Human remains found again during construction at east-side Maryland Avenue Montessori School

Last week, multiple human bones were again found during construction at Maryland Avenue Montessori School in Milwaukee’s east-side Murray Hill neighborhood.

The grade school stands at what was once the site of the East Side Potter’s Field, a known and recorded uncatalogued burial site, said Wisconsin Historical Society assistant director of strategic communications Colleen Lies. Lies explained that the field was Milwaukee’s first potter’s field ― a cemetery for poor, unclaimed and unknown people ― and was in use through the mid-1800s.

Milwaukee County Historical Society president Ben Barbera said Milwaukee police notified his organization after the remains were found on Oct. 2. Barbera referred the police to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s office. According to a report from the Medical Examiner’s office, an investigator climbed down a ladder into the 3-foot-deep excavation site and observed multiple bones sticking out of the dirt on one of the side walls. More dirt to the sides of the bones was removed; ultimately, a “large amount” of bones were found.

The Wisconsin Historical Society was notified of the burial site disturbance and took possession of the bones from the scene. WHS took on the matter because MCHS does not have any input on human remains, Barbera said, while WHS oversees cemeteries and other burials.

“(We) confirmed that all construction was stopped for further coordination with everyone involved,” Lies said. “UW-Milwaukee Cultural Resource Management has temporary care of the remains and will be completing archaeology and analysis work for the burials uncovered during construction.” Construction has since resumed.

This isn’t the first time human bones were found at the site at 2418 N. Maryland Ave.

Many East Side Potter’s Field remains were uncovered and removed during the initial construction of the Maryland Avenue school in 1887.

According to a 1951 Milwaukee Journal article, the potter’s field was the burial site of many victims of the city’s 1849-1850 cholera epidemic, which was estimated to have killed as many as 700 of the city’s then-20,000 residents. During an excavation for an addition to the school in 1951, cholera epidemic-era bones and bone fragments were found, some buried “haphazardly” just 18 inches below the surface, the Journal reported.

Then, in 2021, OnMilwaukee reported that four bones were discovered during a small excavation to fix some basement seepage at the school.