Forgotten Cemetery with Over 120 Coffins Found Buried Beneath Tampa Apartment Complex

120 coffins dating back over 100 years were discovered underneath an apartment complex in Tampa, Florida using ground-penetrating radar. They may have been part of the lost Zion Cemetery, Tampa’s first segregation-era burial ground, established in 1901 at the 3700 block of Florida Ave. The burial ground disappeared when the land was sold for white developments, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

The housing complex had hired a private archaeological assessment company, Cardno, after the paper ran a story featuring the lost Zion Cemetery back in June. The images show “rectangular objects that are the size and shape of coffins between 4 and 6 feet in depth,” said the principal project investigator, Eric Prendergast. The objects are organized in rows “oriented east-west within boundaries of a former cemetery.”

The Housing Authority says that when the apartment complex is redeveloped in the coming years, Zion Cemetery land will be transformed into a memorial park honoring the African-Americans buried there. As of now, though, the graves will remain undisturbed, the agency says.

See David Aaro, Forgotten Cemetery with Over 120 Coffins Found Buried Beneath Tampa Apartment Complex, Fox News, September 1, 2019.