<!– end jp-progress –><!– end jp-controls –>Listen<!– playpause –><!– jp-time-holder –>Residents and experts weigh in on living near the dead. Enlarge image Credit Scott Threlkeld / The Advocate Charmaine Williams, second from left, goes for a walk with her grandchildren Keah Williams, 15 months, left, and Richard ‘Ricky’ Farrell III, 3; and daughter, SaYann Williams, 16, right, in the Iberville public housing development. They can see St. Louis Cemetery No. 2, in the background, from their front stoop. Archaeologists have confirmed that part of the housing complex sits on an old cemetery, likely once part of St. Louis No. 1.The Housing Authority of New Orleans received a Federal grant last year to redevelop the Iberville Housing Development, the city’s last traditional public housing complex, on the edge of the French Quarter. The plan was to keep about a third of the buildings, demolish the rest, and build new, mixed-income housing.But, before demolition begins, HANO is required by law to conduct a survey to look for anything with historic significance, including gravesites and underground burials. Along with Lens reporter Katy Reckdahl, Eve Abrams learned that what the archaeologists uncovered is no big surprise. Read Katy Rechdahl’s companion article in The Lens.
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