Masonic cemetery in Palm Coast restored

The original African-American burial grounds in Flagler County were destroyed by reckless development and re-established in the late 1940’s on a parcel of land that faces on Old Kings Road.

The land for the cemetery was purchased by the Espanola Lodge – Free and Accepted Masons for the sum of One Dollar ($1.00) from Lewis Edward Wadsworth II and his wife, Angela Augusta Carpenter Wadsworth on March 26, 1948.

Although interment has continued over the past sixty-two years, the property has slipped into a state of disrepair — just like many other small, local cemeteries. On August 7, 2008, the Palm Coast City Council approved an agreement with the Espanola Masonic Lodge to help maintain and seek grant funding to upgrade the cemetery.

Documentation of graves has begun and the overgrown vegetation cleared, public parking, simple landscaping, historic site markers and fencing have been added at the cemetery grounds.

Two weeks ago, St. Augustine Heritage Director Dana Ste. Claire, who also serves as 450th Commemoration executive director, joined Palm Coast Mayor Jon Netts and City of Palm Coast Landscape Architect Bill Butler to pay tribute to this project at a rededication ceremony.

Members of the community attended the June 8th ceremony to honor the historic significance and celebrate the recently completed renovations of the predominantly African-American Masonic Cemetery.

An original section of the British-Colonial period Kings Road crosses the cemetery along its western boundary. The Road served as a major transportation route during the Revolutionary War period and subsequent historic periods in Florida.

The Masonic Cemetery and the Kings Road have each been registered with the State as official historic sites.

The earliest burial found so far is December 30, 1949, however, in the June 3, 1948 edition of The Flagler Tribune, it was stated that the body of Versie Lee Mitchell, a soldier from Bunnell, who had enlisted at Camp Blanding on March 27, 1943 and who drowned in Burma on January 9, 1944, was being returned by the military and that he was to be buried in the Espanola Masonic Cemetery.

Last year Craig Flagler Palms Funeral Home & Memorial Gardens buried a 40 year-old man from Ohio in the Espanola Masonic Cemetery in Palm Coast. Terry Dean Current, who died in Bunnell on September 28, 2009, is buried beneath a homemade marker which is clearly a memorial to a man who lived and loved motorcycles.

Restoring the final resting places at the Masonic Cemetery means that hundreds of Flagler County’s first African American families will know that this unique historic landmark will be preserved for future generations.

Photo credit: © 2010 Historic City News photographer Kerry McGuire