City officials earlier this month announced they had found additional human remains at the site of the historic cemeteries collectively known as Greenlawn during work for the Henry Street bridge project.
According to a news release, AES Indiana workers were preparing to install an underground utility line when they discovered human remains and five additional grave shafts. Analysis is ongoing, according to an Indianapolis Department of Public Works press release. So far, contractors have uncovered skeletal remains, bone fragments, buttons, a coffin and coffin hardware.
At a different part of the site, archaeologists were preparing for formal excavation when they uncovered 15 grave shafts in late October. The shafts are signs that a grave was dug and a person was potentially buried there.
It’s currently unknown whether those shafts contained human remains, according to Department of Public Works spokesperson Auboni Hart.
After the shafts were discovered, work stopped so the areas could be excavated by hand. Any human remains are photographed before they are exhumed and sent to a lab at Indiana University Indianapolis for analysis.
The announcement was part of the city’s ongoing commitment to community members to provide information about findings at the site throughout the life of the project.
Construction of the $43-million project is expected to last two years and will connect the planned Elanco headquarters development to downtown Indianapolis.
In October, city officials invited reporters to view a portion of the city’s electric rail terminal uncovered at the site.
About Greenlawn Cemetery
The city’s Henry Street bridge project intersects with two of four historic cemeteries collectively known as Greenlawn Cemetery. The cemeteries are where some of the earliest Indianapolis residents were buried, including some of the city’s earliest Black residents.
The city’s site covers a small portion of the cemeteries, which have been subject to industrial development over the last century. Most notably, it was the site of the Diamond Chain Factory until it was demolished last year.
Most of the property is owned by Keystone Group, an Indianapolis-based developer that had intended to build commercial, retail and residential space anchored by a 20,000-seat professional soccer stadium. The future of the site remains unclear after Mayor Joe Hogsett earlier this year decided to pursue a stadium at an alternative site downtown.
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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