The Ghosts of 10th Avenue

The discovery of a forgotten graveyard upends a multi-million-dollar Manhattan real estate deal in this richly drawn exploration of the crisis of urban homelessness and its intersection with history

In late 2019, the Bowery Residents’ Committee (BRC) put a $1 million nonrefundable downpayment on a piece of land in Upper Manhattan. As one of the largest and most important nonprofits of its kind, BRC provides housing and services to New York City’s homeless population, and the new construction project in Inwood would allow for much-needed expansion. Months later,  BRC learned that the lot had been a burial ground for Africans who had likely been enslaved by early Dutch settlers and also held significance for the Lenape tribe. BRC’s leadership was faced with an excruciating decision: abandon the project in deference to the sanctity of the site and lose the money, wait to see what exploratory excavations would reveal, or ignore the history and start building. 

BRC embarked on an unusual moral reckoning, set against the emotional backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. Julie Salamon, a journalist and bestselling author, and the board chair of BRC for twenty-five years, began to chronicle the organization’s decision-making process with curiosity, empathy, and keen attention, uncovering layer upon layer of tragedy, resistance, human connection—and ultimately a kind of hope.

The resulting story brings together a chorus of voices who represent the great cacophony of urban life: the caseworkers patrolling the streets and subways in an effort to bring help to those in need, the clients who accept or reject that assistance for myriad complex and individual reasons, the nonprofit administrators and veterans of city government working to keep the system going, the local residents with strong opinions about the future of their neighborhood, and the archaeologists, historians, and preservationists who help us understand and protect the history that lies beneath our feet. The Ghosts of 10th Avenue resonates with urgent questions about who that history belongs to and who New York City belongs to—in the past, present, and future.