(credit:  Gary Raynaldo /  ©Diplomatic Times )    Human skeletal remains that could be slaves from the 1800s were found in the basement of a million dollar stately home located in the Q Street section of Georgetown,  DC.

By  Gary Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

WASHINGTON  DC  –  GEORGETOWN  – There is a mystery buried beneath elegant townhouses in a section of Georgetown.  Last year, human skeletal remains were found inside a house located on the  3300 block of Q Street. Workers excavating the basement of the home for renovations found four human skeletons on Feb. 4.  Police homicide detectives and the medical examiner’s office were immediately called in and the home was declared a potential crime scene as a forensic investigation of the bones was conducted.  The City Archaeologists  from the D.C.’s Historic Preservation Office also arrived to investigate clues to find out who exactly the dead people might have been.   One year later, the remains have not been positively identified due to an interruption of the investigation amid COVID-19.   Apparently,  workmen building a staircase in a 15-foot wide English basement apartment of the home made the chilling discovery. But what is know is that  before the present group of houses on the 3300 block of Q Street  was built, mostly starting in the 1860s to 1880s, the block most likely was an open lot used as a burial ground.  Another possibility is the street was once the site of a Black cemetery that held both free and enslaved people.  Still another theory is  the bodies could be proof that the Underground Railroad ran through Georgetown because of its close location to nearby slave trading centers and the Potomac River.  Another one is the possibility that the remains could belong to a famous Georgetown resident named  Yarrow Mamout, an African Muslim and former enslaved man-turned entrepreneur, who owned a house around the block from Q Street at 3324 Dent Place NW. Mamout  who was supposedly buried in the corner of his garden. 

(credit:  Gary Raynaldo /  ©Diplomatic Times )    Skeletal remains were found at the Q Street home in Georgetown on right with scaffolding that is under renovation. 

EXLUSIVE DIPLOMTIC TIMES INTERVIEW –    WORKER WHO FOUND SKELETON REMAINS IN  GEORGETOWN DC HOUSE THAT MAY BE AFRICAN AMERICAN SLAVES

EXLUSIVE DIPLOMTIC TIMES INTERVIEW –    SKELETON REMAINS FOUND IN GEORGETOWN DC HOUSE MAY BE AFRICAN AMERICAN SLAVES  – One of the workers who made the  chilling discovery tells his story at the site of the house in Georgetown  Mar. 25, 2021.

“We were digging to  make the staircase opening and then we found a couple of bones. But we didn’t even know it was a body. But when we found a skull, that’s when we knew it was a human. So we called the owner,  even the police showed up.  They said we had to stop the work so they could take all the  bones out. So they came in and started digging and removing bones everyday.  At the  end, it looked like they found 15 bodies…it took about 3 or 4 months (of digging).  They are still working on it and will let us know when they identify them.  It looks like they belong to slaves. They found a couple of adults’ bodies and they also found  some kids.  That was something amazing (children found). We didn’t expect that.”

(credit:  Gary Raynaldo /  ©Diplomatic Times )   A construction worker points to basement apartment on  Q Street in Georgetown where he and his crew made the chilling discovery of skulls and bones that may be African American slaves from the 1800s. 

(credit:  Gary Raynaldo /  ©Diplomatic Times )   Skeletal remains were found under this staircase in basement apartment on  Q Street in Georgetown that may be African American slaves from the 1800s. 

(credit:  Gary Raynaldo /  ©Diplomatic Times )  Skeletal remains were found at this  Q Street home in Georgetown  undergoing renovation. 

AFRICAN AMERICAN  HISTORY  REMAINS BURRIED  AT Q STREET  GEORGETOWN 

credit:  Gary Raynaldo /  ©Diplomatic Times )    Human skeletal remains that could be slaves from the 1800s were found in the basement of a million dollar stately home located in the Q Street section of Georgetown,  DC.

The process of identifying and tracing the remains found on Q Street has been mysteriously slow for some reason.  According to WAMU.org, since the late 1800s, Q Street residents have stumbled upon skeletons and tombstones on their properties.  “The D.C. government is still trying to estimate the exact count, but the HPO is currently storing remains belonging to at least 28 individuals buried at Q Street in a Smithsonian lab, waiting for COVID-19 restrictions to lift so they can be fully studied. Burials have been found at 3311, 3317, 3319, 3333, and 3329 Q Street, per the HPO. Only one body has been formally analyzed and six have had preliminary analyses — all appear to be of African descent, and most seem to have been between the ages of 30 and 60.” -wamu.org.  

“There are plenty others there,” says David Hunt, a forensic anthropologist and archeologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, who’s often been called in to analyze bones for the D.C. government. “How many more are there, and how many are underneath and in the backyards of those houses on Q Street? It’s anybody’s guess.”

-wamu.org