JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A historic cemetery in Durkeeville holds far more of Jacksonville’s dead than anyone previously knew. Researchers working with the city have confirmed that 1,200 people are buried beneath what is now a park and community center — more than double earlier estimates.
The site, known as Mount Herman Cemetery, dates to the 1800s. Early documents suggested 100 to 200 bodies were buried on the land. That number later grew to about 600 through records. Now, researchers say the confirmed count stands at 1,200.
A burial ground before the neighborhood existed
A map of Jacksonville from 1887 — held by the State Library and Archives of Florida — shows Mount Herman Cemetery existed before Durkeeville was ever established. The cemetery served as a resting place for families, soldiers from LaVilla, and the formerly enslaved.
The community was established in the 1880s as Jacksonville’s first large cemetery for the Black community following emancipation. LaVilla Mayor Francis LeEngle originally established the cemetery. A private owner — likely one of his descendants — later sold the land to the city.
As Interstate 95 was being built nearby through Sugar Hill and Wilder Park, the city needed additional park space. Officials chose the Mount Herman Cemetery land. The Emmett Reed Community Center was built on the site in the 1960s.
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Today, the same land is home to a park and community center — with barely a trace of the cemetery’s existence. A church bearing the same name, Mount Herman, remains in the area. A gravestone sits in a sidewalk. A family plot — belonging to the Fagin family, who were there long before the land was developed — sits just behind the tree line.
Researchers working to honor the dead
Ennis Davis is part of the research team hired to work with the city on honoring the cemetery as part of broader revitalization projects in Durkeeville, a historically Black community.
The city’s next step: ground-penetrating radar, also known as GPR, which will scan for voids in the ground to identify where the deceased are likely buried. Funding is expected to come this fall. A consultant will survey the land, with the work needing to be completed by 2027.
The city’s goal is to honor what officials are calling the “dual memory” of the site — recognizing both the people buried there first and the generations of community members who have built fond memories at the park and community center on the same land.