In 2016, a contractor remodeling a San Francisco duplex hit something hard with his shovel. A few shovelfuls more unearthed a metal box with two windows.
It was a child-sized coffin containing the remains of a blond toddler with a rosary draped across her chest and lavender sprigs placed gently in her curly hair. It took more than a year for a team of archaeologists, genealogists and historical investigators to find out who the child was and why her casket was buried underneath a residence in the Lone Mountain neighborhood of the Richmond District.
Turns out, the land had been a cemetery when the child died in the 1870s. The waterfront property was in high demand, especially as the city grew in population. The cemetery was moved to make room for the living— or so people thought.
