Mark Mack, Ike Mesumbe and Miesha Hegwood begin the survey of Walter Pierce Park in 2006.

Saying Their Names at Walter Pierce Park (photo by Gretchen Roberts Shorter)

THIS SATURDAY, MAY 27, 2017, AT 11 A.M., DESCENDANTS AND FRIENDS OF THE WALTER PIERCE PARK CEMETERIES WILL GATHER IN THE PARK TO COMMEMORATE THE 8,500 WASHINGTONIANS BURIED THERE. HELP US SAY THEIR NAMES AND TELL THEIR STORIES! Readers and listeners are needed. We’ll meet at the Adams Mill Road end of the park. Several buses–including the 90, 96, L2, and DC Circulator–stop steps from the park. If you’re coming by Metro, take the Red Line to the Woodley Park-National Zoo-Adams Morgan stop, then walk across the Duke Ellington Bridge (Calvert Street) or take the Circulator bus to its first stop. In case of rain, the event will be canceled. Questions? Feel free to call me, Mary Belcher, at 202-390-9069. Please join us!

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QUICK CLICKS TO PROJECT REPORTS: The National Park Service in 2015 named Mt. Pleasant Plains Cemetery at Walter Pierce Park a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom site; click to read the UNDERGROUND RAILROAD NOMINATION. For the history and archaeology of the site, read our Report to the Public on the Archaeological Investigation of Walter C. Pierce Park and Vicinity 2005-2012 by Mark Mack and Mary Belcher. FIND YOUR ANCESTORS on our Walter Pierce Park Burials Database to see the names of the 8,428 people buried in the 19th Century cemeteries. 

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REDISCOVERING THE CEMETERIES

IN THE 19TH CENTURY, TWO CEMETERIES OCCUPIED SEVEN ACRES OF LAND that today is Walter C. Pierce Community Park, located in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC. The cemeteries were the Friends Burying Ground–the city’s only Quaker cemetery–in operation from 1807 to 1890, and a much larger African American cemetery known as Mt. Pleasant Plains Cemetery, in operation from 1870 to 1890.

Howard students tackle rugged terrain.

The cemeteries were almost lost to time. Portions of the seven acres were sold off and the graves forgotten as the city grew around them. Developers in the 1950s  ravaged the land to build several large high-rises, but eventually they abandoned their efforts. In the 1970s, neighbors in need of green space successfully persuaded the city to buy the vacant land. In 1982, a city park was born.

In 2005, concerned citizens and Howard University anthropologists joined forces to protect the unmarked cemeteries at Walter Pierce Park. Their collaboration began in response to a city plan to construct large terraces in the park. Neighbors who were aware of the park’s history as cemetery land were certain that the massive earth-moving project would disturb any graves that might remain. The concerned community was fortunate to enlist Mark Mack, a biological anthropologist at nearby Howard University and the laboratory director of the landmark African Burial Ground project in New York.

The insignia of the Colored Union Benevolent Association

After months of debate, city officials relented, agreeing to delay and downsize their construction plans. They allowed Professor Mack and a team of Howard U. students and independent historians to survey the park. Grants to pay the students and buy supplies were obtained through a nonprofit neighborhood group, the Kalorama Citizens Association. After three years of work in the park, the Walter Pierce Park Archaeological Team received city funding for further exploration, with the appropriation administered by the nonprofit Washington Parks & People.

As part of their work, Team historians reviewed city death records to document the names, addresses, causes of death and other biographical information of 8,428 people whose remains were buried in the Walter Pierce cemeteries.

A headstone is lifted for inspection.

In the field, the Archaeological Team surveyed the park using only non-invasive means. They did not dig because the purpose of the work was to protect, not disturb, graves. The Team visually inspected every area of the park in 10-meter-by-10-meter sections.

They found ample evidence of the cemeteries. The exposed skeletal remains of at least nine individuals were found. Coffin hardware, headstones, and grave offerings were found. The chock-a-block nature of some of the finds–including exposed remains and artifacts scattered on hillsides–provided evidence of the cemeteries’ desecration and neglect.

The Walter Pierce Park Archaeology Project honors the past and looks toward the future. We look forward to finding ways to protect what is left of the cemeteries at Walter Pierce Park. We look forward to finding ways to commemorate those whose remains were laid to rest here, so that an estimated million descendants might find their ancestors at Walter Pierce Park.

A sacred cemetery object.