GAINESVILLE – The discovery of nearly 1200 unknown “residents” interred at Alta Vista Cemetery in Gainesville became part of a budget request at this morning’s Gainesville City Council work session.
Council members were told that the discovery of the remains of these unidentified individuals was learned during a recent aerial survey of the cemetery grounds, and a monument in their memory would be an expense requested for the fiscal year 2018 city budget.
“We completed a ground-penetrating radar project which identified unmarked burials,” Gainesville Public Works Director Chris Rotalsky told members of the City Council.
Rotalsky appeared before the council as part of the FY2018 budget preparation process.
The Public Works Department oversees operations at the two city-owned cemeteries: Alta Vista Cemetery on Jesse Jewel Parkway and the Gainesville Mill Cemetery, adjacent to Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport off Aviation Boulevard.
Rotalsky said there had long been stories of unmarked graves at Alta Vista and a smattering of paperwork that supported that conjecture. That lead to the high-tech investigation.
Alta Vista Cemetery came under city control in 1872 when Gainesville purchased the first 9.25-acres of the development which now encompasses nearly 80-acres.
1872 is the date for the oldest original grave on the property, but because tombs from other cemeteries were moved to Alta Vista when it first opened the cemetery has grave markers with burial dates of 1828.
The unknown burials mentioned by Rotalsky are in, “sections sixteen, seventeen and what we refer to as the Pauper Section.”
He would go on to explain, “There were in sections sixteen and seventeen 848 unmarked burials identified and in the Pauper Section we had an additional 300.”
So who might these individuals be?
After the meeting Rotalsky offered his best educated-guess.
“I believe some of those (original burial dates before being moved to Alta Vista) date back to the mid-1800s,” Rotalsky suggested.
“Especially in the Pauper Section there would be people who died in town and nobody knew those people,” he continued. “Especially with the train service we had here. They had to bury them in a place that was available.”
Rotalsky said he was told some of the unknown and unclaimed victims of the tornado of 1936 were added to the graveyard.
“Some of the older sections that predate or are around the Civil War timeframe are anticipated to have been slaves,” Rotalsky opined.
“It is anticipated to be a large, predominately African-American section there,” Rotalsky added, “given the history and the knowledge we have.”
“The most significant plan we have for FY18 at the cemetery is…the installation of a memorial garden in section seventeen for those unmarked graves,” Rotalsky said, continuing his budget request to the city council for the coming year.
“This memorial garden will consist of a monument with an inscription…concrete pathway and seating area with benches and landscaping to really give the opportunity for people to come visit and for those unmarked graves to be recognized…a really special place,” Rotalsky said.
Regarding the ceremony in honor of the unknown members of the Alta Vista Cemetery community, Rotalsky said. “We’re looking to schedule it late-October, early-November.”
More information on the event can be obtained by contacting Gainesville City Councilwoman Barbara Brooks via email at [email protected] or by telephone at (678) 858-0305; Ms. Brooks will be heading up the Remberance Event.
