Built on a graveyard...

[Debi]

Residents forced to move after more than 100 possible coffins found under Tampa apartment complex

Residents forced to move after more than 100 possible coffins found under Tampa apartment complex




Residents at a Tampa apartment complex are being forced to move after a shocking discovery.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Residents at a Tampa apartment complex are being forced to move after a shocking discovery.

It turns out, they were living on top of a long-lost African American cemetery.

"This grassy area has the bulk of remains," said Connie Burton, who lived at the Robles Park Village on Florida Avenue for about 20 years.

In that grassy area, an archaeologist used a radar to discover more than 120 possible coffins.

The Tampa Bay Times linked the forgotten 1900s Zion cemetery, likely the first in Tampa for African American, to this current-day public housing complex. The report prompted the housing authority to investigate.

"As a child, we had heard that this used to be a memorial site but we paid little attention to it because you know, at the time we needed housing," Burton said.

Yvette Lewis, the president of Hillsborough County's NAACP said she was shocked about the discovery.

"It's time for the city to right its wrong," Lewis said.

Lewis said for these black pioneers who died in a still-fledgling city, there is no rest.

"People's resting place are where they are supposed to rest," Lewis said. "And the souls can't even rest because it has been disturbed."

Burton commended the housing authority for the way they handled this revelation. She said she was pleased the housing authority is turning the cemetery site into a memorial.

The housing authority will relocated nearly 30 families living at the complex.

 

[Fizz]

“They’re here!” This is what happened in the movie Poltergeist! I can’t believe people built on a graveyard! How did they not know before they built housing on this site? I want to grill the property developer. This is wrong on so many levels! I'd also like to find out if anything paranormal was going. My money is on yes. LOL

 

[Rowan2222]

Not good - but relocating everyone into new homes? Really?

This happens a fair bit in the UK, as we are quite densely packed around our small towns. What usually happens is that the graveyard is put just outside of a small town- which as it grows that area can get used for building.
Just in Aberdeen I know of the large blocks of flats that were built on "Heading Hill" - which the main road is called gallowgate, and was where executions were a regular thing. We still have the axe in the tollbooth.
Also not far from there is Morrisons car park - that has some very decorative features to the end wall. You only see this type of architecture on the inside of graveyards, and I can feel that that end has a lot of people under it. May take some photo's for you and "dig some evidence up"
They recently built some student flats on a corner of it. Wonder if they found anything?

By the power of streetview - the car went in it!
Google Maps

.......wonder why they kept that bit of wall?......Hmmmmm.

 

[Lynne]

Not good - but relocating everyone into new homes? Really?

This happens a fair bit in the UK, as we are quite densely packed around our small towns. What usually happens is that the graveyard is put just outside of a small town- which as it grows that area can get used for building.
Just in Aberdeen I know of the large blocks of flats that were built on "Heading Hill" - which the main road is called gallowgate, and was where executions were a regular thing. We still have the axe in the tollbooth.
Also not far from there is Morrisons car park - that has some very decorative features to the end wall. You only see this type of architecture on the inside of graveyards, and I can feel that that end has a lot of people under it. May take some photo's for you and "dig some evidence up"
They recently built some student flats on a corner of it. Wonder if they found anything?

By the power of streetview - the car went in it!
Google Maps

.......wonder why they kept that bit of wall?......Hmmmmm.

That sure looks like a cemetery wall. Do you think that parking lot is the old graveyard?

 

[Lynne]

There are probably people buried everywhere , we just don’t know it.

 

[Rowan2222]

I think I wrote before about when they put a large cable through the university playing field - they hit a plague pit. One of several on that site apparently.

I looked at a couple of old maps last night to see if there was any church on that site, but there is only one close and that is straight up the hill opposite. Actually on the side of heading hill. It's quite a small graveyard and probably on rock anyway with it being on the top of the hill. There are very old steps down from it heading in that direction, so it is possible. There was also a poorhouse located a few streets away to the North, and they tended to have their own small area too.
These maps didn't mark kirkyards. I may find some photographs of that area, but failing that I will return to it again if any more information comes up.

 

[7Critter]

"People's resting place are where they are supposed to rest," Lewis said. "And the souls can't even rest because it has been disturbed."

Is this why some houses have activity; their " resting place" is where they died ( or where they lived) and they don't want anyone around.

 

[Debi]

Is this why some houses have activity; their " resting place" is where they died ( or where they lived) and they don't want anyone around.

Sometimes a soul just get ticks off at the disrespect!

 

[ozentity]

I agree with the disrespect thing about this but doesn't sound like anyone had visited there for quite a while.As Lynne says probably people buried everywhere.Everyone has different beliefs about dealing with corpses,To me,the Earth is for the living ,we can't and don't need to worry about people's shells they leave behind,as long as we respect people while alive and respect the memory of them when they pass.

 

[Lynne]

I agree with the disrespect thing about this but doesn't sound like anyone had visited there for quite a while.As Lynne says probably people buried everywhere.Everyone has different beliefs about dealing with corpses,To me,the Earth is for the living ,we can't and don't need to worry about people's shells they leave behind,as long as we respect people while alive and respect the memory of them when they pass.

Well stated Oz