Historic African Burial Ground Exhibit Opens In East Harlem

EAST HARLEM, NY — An exhibit detailing the history of an African burial site that dates back to the 17th century Dutch settlement "Nieuw Haarlem" is currently on display in an East Harlem public market.

The free exhibit "Reclaiming History, Reinvesting in East Harlem" launched last week at La Marqueta, located underneath the Park Avenue viaduct at East 115th Street, city officials said. The exhibit was curated by the city Economic Development Corporation in partnership with local City Council Member Diana Ayala and the Harlem African Burial Ground Task Force.

When the village of Harlem was founded by the Dutch, the Low Dutch Reformed Church of Harlem maintained separate cemeteries for people of European and African descent. The African burial ground was subject to a "long tradition of disrespect" such as being used as grazing lands for livestock and eventually being forgotten altogether. The building on top of the site — which takes up the entire block of East 126th Street between First and Second avenues — was used as beer garden, army barracks a movie studio and, most recently, an MTA bus depot, according to the Harlem African Burial Ground Task Force's website.

The exhibit will be open during La Marqueta's normal hours through the summer, city officials said.

Future plans for the site aim to honor the African burial ground. The City Council voted in 2017 to approve the redevelopment of the existing bus depot into giant mixed-use development with a memorial to the burial site. The memorial will be located where the site of the original burial ground was, and no development will overlap with the site, city officials said.

The block was rezoned in 2017 to accommodate a development containing 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, city officials said.

Including parking, the entire development will span 1,090,215 square feet, according to an Environmental Impact Statement. The city will launch a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) for a nonprofit partner to oversee the memorial and cultural center and a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a developer later this year, city officials said.

An estimated 80 percent of the apartment units constructed in the development will be rent restricted, an EDC spokesman said. The EDC announced in March that 20 percent of the new units will be offered at "deep" affordability. Those units will be offered at 30 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI), or an annual income of $24,500 for a family of three, officials said.

The development — which the EDC has dubbed the "126th Street African Burial Ground Memorial and Mixed-Use Project" — has been in the works since 2015 when the city formed The Harlem African Burial Ground Task Force and Bus Depot Task Force to create a proposal that would both honor the site's history and meet the housing and jobs needs of East Harlem, according to the city EDC.