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City uncertain of next move after graveyard discovery |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Wednesday, 15 March 2006 |
City officials said yesterday they are not sure what to do with the graves discovered under an abandoned city-owned playground in Kensington.
The blighted Franklin Playground, which closed several years ago, had previously been the Benjamin Franklin Cemetery - dating to the 19th century - and the final resting place for thousands, including Civil War veterans.
As reported in yesterday's Daily News, parents and supporters of the Frances E. Willard School believe the land is the best place to build a replacement building for their dilapidated, overcrowded elementary school, on Emerald Street near Orleans.
They urged officials to remove the estimated 330 remains, recently discovered by ground-penetrating radar, to make way for the school.
They reasoned that most of the 15,000 other human remains had been removed before the city turned the land into a playground and ball fields in 1951, and that in recent years the place has been a blighted eyesore.
"If we're really interested in making it sacred ground and eliminating drugs and prostitution, then we should build a school there," said Steve Honeyman, executive director of the Eastern Pennsylvania Organizing Project, a community group whose leaders and members include Willard School parents.
"It's still a little too soon" to say whether the remains will be removed, said Joe Grace, Mayor Street's spokesman.
Eric Bleil, 42, believes the land should be cleared for a school.
His great-grandfather, Charles Minier, a fruit-and-vegetable huckster, was buried at Franklin Cemetery in 1899, the Frankford resident said. But Bleil doesn't know if Minier's remains were removed or are still under Franklin field.
"They should move the graves, but they should do it in a dignified way. These are people who built this city. They are Philadelphians. They fought in the regiments in the Civil War. Even though their descendants are far removed from them and in other parts of the country, they are still human beings," he said.
The city had been negotiating to sell the land to the school district for $750,000, pending the outcome of an environmental study.
While the study has not been completed, a school district-commissioned preliminary survey last month found what are believed to be as many as 330 graves. The cemetery opened in 1840 and was closed to burials around 1910.
"We really are hoping to get a full report and review it in the context of all of the options and then move from that information," said Jacqueline Barnett, city secretary of education.
Joan Schlotterbeck, commissioner of the Department of Public Property, said the remaining graves were a surprise to the city.
"Our preliminary research indicated that they weren't there," she said.
The school district's chief executive officer, Paul Vallas, said he already is looking at two other sites for a new Willard School. The school has an enrollment of 750 students in kindergarten through fourth grade.
"I oppose building the school on that site even if the bodies are removed. I just don't think we should be building on a cemetery site," said Vallas, who noted that removing the bodies could add cost and time to the construction process.
SOURCE: Philadelphia Daily News |
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