The committee was established last year and includes citizens, historians and preservationists, researchers, National Park Service officials and city staff.
Committee member Delatrie Hollinger said the marker language would be coming before a state historical council later this month. We all worked together and I am so proud of it, he said. We’re looking forward to the continuing work of this committee.
Proposed Historical Marker Language
Houstoun Plantation Cemetery
This 19th century cemetery is one of many known abandoned African American cemeteries in Florida. Before 1900, 80 to 100 enslaved and formerly enslaved persons are believed to have been buried here, many of them children and post-Civil War workers. Though visible in the 1920s, the burial ground was later lost, and in the 1970s was rediscovered by state archaeologists. In 2019, archaeological research led to the identification of 23 likely unmarked graves, and 14 additional possible unmarked graves. Edward H