The principal residence of Avalon, where Calvert and his family lived during the winter of 1628-29 and in which the Kirkes established their residence in 1638, has long been the object of archaeologists working at Ferryland.

The nature of Newfoundland and Labrador's economy limited direct interaction between Indigenous groups and Europeans for much of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Archaeologists, who thought that the 'prettie streete' would be little more than a dirt track meandering through the settlement, were surprised in 1994 to find the first traces of a cobblestone pavement near the western edge of the original settlement.