"So we go inside and we gravely read the stones
All those people, all those lives
Where are they now?
With loves, and hates and passions just like mine
They were born and then they lived and then they died
It seems so unfair, I want to cry" - The Smiths
Only The Smiths could so eloquently describe one of the appeals of a cemetery. Call me morbid, call me pale (oh wait, I'm quoting The Smiths again), but I just love cemeteries, especially old, historic ones, and living in South Florida, finding a cemetery this old is a special find. After unsuccessfully trying to enter the cemetery on my first day to Saint Augustine and leaving frustrated, imagine my surprise when the gates were open the next day. Turns out, they open only on the third Saturday of the month from 11-2 (and some Sundays in observance of religious holidays, such as Palm Sunday), so talk about extreme luck, being there at the right time!
This is a beautiful cemetery, not only due to the fact it is surrounded by large trees and wispy Spanish moss overhanging, giving it an eerie, yet peaceful ambiance, but it is centrally located, across from historic sites such as the historic City Gate, the heart of the town of Saint Augustine, and diagonally from Castillo de San Marcos and Matanzas Bay. This cemetery is known as the "Protestant" burial ground between the years 1821 and 1884. The reason I put it in quotations is because you may actually find people of other denominations, such as Jewish (Samuel Fleischman, for example) and Catholic in here. Before you ask why a Catholic was not buried in the Tolomato cemetery instead (the other historic cemetery reserved for Catholics), the reason was that perhaps they belonged to what the Catholics would consider "heretics", for example, a Catholic Mason would automatically be qualified for exclusion of their cemetery. One of these "heretics" is Manuel Crespo, a Catholic Mason, and his gravestone is marked very distinctly with a sign.
The cemetery, although named "Huguenot Cemetery," isn't believed to contain any members of the Huguenots, a French Protestant sect started in the 16th century in France. The cemetery is believed to hold at least 436 burials according to city records, but not all the bodies have headstones, so you may inadvertently be walking on top of corpses. Therefore, you need to be respectful when walking the grounds. It is currently run by the Friends of the Huguenot Cemetery, Inc., a group of concerned citizens belonging to the Memorial Presbyterian Church, wanting to help in preserving and caring for this historic place. When the gates are open, one of the volunteers will speak to you about the cemetery and may request a donation for the upkeep. These volunteers also serve as watchdogs to insure no one is disrespecting or vandalizing the grounds and the tombs while the gates are open.
Strolling along, a few monuments can be observed, as well as marble slabs, plots surrounded by wrought iron fences, and weathered headstones, as well as funerary art popular in the 19th century. This includes stone carvings and false box tombs with inscriptions. The work of several important stone carvers has been identified here, including Thomas Walker and members of the White family who had shops in Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia. Most of the burials are casualties of the 1821 yellow fever epidemic, and can include infants, as well as colonels of the army. This cemetery is a popular stop on the ghost tour, as is the Tolomato Cemetery.
One of the alleged ghosts that haunts Huguenot Cemetery is that of a specter named Elizabeth. She has been described as the daughter of a Spanish era guard at the City Gate who would often visit him and greet people entering the city or she is the ghost of a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl who died in the 1821 yellow fever epidemic either at the City Gate. Judge Stickney is another reputed ghost. Angry that upon his exhumation (to move his body elsewhere at the request of his relatives) his gold teeth were stolen by drunkards, old Judge Stickney can still be seen roaming around the Huguenot Cemetery. He is presumably, looking for his gold teeth or maybe the men who stole them. Though I did not presence any ghosts, it's still a historically significant cemetery with a beautiful wrought iron gate that deserves a visit, whether at night on the ghost tour, or in the daytime. Happy haunting! read more