ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Lost graves at the Pinehurst and San Sebastian cemeteries are being newly discovered.
The West Augustine Improvement Association believes the cemeteries are two of the oldest historically Black cemeteries in Florida.
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The Abandoned African American Cemeteries Grants, a state-funded initiative, awarded $39,000 to the WAIA as the group works to establish the cemetery’s original boundaries.
WAIA has already identified more than 90 graves and the group thinks there could be even more.
Willie Cooper, the group’s president, said that for years, the cemeteries were left overgrown and abandoned. And when the cemetery was formed, there was no mechanism in place to generate funds for upkeep.
“One of our main goals was really to try to get the boundaries of the cemetery because it was all overgrown, so we weren’t sure exactly where the boundaries were,” Cooper said.
Cooper said that in 2004, St. Johns County asked the group to take them over.
Since then, the group has been restoring old graves and preserving history through the work of volunteers. Some of the graves date back to the 1800s. Others are marked with American flags, likely to honor what the group believes are World War II soldiers.
“Some of the markers that were put on them in the past are rubble, and throughout the years, they decay and this and that, but after a while, you don’t know who’s in what grave,” Cooper said.
The group has been crowdfunding via GoFundMe to pay for new headstones that have deteriorated over the years. Volunteers said they are in a race against time to record names and information on the graves, before they are completely weathered away and history is lost.
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“So, we do go around before the markers go away, write down who’s there, so when we do get the money to put a headstone there, we’ll be able to replace that marker,” Cooper said.
With the $39,000 grant, the group was able to bring on archaeologists who discovered graves surrounding the perimeter of the property, and some beneath the cemetery’s driveway.
But with the association’s small group of volunteers, they have struggled to maintain the grounds of the property.
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Now that archaeologists have surveyed beneath the grounds to identify where graves are (and aren’t), the group plans to build on a property adjacent to the cemetery to host events.
Cooper hopes the events venue can generate revenue, money that would go towards the maintenance of the cemetery and other activities the association supports.
So far, the group has been able to replace eight headstones with the money they’ve raised. Right now, they’re aiming to replace eleven more.
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