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In search of lost cemeteries

A number of cemeteries forgotten through the years across the Tampa Bay area came to light during 2019, most of them final resting places for African-Americans. The new attention to old burial grounds springs from a Tampa Bay Times report in June that revealed the first and largest of them – Zion Cemetery in Tampa.

Archaeologists Kelsey Kreiser, Rebecca O'Sullivan, Eric Prendergast and Jeff Moates survey an area of Robles Park Village where they believe graves from Zion Cemetery may be located in Tampa, Monday, June 22, 2020.
Graves have been found at Tampa’s lost Zion Cemetery
Archaeologists start the process of ground truthing on segregation-era cemetery land.
Jun. 22, 2020• History
50 things to know about the Tampa Bay area’s forgotten cemeteries
Archaeologists say Zion Cemetery likely was full when it disappeared in the late 1920s. This map of Zion was filed with the Hillsborough County Clerk when Zion was established on Feb. 20, 1901. The cemetery on North Florida Avenue contained 98 plots, each 20 feet wide and with room for about eight graves. That's a total of about 800 graves. There was also a potters field on the north end of the cemetery for people who couldn't afford a coffin.
To catch you up on what’s happened, here are answers to questions about all the burial grounds that have come to light in 2019.
Dec. 31, 2019• Hillsborough
‘Those young people out in the street inherited our rage’
A grave marker in Tampa's Oaklawn Cemetery for a lynching victim. A group of local elected officials, historians, pastors and civil rights leaders want to erect a monument honoring all Hillsborough County's racial lynching victims.
Four lost black cemeteries have been found in the last year. There could be more. What does this say about the Tampa Bay area’s history?
Jun. 5, 2020• News
In Clearwater, graves from another lost black cemetery have been found
In November, Muhammad Abdur-Rahim pointed out the location of where he believed was a former African-American cemetery on Frank Crum Staffing's campus located at 100 S. Missouri Ave. in Clearwater. Archaeologists have confirmed that graves from that cemetery are still there.
Archaeologists discovered at least 70 graves that were left behind when a Clearwater cemetery was moved in the 1950s.
Jun. 3, 2020• News
  1. NAACP wants reparations for Tampa’s Black cemeteries that governments “stole”
    Feb. 27• History
    Hillsborough County NAACP President Yvette Lewis speaks during an unveiling of a memorial and historical marker at Ridgewood Cemetery on the edge of King High School in Tampa on Monday.
  2. This is how Tampa lost a historic Black cemetery to a property flipper
    Feb. 21• History
    A 2020 aerial photo of Memorial Park Cemetery, the East Tampa segregation-era Black burial ground.
  3. Is Tampa’s Italian Club looking for 1,200 missing bodies?
    Feb. 8• History
    Aerial of the lost College Hill Cemetery, which is now a parking lot for the Italian Club Cemetery.
  5. Tampa loses control of historic Black cemetery. A property flipper now owns it.
    Jan. 30• History
    Memorial Park Cemetery in Tampa is seen in 2021. The cemetery opened in 1919.
  6. Factions fight to manage a century-old Tampa Bay historic Black cemetery
    Jan. 20• History
    For more than 100 years, Rose Cemetery has remained active and central to Tarpon Springs’ Black community.
  7. Tampa residents want Italian Club to stop parking on Black and Cuban graves
    Dec. 13, 2022• History
    College Hill Cemetery was once a burial ground for 1,200 of Tampa's pioneering Cuban and Black residents. There is no evidence the bodies were moved. Archaeologists believe the graves could still be on the land that is now a parking lot for the Italian Club Cemetery.
  8. Clearwater land with lost graves of Black pioneers gets a historic marker
    Nov. 29, 2022• History
    Erin McKendry, center, a staff archaeologist with Cardno, points to an area that is believed to be the top of a coffin belonging to the erased North Greenwood Cemetery while Ryan Harke, right, an archaeologist with the Florida Public Archaeology Network, and Kerri Klein, an archaeologist with Cardno, watch on Feb. 10, 2021, in Clearwater. At 10 a.m. Saturday, a historic marker denoting the existence of the cemetery will be unveiled at the site.
  9. 328 graves from Black cemetery are under company and Clearwater road
    Sep. 1, 2022• History
    The FrankCrum human resources headquarters in Clearwater is located at 100 S Missouri Ave. and has remains from a Black cemetery on its property.
