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Delray Beach wins $50,000 grant to document Memorial Gardens; staff seeks local and national designation
Summary
City staff presented a state- and federally funded resource survey of Delray Beach Memorial Gardens, recommended designation of the cemetery's historic 5-acre northeast section, and asked commission direction to pursue local and National Register listings and further research.
Delray Beach officials on Feb. 11 announced a completed historic resource survey of Delray Beach Memorial Gardens and said the city had secured a $50,000 small matching grant — federal and state funds that paid for the inventory and GIS mapping of graves.
The survey documents nearly 30 acres at the municipal cemetery and recommends locally and federally recognizing a roughly 5-acre historic section in the cemetery’s northeast corner, staff told the city commission.
The report, prepared under a grant that included National Park Service support, inventories more than 1,200 graves, links photographs and GPS points to an online GIS map, and follows comprehensive-plan language that asks the city to study the cemetery for possible historic designation.
“It contains almost 30 acres,” Michelle Hoyland, principal planner for Development Services, said during the presentation, describing the cemetery layout and the concentration of older burials. Hoyland said consultants surveyed graves 50 years or older and recorded GPS coordinates for each marked burial. She added that the online GIS map provides photographs and birth/death dates for many interments.
Why it matters: Staff said the designation could make the cemetery eligible for additional grant programs, including funds targeted to African American cemetery projects and National Park Service programs for abandoned or historically significant sites. The survey also aims to help residents doing genealogy and to document pioneer families and historically under-represented populations.
The report recommends designation of the Northeast 5 acres and includes conservation and maintenance recommendations such as professional headstone cleaning, photographic documentation, and contract maintenance options for the city’s parks and recreation staff.
Assistant and preservation staff also noted that the Historic Preservation Board reviewed the survey on Jan. 15 and recommended adding the property to the local register and continuing research. Staff asked the commission for direction on whether to pursue local designation, National Register nomination, or both, and whether to continue the recommended research.
Commission response and next steps: Commissioners signaled agreement with staff’s recommendation to move forward. The commission gave direction to staff to proceed with applications and continued research rather than taking no action.
Staff said the final resource survey and the cemetery GIS viewer are available in the meeting backup materials.
Ending: With commission direction to proceed, staff will prepare nomination materials and continue targeted research; the commission did not take a formal vote at the workshop, but instructed staff to pursue local and national options and to seek grants and follow-up documentation as recommended in the survey.
