Clearwater: graves "moved" for a pool and a store, found under a parking lot and a school (North Greenwood and St. Matthew's cemeteries, Clearwater, 1950s–2021)

SUMMARYClearwater: graves "moved" for a pool and a store, found under a parking lot and a school (North Greenwood and St. Matthew's cemeteries, Clearwater, 1950s–2021) [Connections: Tampa Bay, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDOf 550 graves listed in cemetery records, Cardno's GPR survey identified 328 likely graves at North Greenwood and St. Matthew's, many under an office parking lot. In the 1950s the graves were supposed to be moved for a swimming pool and department store; instead they were paved over and a school and office were built. Resident O'Neal Larkin watched a 1984 crew "cut through two coffins." Cardno's Erin McKendry: "additional burials likely below the footprint of that school building." The Times separately records about 350 people moved in 1954 from Holt Ave. and Engman St. to Parklawn in Dunedin "to make way for a city pool and new school," and an unnamed Black cemetery under a parking lot at 100 S. Missouri Ave

PATTERNThe official relocation record and the ground disagree

LENS (WW9)The paper said "moved." The radar says they're still here

OPENThe 1950s city relocation contracts; whether the Holt/Engman site and North Greenwood/St. Matthew's are the same ground

SOURCEYahoo/Insider, 328 graves found; It began with Zion (Tampa Bay Times).