Re:Re: Summer Cemetery Excavations

Follow-up: Topics in this digest: 1. African Burial Ground gets rare national honor - a correction From: "William Sandy" ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 1 Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2006 13:04:27 -0500 From: "William Sandy" Subject: African Burial Ground gets rare national honor - a correction Your otherwise great article on the new National Monument (Daily News 3-1-06:19) has a major mistake in paragraph 2. The African Burial Ground was NOT found by "construction workers". It was found by archaeologists following out a detailed plan of investigation. It was because of the genius and hard work of archaeologist "Big Ed" Rutsch and his team from Historic Conservation & Interpretation, Inc. that this "Plymouth Rock for Ameican Blacks" was found! How about a retraction/correction?? I know 'cause I was there. Check out the "Big Ed" website for more. Bill Sandy, Registered Professional Archaeologist Westtown Gee, that's not right. I recall while working with Joel Grossman at his firm, Grossman & Associates, picking up a Saturday NY Times that had an article on the progress of Historic Conservation & Interpretation, Inc. at the site when they were down to the basement level below the street. To be fair, anyone looking at an old map could see the toponym "Negroes Burying Ground" next to the "Kolk" or "Collect Pond" (from "the deep, unfathomable" hardly, though still springs into basements nearby, see "Whole Earth Magazine" which NYer Marlon Brando contributed to). They might also see just off of Bowery (Encyclopedia Americana, "oldest street in America" article by Leo Herskowitz (?) who researched the so called "Broad Street Site" on Whitehall) below Houston Street (pronounced "hows ton" after a Scottish NYC merchant, the street once the Yiddish theater district, where Walter Matthau had his start as youngster) a "Negro Cemetery" in a former "cemetery district" half removed (marble works, Methodists, Quakers and National Guard removed, non-denominational cemeteries, the "firsts" still in the two marble vault cemeteries nearby). I also recall being asked by Joel Grossman, Ph.D. if I thought they might still be there and thought yes they could where the "rope walk" was also I recall, (a long shed for "winding" or weaving ropes for ships mostly, the "cable" grew out of it, John Roebling, Allegheny Portage Railroad, various bridges; Peter Cooper, transatlantic telegraph, etc.) George Myers