Every day hundreds of people visit Baltimore’s BelAir Edison Crossing Shopping Center to shop at discount stores including Dollar General and Food Depot -but most shoppers don’t know they are walking across land where at least 5,000 forgotten bodies were left behind when an old cemetery was bulldozed in the 1950s.

Laurel Cemetery once served as the ‘undisturbed resting place for all time to come’ for thousands of African-Americans after opening in 1852 as the city’s first non-sectarian graveyard.

It was a popular burial ground for several decades until the cemetery fell into disrepair and neighboring residents began using it as a dump in the 1940s.

The owners of the property declared bankruptcy and sold the property in 1952 to a commercial developer who removed an estimated 300 bodies, despite relatives of those interred at Laurel Cemetery protesting against it.

It's estimated that at least 5,000 bodies were left behind on the 15-acre property that was quickly bulldozed and paved over to eventually create the BelAir Edison Crossing Shopping Center, where the current owners just became aware that it was a cemetery.

Laurel Cemetery once served as the ‘undisturbed resting place for all time to come’ for thousands of African-Americans after opening in 1852 as the city’s first non-sectarian graveyard. The map above from 1876 shows the cemetery being located in the top right area of Baltimore

But the cemetery fell into disrepair in the 1940s and the owners declared bankruptcy. It was sold in 1952 to a commercial developer who removed an estimated 300 bodies before leaving at least 5,000 bodies behind, experts say. The 15-acre property was photographed being bulldozed and paved over in 1958 (above) to create what is now the BelAir Edison Crossing Shopping Center

Now, more than 165 years since it opened, archaeologist and expert Ronald Castanzo discovered human remains on the area that hadn’t been paved over after conducting an excavation. He captured the above image showing the top of a tombstone poking out from the earth on the property near pieces of trash

Twelve years before slavery was abolished, prominent businessman Thomas Burgan Jr. sold a piece of land on the then-Belle Air Avenue to several businessman in 1851. The group developed the land into a cemetery for ‘colored people of the city and county of Baltimore’.

The next year it was incorporated as Laurel Cemetery Co., becoming the largest and first non-sectarian cemetery in Baltimore for use by African-Americans.

For the first several decades, Laurel Cemetery was the most premier location for luminary blacks in Baltimore to be buried. It was called ‘the city’s most fashionable burying ground’ and the federal government even used a portion of land to bury an estimated 230 black Civil War veterans.

It even became a location where popular abolitionists would gather to host speeches, including social reformer, writer and statesman Frederick Douglass.

Ronald Castanzo, an archaeologist and assistant dean at the University of Baltimore, told DailyMail.com that by the 1910s and 20s, Laurel Cemetery started to lose its pristine reputation.

‘Money stopped coming into the cemetery and people stopped paying money to keep it up,’ he explained.

‘It just started falling into disrepair and people started dumping their garbage there reports at the time state. Trucks would literally go there and dump garbage there. It just got really bad and by the 1940s and 50s it just looked like a forest almost, completely overgrown.’

And by the 1950s, residents wanted Laurel Cemetery removed because it had ‘become a playground for neighborhood children and was an “eyesore” that “presents an almost unbroken facade of riotous verdure”,’ a report from The Baltimore Sun reads.

The cemetery’s owners declared bankruptcy in 1952.

McKamer Realty Corporation became interested in the property, with board members Lloyd G. McAllister and Clement R. Mercaldo leading the efforts to obtain the land, according to author Jane B. Wilson’s book, ‘The Very Quiet Baltimoreans’.

But the two men also ‘worked for the city in condemnation proceedings and in the real estate division of the city Law Department’ and were well aware that in Maryland, cemeteries could be dissolved by state law.

Prior to being destroyed, a 1938 aerial view of the cemetery circled above shows the area being surrounded by houses in the BelAir neighborhood of the city. Castanzo said that by the 1950s, residents in the area wanted the cemetery removed because it had become an 'eyesore'

Families of those buried at Laurel Cemetery tried to put up a legal fight against the developers, but lost the case. The state declared the property to be a 'health hazard', allowing for it to be destroyed for new buildings to be built on top. Pictured above is a 2018 aerial photo where the circled portion shows where Laurel Cemetery once was located

‘There was a lot of political corruption involved with the sale of the property at the time,’ Castanzo said.

‘And of course, you have the fact that it was cemetery devoted to a minority group and a group that did not have much in the way of political power in the city at that time.’

A bill was introduced, passed and signed into law in 1957 that declared Laurel Cemetery a health hazard allowing McKamer to buy the 15-acre property for $100. Shortly after, a second company purchased the land, which was valued at $229,660, despite the fact that thousands of remains were still buried on the property.

‘The company began to demolish the property, but a local NAACP chapter put a halt to the destruction after the relatives of the cemetery’s occupants banded together,’ Castanzo explained.

Relatives of those interred at Laurel Cemetery tried to stop the property from being developed into commercial buildings by filing lawsuits.

But it wasn’t enough and there were no laws in place to protect the individuals interred there and the development went forward.

‘A mortician was called in to officially “move” the cemetery where several thousand were buried. But only 300 remains were moved to another location, leaving the rest behind and closing the book on it essentially.

’It was a time period where people were running roughshod over the fact that there was a cemetery there and there were burials there and not respecting that. And just erasing it, which is what they did.’

Castanzo took several students to the area where they conducted an excavation on a portion of the property that was not paved over. During one of their digs, they discovered several casket handles and hinges (pictured above)

He said: ‘We found two sets of remains, small pieces that were heavily eroded from the soil. Those findings led us to believe there were way more bodies still there.' The group is pictured above conducting an excavation on the property in Baltimore

Castanzo and other historians are now working to make sure the rich history of the cemetery is not forgotten. The group is pictured above conducting an excavation on the property

What once was a cemetery for black luminaries, is now a parking lot and home to discount stores. As years went on, the memory of Laurel Cemetery disappeared as many don’t know it existed.

That included Castanzo who explained that he only discovered it after seeing an old map of Baltimore that showed its location near the university.

‘Since it was close, I decided to drive over to where it was supposed to be on the map to see if it was still there and discovered that it was a parking lot,’ he said.

‘There was a small area where grass had been planted, so I thought this would be interesting to see if I can find remains.’

Castanzo asked the company who owns the site for permission to excavate in the grass area, and in 2015 he started a small dig with some of his students.

‘We found two sets of remains, small pieces that were heavily eroded from the soil. We also found lots of hardware from caskets, like hinges and handles,’ Castanzo stated.

Castanzo and other historians are working to have the area formally recognized with a historic marker. He said, 'It's an important piece of history'. Pictured above is a present day photo showing the retail stores and parking lot that were built on top of Laurel Cemetery

‘Those findings led us to believe there were way more bodies still there. So then we conducted ground penetrating radar in the grassy area and the lanes in the parking lot.

'The radar showed that there’s a lot of graves still there and intact, thousands of them.’

Castanzo and other historians are now working to make sure the rich history of the cemetery is not forgotten.

‘From the archaeologist perspective you can’t justify digging up burials. The burials are there, they should stay there,’ Castanzo said.

‘We would like to have it recognized formally and have a historic marker put there. It’s an important piece of history.’