Lecture on Forgotten Cemeteries in St. Augustine

Tolomato Talk 2013

Forgotten  Graveyards: St. Augustine's Buried Cemeteries

The Tolomato CemeteryPreservation Association is sponsoring a talk by Dr. Kathleen Deagan on the hidden First Spanish Period cemeteries of St Augustine. The event will be held on Sunday, November 17, 2013 at 3:00 pm at the Bishop Baker Center, located on the grounds of the Cathedral Parish School at 259 St George St. (between Bridge and St Francis Streets) in St Augustine.

The cemeteries that are still visible in St. Augustine are only the most recent chapter in the history of the town's reverence for the deceased. Less well-know are the many hidden graveyards from St. Augustine's First Spanish Period (1565-1763) that have been largely forgotten and obscured by development over the centuries.   At least six of these cemeteries have been located and studied by archaeologists and bioarchaeologists, and Dr. Deagan's presentation will focus on what we have learned from their work over the past 75 years.

Bishop Augustin Verot is buried in the
center walkway of Tolomato Cemetery.
Courtesy Robert Redd

Dr. Kathleen Deagan is an historical archaeologist who is currently the Distinguished Research Curator of Archaeology Emerita and the Lockwood Professor of Florida and Caribbean Archaeology at the University of Florida's Florida Museum of Natural History.  She has taught at the University of Florida since 1982 and is the author of more than 70 publications, most of them relating to early Spanish settlement of the Caribbean. Dr. Deagan was awarded the J.C. Harrington Medal for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement by the Society for Historical Archaeology in 2003, and in 2006 she received the "Order of La Florida," awarded by the city of St. Augustine.

The event is free of charge and on-site parking is available.

For further information, pleases contact board@tolomatocemetery.com.