  10. To honor son, Clearwater woman wants to memorialize a Black pioneer
    Aug. 25, 2022• History
    Karen Mariscal, 59, of Clearwater, collects a fallen flag and a clutch of flowers near the grave markers for Laura Goree (d1905) and Wm. Conway Zimmerman (d1907), at left and right, while visiting the Dunedin Municipal Cemetery in Dunedin.
  11. Woodlawn Cemetery could help solve mystery of Tampa’s erased Black cemeteries
    Jun. 30, 2022• History
    This small section of land at Woodlawn Cemetery was designated for Black burials more than a century ago. It was staked off in 1900 to separate it from white burials during that era of segregation.
  12. A historic marker denotes the location of an erased Tampa cemetery
    Jun. 17, 2022• History
    This historic marker now denotes the the location of the erased College Hill Cemetery. The burial ground for Black and Cuban residents is now the Italian Club Cemetery's parking lot. It was erased after 1941. There are no records of the bodies being moved.
  13. Tampa’s Oaklawn Cemetery might have an erased Black section
    Jun. 2, 2022• History
    The parking in the northeast corner of Oaklawn Cemetery and the fellowship hall to the north of the church across the street are within the footprint of property that was deeded as a Black cemetery in 1883. It's unclear if anyone was buried there.
  14. 4 East Tampa homes may sit atop a Black cemetery with 430 graves
    May 3, 2022• History
    Aerial view of where four homes and a church parking lot in East Tampa's Montana City Subdivision might have been built on top of the St. Joseph Aid Society Cemetery.
  15. 100 years after the Black cemetery was erased, Tampa’s Zion hosts a funeral
    Feb. 17, 2022• History
    Salesia Smith-Gordon comforts her mother Jeraldine Williams, center, in front of a memorial during the funeral service for her great-great-great grandmother Anna Wyche, who is among those buried at the erased Zion Cemetery, where Robles Park Village now stands in Tampa.
  16. Castor apologizes for Tampa’s role in erasing Black cemeteries
    Jan. 14, 2022• Tampa
    Mayor Jane Castor speaks at a news conference at Memorial Park Cemetery to address the city’s role in the upkeep, care and protection of privately owned and city cemeteries.
  17. Over 500 graves might be on Clearwater company’s land. Is city responsible?
    Dec. 8, 2021• History
    Archaeologists Mary Maisel, left, and Erin McKendry, with Cardno, excavate sand in March while working to confirm graves from Clearwater's erased St. Matthews Baptist Church Cemetery.
  18. An erased cemetery in Pasco? Historian says he has photo evidence.
    Sep. 27, 2021• History
    Pasco County historian Jeff Cannon says this concrete slab marks Eugenia Osburn Howell's grave still located on land that was once Prospect Cemetery.
  19. Developer wants to build homes on land that is part of a Tampa cemetery
    Sep. 21, 2021• History
    A view of the Showmen’s Rest Cemetery at 3541 N. North Blvd. in Tampa. A developer wants to buy an unused portion of Showmen's Rest Cemetery for circus and carnival workers and build up to 15 single family homes on the land.
  20. Tampa’s erased College Hill Cemetery will be marked again
    Sep. 15, 2021• History
    Angela Alderman has on a decade long search for her great uncle's grave in College Hill Cemetery that was located where the Italian Club Cemetery's parking lot is today. Alderman is holding her uncle's death certificate in the parking lot.
  21. Graves were found under Tropicana Field parking lots. Now what?
    Aug. 10, 2021• History
    Parking lot 1 at Tropicana Field where Oaklawn Cemetery was once located on the corner of 16th street and 5th Ave. S.
  22. Once abandoned, a Black cemetery in Clearwater has an owner
    Aug. 3, 2021• History
    A small number of grave markers remain in place at Whispering Souls Cemetery on South Drive in Clearwater. For decades the cemetery, which dates to the 1800s, has sat abandoned as neighborhoods were built up around it. Recently, a judge granted ownership of the cemetery to a nonprofit.
  23. Historic marker could denote erased College Hill Cemetery’s location in Tampa
    Jul. 13, 2021• History
    Angela Alderman poses in the Italian Club Cemetery's parking lot, which is the possible site of the erased College Hill Cemetery. She is holding a copy of the death certificate for her great uncle, Frank Martinez, who died in 1917 and was buried in College Hill Cemetery. Pictured rear is the Italian Club Cemetery mausoleum.
  24. USF launches website to serve as a national hub for erased Black cemeteries
    Jun. 16, 2021• History
    Cardno Archaeologist KC Allen uses a trowel as she explores a possible grave shaft at the erased Zion Cemetery in Tampa.
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