Compare Listings

History in the making (right next door to our office!)

History in the making (right next door to our office!)

The coffins are being dug up on Arch Street near the Betsy Ross house between 2nd and 3rd Streets.

PHILADELPHIA (CBS)—Crews found dozens of coffins in a former parking lot near 2nd and Arch Streets in Old City Thursday. The discovery brought construction of a new apartment complex project there to a halt.

The coffins were part of the First Baptist Church Burial Ground established in 1707, when Benjamin Franklin was just a year old. Records show the bodies should have been moved to the Mount Moriah Cemetery in Southwest Philadelphia around 1860, but historians agree that someone didn’t do their job.

Source: Dozens Of Coffins Discovered At Construction Site In Old City