JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The afterlife residence to more than 80,000 people, Evergreen Cemetery on Jacksonville’s Northside is home to the famous and anonymous.
City patrons to paupers share space and are remembered there, including the Father of Jacksonville, Isaiah Hart. He rests on a corner plot with his wife and son.
“The family tomb of Isiah D. Hart, the founder of Jacksonville, that stone was actually over the top of the door of their crypt the resting place was originally downtown, but people were bothering it so when Evergreen was established in 1880 the family decided to move,” Evergreen Cemetery director Mike Ondina said.
He has been part of the business for decades and knows just where to stand to and point out four of Florida’s Governors all buried within view of each other.
“Where I’m standing now is Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, over to my right is Governor Martin, to my left is Governor Jennings, and of course Ossian Hart a little bit further to the right,” Ondina said.
A fifth governor is buried on the other side of the cemetery, not far from a white Bronze statue for union soldiers.
While the famous receive ornate treatment, the anonymous get something a little less extravagant.
A pair of nondescript storage buildings line the south end of the cemetery. It was built in the early 1900s for visitors from colder climates who died visiting the First Coast in the winter. The bodies would be stored until the ground back home thawed and graves could be dug.
Then, they were put on to a train and sent north. The practice lasted until the around 1930s when mechanical earth movers made digging in the frozen ground a bit easier.
Officials with Evergreen Cemetery say they hold about 400 to 500 funerals every year and do not expect to face a land shortage until at least the year 2040.