Archaeology at St. Peter Street Cemetery 1984
Human remains were uncovered from the area that had been St. Peter Cemetery in 1972. But, nothing was done to protect or preserve the disturbed human burials. Between the discovery of human remains at the site in 1972 and the next one in 1984, there had been a considerable shift in attitudes about historic burials. When it was revealed that graves were being disturbed by construction of condominiums, it caused enough of an uproar that construction was briefly shut down at the site. But jurisdiction over the site was not clear, and eventually archaeologists were able to access the site only for a few days for the purposes of salvaging burials that had already been disturbed. By this time, concrete forms for has already been poured for the new construction at the site.
After 1972, burials from the St. Peter Street Cemetery have been recovered by archaeologists on two occasions. The first was by accident in 1984, when an unknown number of graves were disturbed by construction before authorities were notified. Archaeologists were eventually allowed to salvage the remains of at least 29 individuals from the site.