Story Archive

Just Don’t Say “You’re Grounded”!

The Chicago, Ill., Public School System is building a new school in the Dunning neighborhood. The city has owned the real estate for over a century: the site formerly was used for the Cook County Poor House, the County Insane Asylum and Infirmary (later called the Chicago State Hospital), and a burial ground for the indigent, including from the Civil War and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. From all of those uses, there are about 38,000 bodies buried on the grounds, some in coffins and others in mass graves, and construction crews are being careful not to dig too deep as they prepare the site for the $70 million project. But if they do find any buried remains, CPS has procedures set on how to deal with them. “It’s a spooky, scary place,” says genealogist and cemetery researcher Barry Fleig, who has been studying the site since 1989. “There can be and there have been bodies found all over the place.” Fuggettabout it, suggests the district’s Alderman, Nicholas Sposato. “I’m sure they’re gonna be on top of some graves, but this is progress.” (RC/Chicago Tribune) ...Yeah, no big deal: all kids think that about their schools.