Craven Street House
From 1757 to 1775, renowned statesman Ben Franklin lived in an elegant four-story Georgian at No. 36 Craven Street in London during his time as an ambassador for the American colonies. In late 1998, a restoration group began to convert the dilapidated building into a museum to honor Franklin, whose Philadelphia residence had been razed in 1812 to make way for new construction.
The restoration unearthed some interesting artifacts in a small pit in a windowless basement room: Workers found more than 1,200 pieces of human bones–the remains of 10 bodies that were a little more than 200 years old, which meant they may have been buried around the same time that Franklin was living in the house.
The findings raised questions as to Franklin’s role in the mass burial site but a study of the bones revealed that some of them had been sawed through, knicked with a scalpel, and even drilled into, pointing to anatomical study—not murder. Historians theorize that William Hewson, a tenant in the building, surreptitiously dissected dead bodies there in a makeshift lab, according to Mental Floss magazine’s web site. The study of anatomy was still in its infancy and social mores frowned upon dissection.
