"We're just examining all those issues. We haven't made any final decisions. There's not a single opinion. On the oversight committee, not everybody feels the same way."

Kelly/Maiello Architects & Planners, which won the design competition to create the commemoration, did not foresee incorporating archaeological findings into a memorial. Nor did any of the other bidders for the $4.5 million project.

Emmanuel Kelly, principal of the Philadelphia design firm, said last week that "everyone agrees that what has been discovered is very valuable."

He declined comment beyond that, except that "we're waiting to be given some direction" by the city and the National Park Service.

Several participants at a meeting about 10 days ago said Kelly had argued that incorporating archaeological findings would add substantially to the cost of the memorial.

Because the exposed foundations are about 10 feet below the street, for instance, moving visitors to that level might prove expensive. Elevators and ramps were mentioned at the meeting.

And once visitors were down there, what would they do? The site is small, hardly the Roman Forum.

And if the foundations were left exposed to the elements, they would crumble quickly. Not because the stone is soft, but because the mortar holding it together incorporates earth and would dissolve.

Despite that, "there's a strong belief among . . . historians involved from the beginning that the archaeological findings need to be taken into account" in the design, said Charlene Mires, associate professor of history at Villanova University and a member of the project's oversight committee.

"What we don't know," she said, "is what that means in practical terms. I recognize there are challenges. What I haven't heard are some researched possibilities of how we might take advantage of what we've found. I've heard reasons why it's going to be difficult, but I haven't heard an analysis of possibilities."

Some members of the oversight committee are concerned that excessive focus on the archaeological findings will detract from the stories of the people who lived in the house, particularly the long-hidden stories of the slaves.

There is also a concern that redesigning the memorial would take too long.

Dennis Reidenbach, superintendent of the park, said the main concern for the park service was finding the best means to "interpret" the site.

The President's House represents "one of the most important stories the park service can tell," he said.

"The question is whether keeping the archaeology exposed adds to the story. At the end, what this is about is communicating stories, experiencing the site, and hearing the stories communicated by the site. Will the archaeology add to that?"

That said, Reidenbach added that "I think there is general agreement that the archaeology needs to be incorporated in the interpretation. How to do it is up in the air."

Reidenbach and Wilkerson said a decision must be made in the next month or so.

Money is an issue. The city has committed more than $1.5 million to the project. The federal government has added $3.5 million. The dig, not included in the memorial budget, has proved expensive.

"I don't have any more money that I can lay my hands on in the short term," Wilkerson said. "I think it would be appropriate for some of these foundations to step forward. We will probably be reaching out and finding out: Are there others who might want to participate?

"But I think before you even have that conversation, you have to know what you're talking about. You're talking about keeping it open and putting up walls and creating the appropriate environment and having some kind of transparent surface over at least part of it for people to look at. What's the order of magnitude in terms of cost? We've got work to do in order to figure that out."