St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch emphasized the need for more research, which requires digging, and pledged to “do the right thing.” Photo by Mark Parker.
Confirming if human remains are still buried underneath a parking lot at Tropicana Field requires digging. City Councilmember Corey Givens Jr. believes community stakeholders should decide the best path forward.
Givens has been a vocal proponent of honoring St. Petersburg’s late trailblazers for at least six years, long before he secured a seat on the city council, as his great-grandfather was buried at the former Oaklawn Cemetery. He has also led the charge to erect a historical marker highlighting that the area, now used to accommodate baseball traffic, was once hallowed ground.
Givens was on a much-needed family vacation, however, when his seven colleagues unanimously approved a $378,896 contract with Stantec Consulting Services for ground truthing fieldwork in March, as scheduled. The firm will gently dig up to 15 feet around the graves, sift material samples, and identify and catalogue any remains or artifacts found in October, after the baseball season.
Stantec delivered its initial, long-awaited study to Mayor Ken Welch’s administration in November 2024 after using ground-penetrating radar to uncover 10 possible graves, some just three feet below ground, underneath Lot 1. “Why now and why not sooner?” Givens said of the gap between steps.
While he is “just happy to see that things are moving forward,” Givens said the city should have spent the “time, money, and effort on consulting descendants and stakeholders.” He believes the government deciding the next steps is “backwards” and “wrong.”
“I would much rather pursue historic designation or a historic marker at that site,” Givens told Power Broker Magazine. “I think that is low-hanging fruit and an easy win. And I wonder why the administration hasn’t moved on that, considering I’ve already brought it to their attention.”
Givens said his idea for a historical designation has garnered support from multiple local and state elected officials. He has also contacted the Florida Humanities Council and said the associated paperwork awaits the mayor’s signature.
The city does not need to spend $400,000 on ground truthing to tell stakeholders what they already know – that “there are in fact bodies underneath that parking lot,” Givens said. The process, as outlined in city documents, is also invasive.
Stantec will strip the soil around all 10 graves to reveal the shafts and map the locations and dimensions. Crews will excavate at least four locations “by hand, down to the coffin,” to confirm that human remains are present, according to the city’s contract.
“If that was your grandparent, would you want their final resting place disturbed?” Givens rhetorically asked.
The parking lot at the intersection of 16th Street and 5th Avenue South was once home to Oaklawn Cemetery, which primarily served white residents after opening in 1907. Directly across the street was Evergreen Cemetery, platted in 1900 for the Black community.
Moffett (St. Petersburg) Cemetery, which opened in 1888, served both races. The city condemned the contiguous burial grounds in 1926 and relocated bodies according to race.
A map of the three cemeteries and a timeline of the city’s involvement. Image: City documents.
African Americans were moved to the embattled Lincoln Cemetery in Gulfport. Their Caucasian counterparts stayed closer to home at Royal Palm Cemetery.
Ground penetrating radar first identified three likely graves beneath Lots 1 and 2 at the Trop in August 2021. Research has focused on Oaklawn due to I-175 towering above the Evergreen and Moffett sites, and the impending redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District.
Givens believes the work should extend to all three burial grounds. “I think it’s a slap in the face to the Black trailblazers and residents of St. Petersburg who were disrespected in life, and now they’re being disrespected in death,” he said.
“Their graves were built over, paved over, and we are saying you don’t deserve to have answers; You don’t deserve to have justice in death.”
Ground penetrating radar first identified three possible graves between Lots 1 and 2 in August 2021. Photo by Mark Parker
Welch, in a subsequent interview, said he is open to continuing conversations regarding a historical marker. He noted that the city has always planned to partner with FDOT and conduct additional research at all three burial sites.
The city also expected the Tampa Bay Rays to oversee that work until former owner Stuart Sternberg nixed the previous Gas Plant redevelopment deal in March 2025. “Going forward, any selected developer will have to make sure that they handle those grave sites appropriately,” Welch added.
Efforts to honor St. Petersburg’s pioneers will also extend to Lincoln Cemetery, Welch pledged. “We’re going to do the right thing.”
“I don’t know if the grave markers, exclusively, are the course that I would support at this point,” Welch said. “I think we need to do some more research, and that continues to be a priority for us.”
Possible graves identified by ground penetrating radar. Image: Stantect.
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