I grew up in Wilkes-Barre, and researching local history and genealogy is a hobby of mine. I learned from old newspaper articles that this section of Wilkes-Barre that includes 142 Carlisle Street was built on an old Native American burial ground. Seriously.
In the 1800s, it was the site of the E.W. Sturdevant Estate, also known as the Firwood Estate, until it was sold to developers in 1894. The Firwood Land Company began to develop the land and divide it into plots circa 1895.
As they were digging to build roads and later foundations, they unearthed several Native American burial sites, per newspaper reports of that time. See here and here. Some reports describe a vast burial ground stretching to the banks of the Susquehanna River, but I haven’t found any documentation to confirm it was that extensive.
Given this history, there’s a small chance the bones found in the basement on Carlisle Street, which was built on the former Sturdevant Estate, might be from an old burial ground. I write “small” chance because you’d think any burial sites would have been unearthed back when the foundation was dug.
But as the meme goes, the entire United States was built on an old Indian burial ground.
