Key West Cemetery

Key West Cemetery
Details
Established	1847
Location	701 Passover Lane Key West, Florida
Country	United States
Coordinates	24°33′21″N 81°47′44″W / 24.55583°N 81.79556°W / 24.55583; -81.79556[1]
Type	Urban cemetery
Owned by	City of Key West
Size	19 acres (7.7 ha)
No. of graves	80,000-100,000
Website	Historic Key West Cemetery

The Key West Cemetery (officially, Historic Key West City Cemetery) is a 19-acre (77,000 m²) cemetery at the foot of Solares Hill on the island of Key West, Florida, United States.

It is estimated that as many as 100,000 people are buried there, many more than the 30,000 residents who currently live on the island.^[2]

It is in the northwest section of the Old Town area of the island.

Part of a series on the
History of Key West
The Seal of Key West represents the Conch Republic in the island's culture
Landmarks African Cemetery at Higgs Beach USS Amesbury Key West Aquarium The Armory (Key West) Audubon House and Tropical Gardens Captain Tony's Saloon Key West Cemetery U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, Key West Station Ernest Hemingway House Fogarty Mansion (Fogarty House) Eduardo H. Gato House Key West Heritage House Museum and Robert Frost Cottage Key West Historic District Key West Bight Key West Lighthouse Mallory Square Martello Gallery-Key West Art and Historical Museum U.S. Naval Station (Key West, Florida) Pan Am Dr. Joseph Y. Porter House Old Post Office and Customshouse (Key West, Florida) Sloppy Joe's Southernmost House Thompson Fish House, Turtle Cannery and Kraals Truman Annex Harry S. Truman Little White House Veterans of Foreign Wars Walter R. Mickens Post 6021 and William Weech American Legion Post 168 West Martello Tower Fort Zachary Taylor Notes that a majority of this list contains sites that have been added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places or as a U.S. National Historic Landmark
People Conch (people) Henry Flagler John Geddes (politician) Ernest Hemingway Winslow Homer Indigenous people of the Everglades region José Martí Vicente Martinez Ybor Matthew C. Perry Mel Fisher Carl Tanzler Harry S. Truman
Topics Sinking of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha Key West Street Car Company The Great Fire of Key West (1886) Isaac Allerton (shipwreck) Overseas Railroad Overseas Highway Wrecking in the Florida Keys 1935 Labor Day hurricane Cubana de Aviación Flight 493 Key West Agreement Mariel boatlift Conch Republic Hurricane Wilma
Timeline Pre-history, until 1513 Spanish Rule, 1513–1763 British Rule, 1763–1783: American Revolutionary War, 1775–1783 Spanish Rule, 1783–1821: War of 1812, 1811–1814 U.S. Territorial Period, 1822–1845: Florida Wrecking Act, 1823 Federal Wrecking Act, 1825 Statehood, 1845–present: Fort Zachary Taylor, 1845 Ordinance of Secession, 1861 Civil War, 1861–1865 East Gulf Blockade Squadron, 1861 States
Florida portal
v t e

In 1847 it was established at its current location after an 1846 hurricane washed dead bodies from the earlier cemetery out of the coastal sand dunes on Whitehead Point near the West Martello Towers.^[3] An African Memorial Cemetery was dedicated beside the West Martello Tower in 2009. Slaves, ill from the sea voyage to slavery in "The New World," were buried there prior to the US Civil War.

In 2005, the cemetery was among those profiled in the PBS documentary A Cemetery Special.

One headstone has a birthdate of 1792. Another records a death in 1843.

• “Sloppy” Joe Russell (1889-1941)
• B.P. “Pearl” Roberts (1929-1979) - “I Told you I was Sick.”
• Gloria M. Russell (1926-2000) - “I’m just resting my eyes.”
• Miriam Albury (1882-1933) - Stuffed bunny on the grave for 14+ years
• Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos (1909-1931), a local beauty during 1920s, grave unmarked due to her infamous grave robbing by Carl Tanzler, a German radiology technician who had an obsession with her^[4]

• 
  "A los martires de cuba" Section for Cuban independence fighters in the Ten Years' War
• 
  Battleship Maine memorial section
• 
  Area containing Confederate Navy sailors' graves
• 
  Historic Angel grave marker
• 
  Some newer graves are put in above-ground vaults, similar to the cemeteries in New Orleans, since the space for below-ground burials has become increasingly limited.
• 
  Many older graves date back to the mid-1800s and are weathered, broken and\or illegible.
• 
  Grave of the Secretary General of the Conch Republic: Sir Peter Anderson
• 
  Grave of a deer belonging to a Key West family

• Aerial View from Google Maps
• Key West Cemetery map
• Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) No. FL-191, "Memorial to the U. S. Battleship Maine, Key West Cemetery, Key West, Monroe County, FL", 3 data pages, supplemental material