St. Petersburg moves forward with search for possible graves beneath Tropicana Field parking lot
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The City of St. Petersburg is taking the next step to determine whether human remains from a historic cemetery are buried beneath the parking lots surrounding Tropicana Field.
What we know:
City council recently approved a nearly $400,000 contract for what’s known as "ground truthing", a process used to physically investigate underground anomalies that may confirm if the possible anomalies detected are graves.
Researchers previously detected potential burial sites in 2024 beneath Lot 1 near Tropicana Field, which once sat on land used by the segregated Oaklawn Cemetery, a burial ground that closed in 1926.
Big picture view:
Officials say the next phase of work will involve digging and verifying whether the anomalies detected underground are actually graves.
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"Go down, see what are these anomalies, are they grave sites or are they something else?" said St. Petersburg Planning Director Derek Kilbourn. "And then if they are in fact grave sites that require an additional response, then we will at that time continue the work and figure out what to do in response to that."
However, the investigation won’t begin immediately. City officials say the work is expected to start after the 2026 Rays baseball season, once activity around the stadium subsides.
Dig deeper:
St. Petersburg City Councilmember Corey Givens Jr. says the investigation is important but believes the city should go further.
"I’m pleased, but I’m not satisfied," Givens said.
Givens believes one of his relatives could be among those buried at the cemetery, which was part of the historic Gas Plant District, a once-thriving Black community that was largely displaced during urban renewal and the construction of Tropicana Field.
He is working with state officials to try to secure a historical marker at the site to recognize the people who may still be buried there.
"I want to make sure that we have some sort of monument erected to acknowledge that there were people buried here at this site," he said.
Givens is also organizing a meeting this weekend with churches that once operated in the Gas Plant District.
The goal is to help identify possible descendants of those buried in the cemetery.
"We have the names of the people who were buried in those cemeteries," Givens said. "But unfortunately, what we have not done is tried to locate those descendants."
What's next:
Givens is also calling for expanded searches beyond the Tropicana Field parking lots.
He wants to do checks for possible graves left behind at two neighboring cemeteries; Evergreen, a historically Black cemetery and Moffett, a veterans' cemetery, were paved over during the construction of Interstate 175.
"I think we have to do more homework, and I don’t think we’ve done enough," he said.
The city said the upcoming investigation will help determine what steps should be taken next if human remains are confirmed.
FOX13 reached out to the mayor’s office about the possibility of a historical designation for the site and the impact that could have on the redevelopment of the Gas Plant but has not yet received a response.
The Source: FOX 13's Genevieve Curtis gathered information for this report from a St. Petersburg City Council meeting, a presentation at a city council meeting, an interview with Councilmember Corey Givens Jr. and previous reporting by FOX 13.