The remains of people buried at the former Greenlawn Cemetery at the Eleven Park development site could find a final resting place on the west side.

The Wayne Township Trustee’s Office contacted Indianapolis-based Keystone Group to arrange a deal to reinter human remains found at the former Greenlawn Cemetery to the Mount Jackson Cemetery on the west side in exchange for significant funding.

Keystone Group is trying to convince Indianapolis to support a $1.5-billion development site called Eleven Park that would include a soccer stadium and other amenities such as apartments and restaurants. The site is home to the former Diamond Chain industrial site, which was built on what was a collection of graveyards collectively known as Greenlawn Cemetery. Keystone already has uncovered human remains during site work. 

Mayor Joe Hogsett has pitched an alternative site for the soccer stadium downtown in the hopes of attracting a Major League Soccer team and proposes the city purchase Keystone’s property, suggesting it would make a good memorial or park.

Hogsett and Keystone have been publicly feuding over which project the city should fund, putting into question the future of Eleven Park. 

But if Eleven Park moves forward, a deal with Wayne Township would provide a financial boon for the cash-strapped government, which is giving up control of its fire department and emergency medical services to save money, and relieve some pressure on Keystone Group, which has faced scrutiny about how it has handled the remains as it tries to redevelop the former Diamond Chain site.

“We consider it a very positive thing, not only for the respect and dignity of those from Greenlawn, by providing them a final resting place that won’t be disturbed in the future, but also restoring another historic cemetery in the community that can be turned into an asset for that neighborhood,” said Jeff Harris, Wayne Township Director of Communications.

But some community advocates oppose the relocation of human remains to Mount Jackson, saying they believe it may not have enough room for all the remains and would not provide an adequate final resting place.

A cemetery within a cemetery

Ornate granite headstones on the grounds of the Mount Jackson Cemetery in Wayne Township are engraved with the names of prominent 19th century westside families like the Hardings and Stouts. But many others, made from less durable materials like marble and limestone, are too worn to be read.

Crumbling and eroded stones, some of which are in danger of falling over, dot the cemetery grounds on Tibbs Avenue just across from the former Central State Hospital.

The cemetery was founded in 1821, according to the official Wayne Township cemetery history. It was later declared abandoned after a church associated with the cemetery closed. The Wayne Township Trustee’s Office has maintained it since the 1960s.

Decades have passed since anyone has been buried at the cemetery.

Bardon reached out to Keystone owner Ersal Ozdemir in late April, Harris said, to propose using the cemetery to bury the remains found at the Eleven Park development site.

Harris said Bardon proposed setting apart a portion of the cemetery to “nest” urns and vaults containing the remains in a section of the cemetery distinct from the existing cemetery. That portion would have its own signage, landscaping and a memorial noting the history of the Greenlawn cemetery and the people buried there.

Mount Jackson deal would include ‘significant investment’

According to a reburial plan submitted by Keystone contractors Weintraut & Associates, Inc. to the Department of Natural Resources, the deal would involve the reburial of “over 82 remains.”

The remains would be reburied in wooden boxes along with any recovered artifacts. Unidentified multiple partial burials found in the same shaft would be buried in the same box, which the contractor said would “maintain the contextual relationship.” Unidentified fully intact burials would be reburied with artifacts from the burial in a single wooden box. Individuals would be reinterred in a “manner consistent with their historic context.” 

After the remains are reinterred, a “respectful memorialization” would be held at the cemetery.

Harris said the talks are in preliminary stages, but the township is pursuing a “significant investment” from Keystone for the cemetery, including a six-figure perpetual care fund. 

“Taxpayers right now are paying for the maintenance of Mount Jackson,” Harris said. “(A deal) would allow us to improve the grounds, restore some of the headstones, some new signage and, potentially, some fencing and some public art.”

The township is also pursuing funds from Keystone for better lighting and stronger barriers in the curve just outside the cemetery grounds.  

Many of the headstones at Mount Jackson Cemetery are crumbling and, according to Harris, some are in danger of toppling over. He says a deal could bring an infusion of funds that could help the township maintain the cemetery park. 

“One of the things that we want to do is either fix them, or, what we’ve been advised we can also do, is lay them down so they’re flush with the ground. That costs thousands of dollars,” Harris said. “Money’s tight, so this opportunity to get some outside investment could really be game-changing.” 

Harris said that if the township and Keystone come to a deal, the public would be invited to propose changes. 

An ‘inadequate connection’

Although a deal would benefit both Wayne Township and Keystone Group, community advocates for Greenlawn said the deal would not be in the best interest of the people buried in the former Greenlawn Cemetery.

Leon Bates, a historian who is a Ph.D. student in pan-African studies, has been involved in researching the history of the Greenlawn for years. He said a deal would place the remains in a cemetery without the means to care for them.

“It’s just not a very good plan,” Bates said. “The problem with the Mount Jackson Cemetery is that it’s an abandoned cemetery. It’s not a Wayne Township cemetery. When the church went out of business, it fell to the township trustee to maintain it. In other words, to cut the grass and pick up trash, and that’s it.”

Bates wants the remains to go to an active cemetery, like Crown Hill, Floral Park, or any of the Washington Park cemeteries — ones that can maintain both the land and the headstones that mark where people are buried.

Bates believes the cemetery may not be large enough to accommodate all the remains that are buried at the Eleven Park site.

“Keystone has not revealed how many remains they’ve uncovered,” Bates said. “Some of those graveshafts have multiple sets of remains inside of them. We’re talking hundreds, maybe thousands of remains still underground.”

Keystone has said its team discovered 87 “burials” across six acres — though it’s unclear whether that constituted individual remains or graves with multiple bodies. 

The city of Indianapolis believes there are 650 human remains on just a single acre of the former Greenlawn site where it’s building the Henry Street Bridge. 

Eunice Trotter, director of the Black Heritage Preservation Program at Indiana Landmarks, who is also part of the community advisory group, said the plan to go to Mount Jackson feels disrespectful and the cemetery may not be large enough to hold all the remains. 

“The location of the site where those burials will take place — or supposed to — is in a rear of the cemetery location that provides just inadequate connection with the community and the significance of this historical reinterment,” Trotter said.

Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @heyEnriqueSaenz.