Harlem African Burial Ground Memorial Back In Motion After Delay

HARLEM, NY — After the pandemic put it on hold, the long-planned project to construct a memorial at the site of a historic African burial ground on 126th Street is back in motion, city officials said this week.

Concealed beneath a decommissioned MTA bus depot between First and Second avenues, the site dates to the 1660s, when a church within the Dutch village of "Nieuw Haarlem" created two cemeteries: one for people of European descent and another for both free and enslaved people of African descent. By 1869, the African cemetery was abandoned and covered over, as the block became home to a beer garden, army barracks, a movie studio — and eventually the bus depot.

When an early-2000s investigation unearthed evidence of the forgotten burial ground, the city established a task force, which began advocating for a memorial to be built. In 2017, the City Council approved plans to redevelop the block with housing, retail, and a permanent outdoor memorial and cultural center on the burial ground site.

In 2020, however, East Harlem's Community Board 11 learned that the project had been put "on pause" as the city faced a pandemic-induced budget crisis. Now, as the city recovers, the memorial has stirred back to life, representatives from the city's Economic Development Corporation told CB11 during a Wednesday meeting.

Sometime this year, the MTA will finish vacating the block, allowing the city to begin planning and design work to inform how they will demolish the bus depot and excavate the site to preserve human remains, an EDC spokesperson said. If funding is secured, that planning-design phase will start in 2023.

"These steps will prepare the site for an outdoor memorial on the historic boundary of the Harlem African Burial Ground, a cultural education center, and a mixed-use affordable housing and commercial project," an EDC spokesperson told Patch.

Other aspects remain on hold: the city has now canceled its previous request for nonprofit or cultural organizations to apply to run the future memorial, citing the pandemic and the need to wait for "sensitive and critically important archaeological work and demolition" before selecting an operator.

Once the site is clear, the eventual development will include up to 655,215 square feet of residential space, 315,000 square feet of commercial space, 30,000 square feet of community space and 18,000 square feet dedicated to the outdoor memorial.

About 80 percent of the housing units will be rent-restricted, including 20 percent offered at "deeply affordable" rates, according to EDC.

Related coverage:

• Harlem African Burial Ground Project Put On Hold
  
• Harlem African Burial Ground Project Begins: City Accepting Bids
• Harlem African Burial Ground Development Approved By City Council