Construction crew digs up 19th-century human remains behind 79 Christopher St., next to a West Village church

A garden renovation on one of the West Village's best-known streets turned up a piece of the neighborhood's buried past this week: part of a human skeleton that city officials say has likely been in the ground since the mid-1800s.

Construction workers excavating the backyard of 79 Christopher St. called 911 around 11 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5, after finding several bones and part of a skull 4 to 7 feet below the surface, the NYPD said, according to Gothamist. Officers from the 6th Precinct responded.

A former church burial ground

The city's medical examiner determined the remains are historic and were likely buried when the plot served as a cemetery for the neighboring church in the mid-1800s, police said. The property sits next to St. John's Lutheran Church, which dates to 1855, Gothamist reported.

Sources told amNewYork that the workers were renovating a garden beside the church when they came upon what looked like a skull alongside roughly five bones laid out in a square, an arrangement that could suggest a grave. The building at 79 Christopher St. is connected to the church, and the entire building was under construction at the time, amNY reported.

Police said no foul play is suspected. It was not immediately clear whether the remains belonged to a man or a woman.

What happens next

No statement from the church or the property's owner had been reported as of Friday, and it is unclear how the discovery will affect the renovation, Village Reader reported. Officials have not said what will happen to the remains.

Finds like this are a reminder of how much of 19th-century Manhattan, including small churchyard burial grounds, still lies beneath its gardens and backyards. NewYorkNews.app will update this story if the church or city officials share more about the burial ground or the remains.