Lincoln
Memorial Park, located at 3001 N.W. 46th Street, is one of the oldest black
cemeteries in Dade County. It is the final resting place of many black pioneers
and luminaries who have helped shape the cultural landscape of early Miami.
Since its inception, thousands of people have been laid to rest within the
20-acre property. One of the most unique features of Lincoln Memorial Park is
that it is one of perhaps three Miami
cemeteries that is almost exclusively comprised of above-ground burial vaults.
Lincoln
Memorial Park’s origins are somewhat shrouded in mystery. Fact and myth have
blended together to produce one of Miami’s most beautiful and enduring legends.
The urban-myth is described as follows: Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery was
located in what was then known as the Brown Subdivision (now known as
Brownsville) and was founded in the early 1920’s by a white realtor named F.B.
Miller. According to the legend, Kelsey Leroy Pharr, who would later become the
first black embalmer in Miami, would cut down lynching victims he found hanging
from trees and would secretly burry these people at night in Lincoln Memorial
Park. He did this so that these lynching victims could have a dignified resting
place and did so at his own personal risk. One night, as the story goes, Mr.
Miller discovered Kelsey Pharr performing one of these burials and, instead of
being irate, was taken by the man’s compassion. As a result, Miller then decided
to deed the property over to Kelsey Pharr at a highly discounted price, thus
making Mr. Pharr one of the only blacks to own a cemetery in the south. Whether
this legend has any bearing in reality is unknown. However, it is clear that
myths such as these often have their roots in reality.
What is
known for certain is that F.B. Miller had established Lincoln Memorial Park by
c.1923. What can be inferred is that Pharr began purchasing pieces of the
property from Miller by the Fall of 1923, when the Pharr Funeral Home Books
record their first burials there, culminating in the 20 acres being
consolidated into one property under Pharr’s ownership by 1937., Under Pharr,
Lincoln Memorial Park was touted as “The Finest Colored Cemetery in the South.”
He buried luminaries such as D.A. Dorsey, Miami’s first African-American
millionaire, H.E.S. Reeves, founder of Miami’s first black newspaper, Arthur
and Polly Mays, activists for education in the underserved town of Goulds, as
well as the everyday laborers who helped build Miami.
Kelsey
Pharr remained actively involved with Lincoln Memorial Park up until his death
in 1964, when the ownership of the property passed to Ellen Johnson, although
he had a son living in South Carolina. Johnson, a native of Iowa and a nurse at
Jackson Memorial Hospital, was constantly involved with the community and had
developed a long-time friendship with Pharr, who confided to her that his one
desire was to maintain the cemetery as a living monument for Blacks in Miami. She spent a great deal of the rest of her
life attempting to live up to his wishes. Under her ownership, the property was
designated as historic by Dade County. In 1974, she commissioned the creation
of a series of memorial plaques engraved with the names of the prominent people
believed to be buried at Lincoln Memorial Park. They were housed on the
property in a small structure she named “The Chapel of Memorials.” Ellen
maintained the beauty and integrity of the cemetery up until the late 1990’s,
at which point she developed Alzheimer’s. As her illness progressed, it became
more difficult for her to maintain the property, which quickly became overrun
with invasive plants and unwanted visitors who frequently desecrated the graves
and mausoleums.
Lincoln
Memorial Park continued to fall into disrepair up until Johnson’s death in
2015, at which point she passed ownership of the cemetery to her niece, Jessica
Williams. For the past three years, Ms. Williams has been doing what she can to
maintain Lincoln Memorial Park and has been fighting what many have considered
to be an uphill battle. In late 2017, Jessica partnered with the Coral Gables
Museum in a concentrated effort at restoration so that it may once again claim
the title of being one of the most beautiful African-American cemeteries in the
South. The Coral Gables Museum’s involvement is ongoing and has led to a series
of historical discoveries that will play a hand in reshaping Miami’s
recollection of it’s own past.
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