TAMPA, Fla. — Just one block south of the erased Zion Cemetery, where crews found hundreds of graves from one of the first Black cemeteries in the Tampa Bay area, there are new concerns about missing African American burials.
This time, the focus is on the old St. Mary's Cemetery, where the old Sacred Heart Academy is today.
When the local Catholic diocese placed a marker honoring burials from the old St. Mary’s Cemetery on North Florida Avenue in Tampa, Aileen Henderson, founder of The Cemetery Society, had one question: “Where are the other people? And those ‘other people’ would be people of color, which would be Hispanic and African American.”
There are no clear answers. But, Henderson believes they are still resting on diocese property, underneath what was once the Sacred Heart Academy.
For years, 10 Investigates has been asking the Diocese of St. Petersburg questions about possible missing burials from the now-defunct cemetery after researcher Ray Reed presented documentation that more than 900 people were once buried at the segregation-era site. This includes at least 70 Black residents.
DOSP, which acquired the land from the Diocese of St. Augustine in 1968, has repeatedly said that all the graves from St. Mary’s were relocated to a section of Tampa’s Myrtle Hill Cemetery.
“While they mentioned that they were relocated to Myrtle Hill, if you know your history, Myrtle Hill was a white cemetery, so anyone that would have been relocated would have been white only,” said Henderson.
10 Investigates found newspaper archives from the 1920s that report only 100 graves were moved.
DOSP’s new marker on North Florida Ave. next to the old Sacred Heart Academy acknowledges the multicultural burials at St. Mary’s and the move to Myrtle Hill. However, it’s vague about other cemeteries where graves would have been relocated.
The marker reads, in part: “For more than three decades, many Catholics of various ethnicities including white, Latin and African-American were interred here. With an eye to establish a parochial school on the site, in 1925-26, the remains of those buried at St. Mary’s were transferred to the newly created Catholic section at Myrtle Hill Cemetery or to other local cemeteries.”
In 2022, 10 Investigates asked Bishop Gregory Parkes about possible missing graves.
“I’m not going to discuss that,” he said.
This led to a back-and-forth exchange with 10 Investigates’ Emerald Morrow:
Morrow: "Well, the families are asking me, you know, if you're able to..."
Bishop Parkes: "Our diocese is working to resolve that issue. And we're committed to doing so. We're doing our part to do the research and to research the history there."
Morrow: "Will there be any ground-penetrating radar at all for that area?"
Bishop Parkes: "I'm not able to answer that today."
Morrow: "There are just some families that are really looking for some answers."
Bishop Parkes: "And we're committed to trying to provide answers to them."
The Diocese of St. Petersburg has refused multiple sit-down interview requests about St. Mary's Cemetery. However, DOSP spokesperson Teresa Peterson sent the following statement on Monday:
To help our community understand more about the former cemetery, we added a historical marker to the site of the former cemetery. As the marker states, “the remains of those buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery were transferred to the newly created Catholic section at Myrtle Hill Cemetery or to other local cemeteries.”
Some of the graves at the former St. Mary’s Cemetery were moved by private undertakers. We have no records or knowledge of where they were taken. The Diocese of St. Petersburg plans no additional action because we sincerely believe that the removals/transfers from St. Mary’s Cemetery were managed properly based on the information that has been archived. All the records relating to the former cemetery are private and can only be shared with family members who can provide proof of next of kin. We have nothing else to add.
The belief that all remains were moved has been a common one among businesses and institutions confronted with the possibility of graves on their property.
In 2019, 10 Investigates broke news of a possible cemetery underneath the old Curtis Fundamental School at Holt and Engman in Clearwater. Pinellas County Schools reported being aware of a former cemetery but was under the impression the graves were gone.
"I had been made aware of this a long time ago when I started my position but was under the impression that all the bodies were moved," former Pinellas County Schools real estate analyst Charlene Beyer said in 2019.
However, the district hired archaeologists who later found dozens of graves in the school parking lot and extending underneath the footprint of the school.
Aileen Henderson says a ground-penetrating radar survey could answer the question at St. Mary's once and for all.
“If they want to shut me up, if they want me to stop, then do the GPR, prove me wrong,” she said. “It's frustrating. I have family here,” she said. “My mom told me before she passed that we had family here.”
Other families, like Alexia Svejda’s, are also desperate for answers. Svejda reached out to 10 Investigates after seeing another report about St. Mary’s. 10 Investigates verified records that her great-grandfather was buried there.
"I was quite convinced then, and I'm even more convinced now, that his remains were never moved,” she said.
RELATED: Whistleblower: Hundreds of graves missing from old Catholic cemetery in Tampa
Ironically, St. Mary’s is just one block away from Zion Cemetery, one of Tampa’s first Black Cemeteries. In 2019, after a Tampa Bay Times investigation, archaeologists found nearly 300 graves buried under Robles Park Village public housing apartments, a towing lot and a warehouse owned by local businessman, Richard Gonzmart.
Aside from the new marker at St. Mary’s, two mausoleums along N. Florida Ave. are the only vestiges from the cemetery. Archaeologist Jeff Moates, who helped uncover graves from Zion and other erased Black cemeteries across the Tampa Bay area, said in 2022 those mausoleums could still classify the land as a cemetery.
“Whether or not there are remains still in those mausoleums is the question that I think we're trying to answer,” he said. “The mausoleums are historic structures, and they were a part of a cemetery. So, I think that evidence alone and that there was a cemetery there that you can say that it's plausible that this is still a cemetery and should be treated as such."
After 10 Investigates’ 2022 report, archaeologists from USF added St. Mary’s to Florida’s Master Site File, which would flag the property for possible graves if there are plans for future development.
“We have once again in Tampa built over a cemetery, and it keeps happening over and over again,” Henderson added. “These people that were buried here, Tampa was built on their backs. Do them justice and tell us the truth. The whole truth. Or provide us the documentation to tell us otherwise.”
Emerald Morrow is an investigative reporter with 10 Tampa Bay. Like her on Facebook and follow her on X. You can also email her at emorrow@10tampabay.com.