Preston Historical Society recently secured ownership of the historic building located on the grounds of the early settlement of Preston.

The meetinghouse replaced an earlier building at the same location, and the gravestones in the surrounding cemetery come within a few feet of the fieldstone foundation.

So when the society learned in a structural study that dirt built up around the back corner of the building was rotting the wooden frame and needed to be regarded, the society contacted the state archaeologist for an excavation to be sure there were no burials at the building’s edge.

The group also hoped to find Native American, Colonial-era and early 19th century items.

After the excavation, the ground around the foundation was filled with gravel provided by the town of Preston to solve the drainage problem, Christensen said, in time for this week’s heavy rain.

The structural study estimated the building needs about $180,000 in renovations, and the historical society plans to tackle those needs based on priorities. Christensen this week sent out about 250 letters in the start of a capital campaign to raise what she hopes will be the required matching shares for grants.

The first application will be for a $10,000 matching grant application to the 1772 Foundation to repair the rotted foundation.

“We’re already starting to get some money in,” Christensen said, “which is what we need for the matching grants.”

c.bessette@theday.com

Twitter: @Bessettetheday

UBox:

The 1817 Long Society Meetinghouse in Preston needs renovations totaling approximately $180,000. New owner, the Preston Historical Society, will apply for grants and seek donations for prioritized pieces of the project.

Send donations with checks made out to Preston Historical Society, with notation for Long Society Meetinghouse, to Society Treasurer Mark Christensen, 15 Amos Road, Preston, CT 06365. Donations are tax deductable.

Fundraiser community yard sale, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., June 13, Preston Plains Middle School, corner routes 164 and 2. 10-by-10-foot space, $25. 20-by-10-foot space, $50. Participants keep proceeds. Register by June 8. Call Eileen Nagel (860) 886-8517, email Eileen.nagel.snet.net.