The City of Pensacola hosted a ceremony Tuesday to celebrate the installation of a new marker to honor the unmarked burial ground at Miraflores Park. The marker commemorates the 80 unmarked graves revealed at the site, after the initial discovery of human remains in 2021.
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The unveiling of the memorial marker is the culmination of much historical research, community involvement, and assessment that commenced after the human remains of two people were discovered in the crawl space of the old Boy Scouts building at the Park.
"Today we place this marker, but more importantly, we lift a veil,” said Mayor D.C. Reeves. “We honor lives once overlooked, and they are threads that are woven back into the vibrant tapestry of this city, Pensacola.”
Reeves recalled he was just weeks into the job in early 2023 when he was tasked to deal with the situation.
RELATED: GPR survey suggests evidence of historic burials at Miraflores Park
“You think about a lot of things when you become Mayor of the City of Pensacola,” Reeves began. “But nowhere on the Bingo card is it that you’re going to have a staff member walk in to you and say, 'we think there might be an unmarked burial ground in one of our city parks.'"
Reeves established the Miraflores Burial Ground Study and appointed a community advisory committee to gather stories and input from the community and collaborate on how best to proceed with commemoration of the site.
As staff support for the committee, the city’s Historic Preservation Planner, Adrianne Walker, guided the process. During the ceremony, she provided a short recap of the project.
RELATED: The search for early Pensacolians at Miraflores Park
“A National Park Service grant funded a ground-penetrating radar survey, as well as a K-9 survey, that identified 80 possible burials located in this park,” Walker said. “And, a Florida Division of Historical Resources grant funded a long-term preservation plan and the burial marker that we are unveiling today, that also serves as a structure to reinter the two individuals found in 2021.”
Walker said a little over $57,000 combined was paid for the survey work, interpretive signs, monument, and a long-term preservation plan at the burial ground, once known as Havana Square.
The memorial marker sits under a small pavilion. By intention, it’s simple and understated. It’s made of granite, rectangular shaped and almost five feet tall.
The unknown male (age 40-47) and unknown female (age 35-44), who were found in the Boy Scouts’ building are commemorated on the front of the marker.
Historic research indicates the other 80 possible unknown graves identified were part of a burial ground that was established by 1884 and predominantly used by African American and/or Creole people in Pensacola.
Those unknown burials have been acknowledged with text on top of the monument.
“We may not ever know the names of the people that are buried here, but we honor them because they were a part of the foundation of our city in the past,” said committee member Margo Stringfield. Stringfield is an archaeologist for the University of West Florida, who is known for her work preserving and interpreting some of Pensacola’s historic cemeteries.
“And even if we do not know their names, we know that they were here. They made contributions. Their lives mattered to them, and they matter to us.”
Lusharon Wiley, who chaired the advisory committee, thanked the many people and organizations involved and said she was pleased with how all the work that went into the project turned out.
“It came together and flowed beautifully,” declared Wiley. “There were lots of discussions. There was community input, so I feel like today culminates a job well done in our four years to get to this place.”
Additionally, Wiley stressed how important it was to the committee that the commemoration be respectful and said she believes they accomplished that. She referenced a quote on the monument from Tom Moreno, a Creole Pensacolian born in 1841. His words are attributed to a Federal Writers’ Project interview dated to 1937.
“It says that when we die, our spirits are still here,” she recalled. “And, so the spirit here of the nearly 80 people whose bodies are interred here, that, to me, has been recognized, affirmed, and honored. So, what a way to say you matter, which is one of the things that I say all the time. Our ancestors matter.”
Councilwoman Teniadé Broughton, who also sits on the advisory committee, said she, too, was pleased with how the city approached and resolved the burial ground commemoration.
“Now it’s up to the community,” she said. “Who’s gonna come by; who will visit? Who will commemorate this place by making sure that they can enjoy and observe the recognition of the people?”
Looking ahead, the city is planning one final public meeting to go over the long-term preservation plan for the historic burial ground. Also, more information could be forthcoming, as UWF graduate student Jennifer Rollins has chosen to continue research on the site for her Master’s thesis.
