After the Restoration Team removed the ca. 1848 portico deck they uncovered, with the help of the archaeologists, pockets in the brickwork below the sidelights that flank Montpelier’s main doorway.  The sidelights were known to date to ca. 1812 and were very similar to examples built by Dinsmore and Neilson elsewhere. Because the Restoration Team knew that the pockets had to have a purpose they first searched for other examples of similar pockets at Montpelier.