Old North Church Tomb Opened For First Time In Over A Century

BOSTON (CBS) -- The city's archaeology department opened a tomb at the historic Old North Church that had gone undisturbed for over a century.

The Old North Church & Historic Site shared images of the tomb being opened for the first time in 105 years on their Instagram page Wednesday.

Inside, they said at least 20 adult and infant coffins were found, along with wood shavings, skeletal remains, and written Bible pages.

"When we opened the tomb, we found roughly 20 coffins in there," said Rev. Stephen Ayres. "A series of four were nicely stacked up on the side and hadn't collapsed yet, the rest were starting to deteriorate."

On top of one coffin a flashlight picked up a piece of paper.

"The most interesting thing we found in there was a page from the bible that had Luke 24 which is the resurrection gospel," said Ayres.

They didn't touch anything inside the tomb, out of respect for the dead

The goal was to see if the inside of the crypts are structurally sound, which they were. Now they can focus on repairing the exterior walls and the doors.

The tomb restorations are part of an eight million dollar makeover to coincide with the church's 300th anniversary in 2023.