(NOTE: This story has been updated.)

For at least the fourth time, bones have turned up during excavation on the site of Maryland Avenue Montessori School on Milwaukee's East Side.

The bones were uncovered Wednesday morning during work to install a new greenhouse on the Maryland Avenue side of the triangular property bordered by Maryland and Prospect Avenues.

After Milwaukee Police determined the site was not a crime scene and that the bones were old, the Wisconsin Historical Society – which has oversight on Wisconsin cemeteries – sent someone out to collect the remains, which were found about three feet below the surface.

The medical examiner's investigation report said, "Wisconsin Historical Society ... stated they are taking possession of the human remains that have been excavated and will be waiting on the property owner to decide if they will abandon the dig/construction project or if they will pay to have all the remains excavated and properly removed for reburial."

That report notes that after four bones were initial discoved, included what appeared to be a human femur, "a large amount of bones were found."

A pest house cemetery was located on the site during the cholera epidemics of 1849-50 and 1853 and with hundreds dead, bodies were buried in shallow graves.

Bones were also found during the construction of the oldest part of the current Maryland Avenue Montessori complex in 1887. What was found was reinterred at the potter's field.

That August, however, the Journal carried a short, disturbing notice that read, "The extension of Prospect Avenue through the old cemetery, where the cholera victims of 1853 were buried, is bringing to the surface a great many human bones, which ought to be buried instead of being left to bleach where they are."

More bones appeared during excavation for a 1951 gym addition and those were sent to the Milwaukee Public Museum for examination, but the museum does not have any record of the excavation, the remains, the examination or an investigation.

Although no bones were found when that gym addition got an expansion in 2016, some remains were discovered during foundation work on the west side of the 1887 portion of the building in 2021.

On Tuesday, Oct. 8, we learned that construction is stopping for now, and the school will reevaluate in spring, potentially moving the greenhouse to another location on the grounds.

"We are working with the Wisconsin Historical Society and UWM archeologists to properly document this situation and determine how to manage the remains and the site," wrote Principal Joe DiCarlo in a letter to families. "Due to the sensitive nature of this situation and the upcoming winter weather, we are unable to continue construction at the current site. In the spring, we will evaluate whether construction can be relocated to a different area of school property."

In the meantime, WHS had surveyors on site after the discovery as a team worked to excavate the trench. An excavator was expected to arrive in coming days to pull up more of the pavement nearby in an attempt to find the extent of this portion of the cemetery.

You can read a much deeper history of the epidemic, the cemetery and the remains found on site in this 2016 article and in this one about the 2021 excavation.

For more on pest houses (aka isolation hospitals) in Milwaukee, read this article.