Oaklawn Cemetery was Tampa, Florida's first public burial ground. The location was deeded in the mid-19th century. It was named as the final resting place for "White and Slave, Rich and Poor". The First Mayor of the City of Tampa Judge Joseph B. Lancaster is buried at Oaklawn along with pirates, slaves, other mayors, yellow-fever epidemic victims and confederate soldiers. It is located at the intersection of Morgan Street and Harrison Street in downtown Tampa, about two blocks South of US I-275.
The cemetery has approximately 1700 graves.
The northwest section was originally a separate cemetery known as Saint Louis Catholic Cemetery. Established in 1874, it had its own entry gates and was for many years completely separated from Oaklawn by an iron fence. Among those buried in the St. Louis section are Ybor City founder, Vicente Martinez Ybor, five pioneer priests (3 of whom died in a 15 day span during the 1887 yellow fever epidemic) and Cecilia Morse, the foundress of Catholic parochial education in the Tampa Bay area. A few remnants of the fence are still visible today including several brick fence posts with marble finials, the original driveways and the gates that serviced only the St. Louis section.
Image gallery
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USS Sagamore Marker
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Captain Black, Died at Sea
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John P. Wall, 15th Mayor of Tampa
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102 Unknown Monument
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Darwin Branch Givens Grave
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Joseph Lancaster, First Mayor of Tampa
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Kennedy Monument
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Coller Marker, Tampa's First Settlers
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John McCormick, Tampa PD's first officer killed in the line of duty
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Confederate Unknown Soldier
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Pirate Grave
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Lesley Family Slave Grave, No name listed
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Yellow Fever Monument
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Sgt John Miller, WWII
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Master and Servant grave
External links
- List of Persons Interred at Oaklawn
- St Petersburg Times article on Oaklawn
- Notable people buried at Oaklawn Cemetery
- Pioneer Priests' Graves and St. Louis Cemetery map
- Cecelia Morse Grave and DOSP Historic Marker
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