Standing in front of about 65 people in a school auditorium on the west side, Brandon Herget made an admission.
Herget, director of the Department of Public Works, said he and other city officials were wrong to pursue construction of a new bridge at Greenlawn Cemetery without first fully excavating the human remains that are still buried there.
“Even just a year ago, in 2023, we did not appreciate the true historical significance of the former Greenlawn Cemetery on the east side of the river,” Herget said during the June 24 meeting. “And we were not listening to or providing space for those who care deeply about that legacy to be involved in the project.”
This week’s acknowledgement was a reversal from May 2023, when officials from Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration unveiled the design of the Henry Street bridge project but were lambasted by residents for failing to account for what remained buried in some of the city’s oldest cemeteries. Back then, the city still planned to have an archaeologist on site to monitor for remains but otherwise did not plan a full excavation.
[DNR would require ‘systematic excavation’ for more work at Greenlawn]
Now, after more than a year of conversations ignited by that meeting, Herget announced that the city is changing course. As Mirror Indy first reported, the city is choosing to archaeologically excavate the entire portion of where the Henry Street bridge project will intersect with two of the four historic cemeteries collectively known as Greenlawn.
The city’s consultants estimate 650 burials could be included on the bridge project site — including potentially within what historical records characterized as an African American section.
Those attending the public meeting this week expressed their optimism for the city’s change of plans.
“So many times throughout the United States,” Caz Day said, “African American burial grounds were treated with such lack of significance.”
‘It’s a good start’
Day, who works in community engagement for Eskenazi Health, said he was interested in the meeting as an African American living in Indianapolis.
As a soccer fan, he was looking forward to Eleven Park, a proposed development that includes apartments and a professional soccer stadium north of the city’s bridge.
For the city’s part, Day thinks the approach is “a good start.”
“You can make an assumption of how many bodies and bones you may find, but you know, that number may be higher, that number may be lower,” Day said. “I do like the fact that I do see some importance placed on it.”
Nedra Feeley, a retired Indianapolis resident who also attended the city’s May 2023 meeting, said she wished the city had discussed the Greenlawn site as a whole. The city’s 1.4-acre site is a small sliver of the 20-plus acres that make up four historic cemeteries.
“A lot of people I don’t think understood there was a lot of acreage” out of the city’s control, Feeley said. The future of the rest of the site, which is privately owned by Keystone Group, is unclear since the city chose an alternative site in pursuit of a Major League Soccer stadium.
Susan Hall Dotson, African American collections curator for the Indiana Historical Society, echoed a common sentiment from the evening: The historical research happening around Greenlawn will help Indianapolis understand itself.
“It’s the story of the city,” said Hall Dotson, who is also a member of the city’s Community Advisory Group, which was formed after community members raised concerns about the cemeteries and the city’s project.
“The city’s story of the people who lived here? First, second, third, where people are interred and remembered and buried,” Hall Dotson said. “It still matters.”
What’s next
Road and utility work is already underway on the west side of the river. Next, the city plans to begin construction of the bridge over the White River between Oliver and Washington streets.
The road will be split 60/40 between pedestrian and vehicular traffic, the former an extension of the Cultural Trail. That phase will begin construction this year with an aim to finish by the fall of 2026.
The city’s excavation of its portion of the Greenlawn site, meanwhile, is expected to begin this fall.
The city allocated $12 million for that excavation and subsequent reburial, which city officials said had put the city at risk of losing the bridge’s architectural features. But a $15 million philanthropic gift from the Lilly Endowment will allow the city to pursue excavation in a way the community wants while preserving the bridge’s original design.
Work will continue until the archaeologist is satisfied the land has been cleared.
Given the long history of disturbance and industrialization at the site, Hall Dotson said the city has now chosen the right way to move forward.
Still, it took a long time to reach this point. The city was aware of the cemetery as early as 2021, when officials filed development plans with the state.
“Everybody knew it was a cemetery who needed to know,” she said. “Those who were going to build, and those who built already, knew. So that’s my rub.”
Herget, the DPW director, acknowledged that concern during this week’s meeting.
“It is never too late to do the right thing,” Herget said. The project is now “an opportunity to make sure that this history is memorialized and documented for future generations.”
As for what will happen to any remains that are found at the site, it’s too soon to say, according to Jeannie Regan-Dinius, historic preservation director at Crown Hill Foundation and former cemetery and burial ground registry coordinator for the state’s historic preservation office.
“We don’t know yet,” she said. “Until there’s a better understanding through the archaeology, that discussion’s down the road.”
A correction was made on June 26, 2024: An earlier version of this article included the incorrect completion date for the project’s second phase. It is 2026.
Reach Mirror Indy reporter Emily Hopkins at 317-790-5268 or emily.hopkins@mirrorindy.org. Follow them on most social media @indyemapolis.
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