Pensacola to Study Burial Ground at Miraflores Park
by Jeremy Morrison, Inweekly
Following the discovery of human remains in Miraflores Park and verification that the site was previously used as a burial ground, the city of Pensacola plans to assess the park further and commemorate the site.
“These were people. They were part of a community. These people could be ancestors of current Pensacolians,” Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said Tuesday.
In 2021, bones were discovered in the crawl space of the Boy Scout building, Miraflores Park’s sole structure. With assistance from the University of West Florida’s Anthropology Department, local authorities determined that the remains — found by a group of scouts cleaning the crawl space — were likely disturbed during the 1934 construction of the building.
Since the discovery, the Florida Department of State has determined that the remains were likely interred in a historic African American cemetery within the park’s modern boundaries and that the site falls under the city’s jurisdiction.
“They brought me this research last month and asked how we wanted to proceed,” Mayor Reeves said. “I kind of half-jokingly told them there isn’t a decision to be made; this is pretty clear. We’re a city that prides itself on its history, and in opportunities like this, we get a chance to learn from our past.”
According to ongoing research by the state, UWF and the city —now being headed up by Adrian Walker, Pensacola’s newly hired cultural affairs/resources coordinator — Miraflores Park served as a burial ground in the late 1800s; historical documents confirm that this is the case at least between 1884 and 1887.
It is currently unknown if any further remains are buried on the park property, and the city isn’t planning to excavate in an effort to find out.
“It is important that we do not disturb the ground any further at Miraflores Park and that we respect the final resting place of these historic community members,” said Walker.
There are plans, however, to conduct a Ground Penetrating Radar or GPR survey of the property. Beyond tree roots, there should be little to prohibit such a non-invasive, subterranean search for further burials.
“Fortunately, Miraflores Park is relatively undeveloped, other than the Boy Scout building and modern amenities, so we are hopeful that the GPR survey will provide favorable results,” Walker said.
If further burials are discovered during the GPR process, the city would then move to denote the sites in some way.
“If we are able to determine there are other burials, preservation and protection are of utmost importance,” Walker said. “We would want to make sure we are kind of marking and delineating that area and that we are also interrupting it and commemorating it and doing everything we can to make sure our citizens and even our vendors understand the importance of this resource.”
The skeletal remains discovered in the Boy Scout building crawlspace represent two individuals. According to research conducted by UWF bioanthropologist Katie Miller-Wolf, one individual was female, between the age of 35 and 44, while the other was male, between the age of 40 and 47. It is not known when the individuals were buried.
“The skeletal analysis consisted of over 100 co-mingled, or mixed up skeletal fragments,” explained Walker. “This type of analysis is lengthy and it requires the utmost care, attention to detail and respect as we look at each skeletal fragment individually.”
In addition to revealing the gender and age range of these individuals, the skeletal analysis also revealed something else: ancestral clues.
“Ancestry is difficult to determine, with partial skeletal remains,” said Mayor Reeves, “but features of the female individual suggest there are traits that align with the various known populations in historic Pensacola, such as African, Creole and European.”
“During the historic period, Pensacola was very diverse and composed of a multi-cultural community that is not always easily defined,” said Walker.
In particular, the skeletal analysis pointed to Creole ancestry.
“In Pensacola, Creole typically refers to an individual of African descent and European descent, that being usually Spanish or French,” explained Walker, adding that the skeletal analysis also ruled out the presence of Indigenous features.
Based on this finding, it’s believed that these remains are part of an African American and Creole cemetery. Research of the historical record—ranging from newspaper articles to property records—verifies that the site was used as a cemetery during the 1880s.
Back then, Miraflores Park was called Havana Square. The area around the park was developed early on.
“That part of town, around Miraflores Park, has a very interesting and lengthy history with ownership,” Walker said. “That area was platted out fairly early, in the 1830s.”
The park, meanwhile, remained undeveloped. It was used as a burial ground for some undetermined amount of time, and now it has a playground. The Boy Scouts building has been there since the 1930s and in 1965 the property’s name was changed from Havana Square to Miraflores Park as part of President Dwight Eisenhower’s People to People program, in recognition of Pensacola’s sister city of Miraflores, Peru.
“Many people don’t realize that at the corner of the park there is a large statue with a bust of a Peruvian author,” Walker said, referencing a a bust of Ricardo Palma given to the city by a visiting delegation from Miraflores.
Having a cemetery like the one that once graced this site disappear is fairly common, Walker said.
“This is incredibly common during the historic period,” Walker said. “This kinda goes back to how history has played out. Those people were marginalized during the historic period and then eventually somebody comes through and wants to build a building or they want to clean up a park and so they do and then it gets lost with time.”
The city’s cultural affairs coordinator said that Pensacola is actually fortunate in this instance, as often time burial grounds such as this are discovered on long-developed property. Since, the 1880s, Miraflores has been largely left alone.
“There’s a whole preservation aspect we have that other communities don’t have,” Walker said.
“To put it frankly, there’s something we can do about learning more, where in some instances, you know, that is not always the case,” Mayor Reeves said. “You may know it’s there, but can’t do much about it. But since it’s a city park, a relatively undeveloped city park, there’s something we can do.”
To that end, Reeves said, the city is forming a community advisory group that will be tasked with gathering public input on how best to interpret and commemorate the former burial grounds, and also on the eventual reinterment of the two individuals discovered beneath the Boy Scout building. The mayor said he didn’t know if this discovery of a former burial ground would merit potentially shifting the property’s use from a park to a commemoration site.
“It’s too early to say, we’ve got to see and evaluate what we’ve got,” Reeves said.
More information regarding the former burial ground at Miraflores Park will hopefully be learned during the community advisory group process, Walker said. The city archeologist is hopeful that some community members might have information on the site stemming from stories passed down through the generations.
“That’s where even social memory can play a big part,” Walker said. “We may be able to gain a lot from the community if there’s any social memory of that space that didn’t get written down because it was about a marginalized community.”
Mayor Reeves plans to convene this community advisory group within the next week. The city has also launched a webpage dedicated to this topic, cityofpensacola.com/miraflores