Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: This site originally was the southeast corner of an eighty-acre parcel purchased by George L. Marsteller of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1884 for $100. Two blocks to the North between South Dixie Highway and South Olive Ave. the Lakeside Cemetery Association had Platted the Lakeside Cemetery in 1895. It operated as a racially integrated facility, unusual for the times. In 1902, the Association purchased these two acres from West Palm Beach to serve as a separate cemetery for African Americans. The Association platted 190 lots and interred approximately 100 people by 1913. The cemetery never had a official name: maps of the era simply called it “Colored Cemetery” The city’s efforts to repossess and resell the cemetery in 1916 were blocked by the Florida Supreme Court. By 1921, unable to maintain the cemetery, the Association donated it to the City without restrictions. No further burials took place. The City converted the cemetery to a public park known as Dixie playground and later renamed Flamingo Park. Citizens’ protests in 1966 and 1991 thwarted subsequent attempts to sell the park for commercial development.