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And, lo, two stars appeareth at Fair Hill

In the 1990s, the corner of 9th Street and Indiana Avenue was notorious as an open-air drug market. It has taken years to clean it up, but the neighborhood is staging a comeback.

In the 1990s, the corner of 9th Street and Indiana Avenue was notorious as an open-air drug market. It has taken years to clean it up, but the neighborhood is staging a comeback.

Seventy new apartment units grace the 900 block of Indiana Avenue. A majestic dark-gray fence now borders the historic Fair Hill Burial Ground, where abolitionists Lucretia Mott and Robert Purvis are buried.

As of Wednesday, two stars are shining down on the property, which is also a community park. Residents of the surrounding Fairhill neighborhood made two 4-foot-by-4-foot lighted stars to hang from a majestic cypress tree overlooking the burial ground.

"We built the star the way you'd draw a star, with five little sticks," said carpenter Baird Brown. "We're turning it into a Christmas tree for the neighbors by putting a couple of big stars up."

The stars are battery-powered and are expected to remain lighted for two weeks.

When the Daily News visited, children were playing on a swing in a tree that stands between the lighted tree and the old graves. "It has a lot of nice lights on it and it represents Christmas," said Cassandra Colon, 13.