The 126th Street Depot in Harlem, one of the oldest bus depots in the city, will close in January to make way for a slave memorial and possibly an apartment building.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority proposed renovating the property at 2460 Second Avenue in 2010. Just three years prior, construction workers found the remains of a 1600s-era African burial ground for slaves. An excavation would have to occur before construction begins.
“We’ve already started to work on [the memorial] … Residential is a thought, but it has to be done in a respectful way,” City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito told the New York Post.
After January, the site will revert back to city ownership under a lease agreement between the MTA and the city, the Post said. Lev Kimyagarov of Massey Knakal Realty Services said parcels similar to the site have doubled in price since 2012.
The Elmendorf Reformed Church occupied the land from 1665 until 1869. The 126th Street Depot opened in 1947 as a trolley yard, the Post said. [NYP] — Mark Maurer
