For historic Georgetown Black cemeteries, stormwater project begins next spring

Preliminary work has begun on a project to protect two of D.C.’s oldest African American burial grounds from stormwater damage.

On Oct. 13, the District Department of Transportation arranged for workers to remove trees as part of a larger drainage project aimed at addressing flooding, ponding and erosion at the Mount Zion and Female Union Band Society cemeteries in Georgetown.

The main work on the project is scheduled to begin next year after several delays.

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) gave its final answer about the delayed project at an Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 2E public meeting on Sept. 29, 2025: it is expected to begin in spring 2026.

Commissioner Daniel Chao said that, since the project has been delayed many times, he needed a clear time when it will begin.

“This is fantastic,” Commissioner Mimsy Lindner said. “This project has been delayed, and it’s such an important project.”

A budget report from the D.C. Council’s Committee on Transportation & the Environment for fiscal year 2023 noted that the District has provided DDOT with $1.65 million to address stormwater problems at Mount Zion and the Female Union Band Society cemeteries by investing in stormwater management infrastructure improvements.

Congress also passed the African-American Burial Grounds Preservation Act in 2022, with the aim of facilitating nonfederal activities to identify, interpret, research, preserve, and record unmarked, previously abandoned, underserved, and other African-American burial grounds.

However, according to a letter from ANC 2E to DDOT, the drainage project’s construction date has been pushed back at least three times, even though the design of the infrastructure improvements has been completed.

“Construction was projected to start in fall 2025. Due to delays in our contracting process and the availability of our crews, we expect construction to begin in 2026,” Christophe Wassmer, the Ward 2 and Ward 3 liaison for DDOT, said. “We understand that this project has experienced a lot of delays.”

Wassmer said some of the delays were for items that were outside of the contract that had to be negotiated.

Wassmer said DDOT started the negotiation and the contracting process in November 2024. The process typically takes six to nine months to complete, but it took longer this time.

Different from previous delays, with the contract having been issued through DDOT’s Office of Contract and Procurement, delays now are related to DDOT crews currently being assigned to other projects, Wassmer said.

Important history behind the cemetery.

Mount Zion and Female Union Band Society cemeteries are in northeast Georgetown, bordering Rock Creek Park and the historic museum Dumbarton House.

The neglect of the two African American burial grounds can be seen vividly from two sides of Dumbarton House in Georgetown—one side is Oak Hill Cemetery, a well-preserved cemetery historically reserved for White residents with few exceptions, where the tombstones of congressmen and cabinet members tombstones can be found; the other side is Mount Zion and Female Union Band cemeteries, where slaves, freedmen and mostly black citizens were buried and where unmarked gravestones lie in disarray and weeds have overgrown.

Mount Zion and Female Union Band Society cemeteries are among the oldest African American cemeteries in D.C. and among the few that still preserve a significant number of graves of former slaves.

According to an historic overview prepared for the D.C. Preservation League by EHT Traceries, a small business specializing in historic preservation, the cemetery has been used as burial grounds since 1808. Originally, it was used to bury white parishioners of Mount Zion Church and their slaves, but many white remains were removed westward from the old ground to the new Oak Hill Cemetery in 1849.

The overview also said that the cemetery was connected to the Underground Railroad. Its brick burial vault served as a hiding place for runaway slaves, making the cemetery not only bear witness to the early development of African American communities but an important symbol of free Black culture in the United States.

The cemeteries need protection.

The D.C. Preservation League has listed the cemeteries on its list of Endangered Places issued since 2012.

Lisa Frager, executive director of Black Georgetown Foundation, said that Georgetown’s infrastructure channels water directly into the site, therefore causing erosion at both cemeteries.

She added that, since some land has been taken under eminent domain, she serves as a liaison between the National Park Service, which is responsible for Rock Creek Park, and the D.C. government.

But efforts by the community and nonprofit organizations to preserve the two burial grounds as historic landmarks and urban oases never stops.

The most recent event was a workshop held Oct. 6 that brought together gravestone restoration expert Jonathan Appell and representatives from four historic cemeteries in the Washington area to discuss how to restore and repair gravestones, monuments and stonework, focusing on the most common problems.

Frager said, “We’re working to preserve the cemetery, making it a historic memorial park, where people learn American history, that a lot of people have forgotten.”