NORTH GREENWOOD AFRICAN AMERICAN MEMORIAL CEMETERY

Side One: Acknowledging the needs of Clearwater’s growing Black community, the city commission created North Greenwood Cemetery, also known as the “Clearwater Colored Cemetery.” On January 2, 1940, the city adopted a resolution that established a 1.5-acre segregated cemetery on city land. It stated that “…no burials of Negroes shall be permitted in Clearwater other than on the described property.” That action ended the use of the private cemetery at St. Matthew Baptist Church, established in 1909 in the Clearwater Heights neighborhood to the south of this location, as the primary African American burial ground. In 1947, the Pinellas County Superintendent of Schools reported that segregated school buildings in Clearwater were obsolete and a fire hazard, and undertook a search for a new school site. The city also sought a location for a “permanent Negro recreation area” that would include a pool, gymnasium, and ball field. By 1954, the city and school board joined efforts to construct Pinellas High School and a recreation area on a 30-acre tract of city land. The arrangement included a land swap whereby the North Greenwood cemetery plot would be given to the school board in exchange for land to construct the pool. Side Two: As part of the deal with the school board, the city commission agreed to relocate the graves. They approved a work order to move "no more than 375 bodies" from the city cemetery to a new location east of Dunedin, today known as Parklawn Memorial Cemetery. In 1961-62, Palmetto Elementary School was built on the North Greenwood Cemetery site. In 2019, it was discovered that only the marked graves were relocated, leaving several unmarked and displaced graves behind. This was revealed after extensive media coverage, input from the community, and help from the Clearwater/Upper Pinellas County Branch of the NAACP, Clearwater Historical Society, Florida Public Archaeology Network, the Cultural Resource Division of Cardno, Pinellas County Schools, and the City of Clearwater. This site remains a cemetery and reflects the history of the African American community with burial customs that can be traced back to the time of enslavement. Over the years, loved ones left items on graves like coins, glass flower vases, and conch shells as acts of remembrance. Though no longer visible, these artifacts and the many graves where they were placed remain here in areas on both sides of Holt Avenue.