Human remains found at historic Hood Estate in Limerick, Pennsylvania
LIMERICK, Pa. (CBS) -- Human remains were found at the historic Hood Estate in Limerick, Montgomery County, the Eastern Pennsylvania Preservation Society said Wednesday.
The Hood Estate, which is up for sale under a specific condition, is said to have served as a stop on the Underground Railroad during the Civil War. The EPPS believes the remains are of John McClellan Hood, his wife, Elizabeth, and their kids, Washington and Montgomery.
The EPPS said specialists from the Boyertown Historical Society of Archaeologist Division, Rutgers University and independent archeologist Alex Denning were working to learn more about the history of the Hood Estate when the remains were found.
By the early 1900s, 15 Hood family members were buried on the estate's grounds. However, vandalism and grave robbing forced most of the remains to be relocated to Philadelphia's Laurel Hill Cemetery, according to the EPPS.
John McClellan Hood, an Irish immigrant who became a wholesale food entrepreneur, built the mansion in 1834 for his wife and 13 children. According to the EPPS, the home served as a summer home for the Hoods until 1940, but it was occupied by caretakers until 2008. The mansion is about 5,000 square feet and has 17 rooms and eight fireplaces.
The Hood family also erected a stone mausoleum and a monument at the estate dedicated to John McClellan Hood's son Washington, a graduate of West Point and an Army Corps of Engineers topographer.
However, the Hood Estate is at risk of being destroyed. The EPPS is working to save the mansion after it was recently sold to developers.
A developer from Brooklyn, New York, owns the estate and has proposed building four warehouses on the 112-acre property.
"The plan would destroy the mansion, leave the mausoleum exposed and vulnerable, erase the Hood family history," the EPPS wrote. "The developer had denied any presence of human remains on the site."
According to the EPPS, the monument to Washington Hood was desecrated in July. It has since been transported for safekeeping.
The EPPS said the monument would eventually be restored, and they'd secured a burial plot for the remains of the Hood family found at the estate.
"The EPPS is still hoping to save the historic home, mausoleum, and property," the EPPS wrote in a statement. "Our goal is to keep the lines of communication open with the developer for the eventual subdivision of six acres of land that will allow the preservation of the Hood mansion, its history and historic ancestral burial ground of the Hoods."