INDIANAPOLIS — A final resting place has been selected for dozens of remains found at the site of a downtown Indianapolis development.
Keystone Group announced Wednesday 87 burials discovered across six acres of the former Diamond Chain site will be reinterred at Mount Jackson Cemetery. The cemetery is located on North Tibbs Avenue, south of West Vermont Street on the west side of Indianapolis.
"We are honored to be considered as a final resting place for these ancestors," said Jeff Harris, director of communications for Wayne Township. "Mount Jackson is a historically appropriate cemetery for these reinternments. With Keystone’s investment, we will not only provide a permanent and dignified final resting place for those from Greenlawn, but we will also restore Mount Jackson Cemetery and raise it up as a historical and cultural community asset."
The discoveries were made during development of the planned Eleven Park project. Construction crews worked with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Department of Historic Preservation and Archaeology (IDNR/DHPA), excavating burials by hand with shovels, trowels and brushes when a discovery was made. Mechanical excavation was paused within 100 feet of a burial discovery while a controlled excavation was made.
The burials discovered at the site are currently being analyzed and catalogued. Keystone Group said a reinternment plan has been presented to IDNR/DHPA for review and approval. A website with information about the "complex history" of the Diamond Chain site is in the works.
The city opened a cemetery on the site in 1821, according to Eunice Trotter, a preservationist with the Indiana Landmarks Black Heritage Preservation Program.
"We are finding a long, illustrious list of people who were buried there, Black and white," Trotter said in December 2023.
Many of the remains, Trotter said, are those of infants.
Over the years, the cemetery expanded beyond those four acres and became known as Greenlawn Cemetery. Once the cemetery became filled, Trotter said grave robberies and vandalism became common.
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Families who could afford to move graves from Greenlawn did so in the 1860s when Crown Hill Cemetery opened.
"People with means could move their loved ones out of that heinous place," Trotter said. "While many people's remains were removed, many, many, many more were left there."
Before Diamond Chain built on the property, it was the site of slaughterhouses, railroad tracks, along with cement, limestone and brick pavement, Trotter said.
On Wednesday, 13News obtained a letter from the city to the owner of Keystone Group, Ersal Ozdemir, offering to pay the developer "fair market value" for the remaining 19 acres of land at the Diamond Chain site.
Keystone Group issued a statement to 13News saying they "intend to correct the record as it relates to our ongoing efforts to work with the community to offer peaceful reinternment for those buried in a site that for over a century has been disregarded and disrespected."
The group is also calling for Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett to meet for "an adult discussion on the future of soccer and downtown development in our state's capital city."