Evergreen Cemetery was founded on September 28, 1880, when a group of influential and prominent residents of the city decided to create a cemetery for the community. In 1910, Evergreen transitioned from a for-profit organization to a not-for-profit organization and Arthur Cummer was elected the new Evergreen Association’s first president. Like many of those involved with the cemetery’s development, Arthur is also buried within Evergreen’s grounds.
Shortly after Cummer’s appointment as president of the Evergreen Association, the cemetery grew even larger. In 1911, Evergreen acquired and annexed Woodlawn Cemetery, a 22-acre cemetery located to the west of the original Evergreen property line.
Through the years, various portions of the cemetery were sold off or allocated for specific groups of people. These include the conveying of a portion of the cemetery between Long Branch Road and Rock Road to the City of Jacksonville to use as a park and the selling of multiple portions of the cemetery to the Jewish community to use for religious-specific burials.
At a time when white and black individuals were not typically allowed to be buried alongside one another, Mount Olive was portioned off to provide a space for the African American community to bury their deceased. The establishment of Mount Olive was inspired by the desire of Evergreen’s founders to create a space where anyone from the Jacksonville community could be interred, regardless of race, class, or religion. If you visit the Mount Olive portion of the cemetery, you may notice that it looks like there are very few graves there. However, most of the graves were relatively small and simple, often only having a wooden headstone that have rotted away over time. This makes it hard to determine the exact number of burials there or even where people are buried. However, we do know that some members of the U.S. Colored Troops who helped secure the Union victory in the Civil War were buried there.
In 1976, the Evergreen Cemetery Association re-acquired Saint Mary’s Catholic Cemetery from the Catholic Diocese of Saint Augustine. The cemetery had previously sold this portion of their land to the Catholic Diocese of Saint Augustine to use for religious-specific burials. The Saint Mary’s portion of Evergreen is still reserved for the exclusive use of members of the Roman Catholic faith. Featured at the center of the Saint Mary’s section is a series of special Stations of the Cross monuments and the Pieta Columbarium. Adjacent to the Stations of the Cross feature is the recently built Catholic Community Mausoleum. The mausoleum currently has an excellent selection of crypts available for purchase. Saint Mary’s also has a large selection of ground burial locations available as well as many options for those Catholics who choose cremation.
In 2011, the remaining 167-acres of Evergreen Cemetery were recognized by the National Register of Historic Places. Today, the cemetery honors its long history while still operating as an active cemetery, funeral home, and crematory.
To learn more about the history of Evergreen Cemetery and the historic figures who are buried there, attend the Evergreen Cemetery tour offered by the Jacksonville History Center on April 13, 2025. This will be the second of three tours throughout the year covering three different sections of the vast cemetery grounds. To buy tickets for the tours, click here or see promotion below.
Emily Cottrell | Archivist