Grave Discovery Alters
Mobile Library Expansion
The recent discovery of unmarked graves under the parking lot of the Mobile (Ala.) Public Library has prompted city officials to alter the library’s expansion plans.
Construction workers using radar to locate utility lines discovered what they thought were graves in late August. Extensive radar testing conducted by the city since then revealed about 20 gravesites along a brick wall in the visitor’s parking lot. Although it was not clear if there were actual skeletons in those graves, work was stopped immediately, and the architect was asked to modify the design, the Mobile Register reported October 19.
The three-story addition to the 71-year-old building will likely be somewhat narrower than originally planned, and dozens of the 140 parking spaces officials hoped to add will be lost, said library spokeswoman Christina Bowersox.
City officials lean toward the theory that the graves are connected to an 1819 yellow-fever outbreak in the area.
Posted October 23, 2000.
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