Old cemetery to become park
DEERFIELD BEACH — They were buried in a patch of land that was left unmarked and largely forgotten for decades.
But now the “Old Colored Cemetery” is on its way to becoming a Branhilda Richardson Knowles Memorial Park. It’s now under construction.
Its centerpiece will be a statue of Knowles, a midwife to many blacks in Deerfield and beyond who were born at home before Jim Crow laws ended. A committee chose Knowles for the honor because of her impact on the community, the only area midwife for much of her career that spanned more than 40 years, when the nearest hospital accepting black people was in Fort Lauderdale.
The pose of her holding a baby aloft resonates with Commissioner Gloria Battle, whom Knowles delivered, as well as her mother and four other siblings. Created by the same artist who makes the deer statues around city, it is now ready for installation.
“It’s breathtaking,” Battle said.
Her great-great grandfather likely lies in the park.
The 3-acre parcel at Southeast Second Avenue and Fourth Street had once been a privately owned churchyard. Records show burials took place there from 1897 to 1937, with some possibly as late as the 1940s.
Among the approximately 300 who are buried there: veterans of both world wars, a Union soldier and a freed slave.
The property was sold and, in 1974, the new owner bulldozed the headstones. Whether it was really a cemetery was cast into doubt when two archaeological studies, one in 1986 and another in 2005, failed to find human remains. Outcry over proposed development from the city’s African-American community derailed those development proposals.
But the cemetery seemed destined to be bulldozed into further obscurity when a developer in 2015 won approval to build 69 townhouses there and a majority of the City Commission agreed.
As a condition of approval, a third archaeological study was ordered.
That’s when gold-capped teeth and skull fragments turned up. The townhouse development was scaled back and the city applied for state grants.
The state appropriated nearly $1 million in 2016 to buy the former cemetery parcel from the developer.
Further grants paid for the design and construction of the park, named for Knowles but which will also honor Deerfield’s veterans.
“There were no models to go by,” said David Miller, the city’s parks and recreation director. Miller said his research didn’t turn up any other forgotten cemeteries that were turned into parks.
The first phase of construction is scheduled to be finished in a few weeks.
“It’s going to be a place of reverence, reflection and honor,” Miller said.
ageggis@sunsentinel.com, 561-243-6624 or @AnneBoca