The College of Charleston bought land earlier this year near its downtown campus to build a dormitory knowing a centuries-old burial ground for poor and enslaved people surrounds the site, a college official said.
The remains of poor Whites, Africans newly arrived on slave ships, travelers and orphaned children in the soil raised immediate concerns, Paul Patrick, the college’s chief of staff, told the Charleston City Paper.
With that awareness, Patrick said, the college commissioned a study to validate that history and conduct ground penetrating radar to look for burials.
Radar scans last year were inconclusive on whether human remains are under a parking lot at 106 Coming St., the former headquarters for the YWCA of Greater Charleston, he said…