OVIEDO, Fla. – A ribbon cutting event Saturday at Boston Hill Cemetery in Oviedo marked the official completion of a road repaving project which revealed a dozen unmarked graves.
The cemetery, noted by Oviedo as a significant part of its Black history dating back to the 1920s, was annexed into the city in 2023 after previously being under Seminole County’s jurisdiction. The annexation was some years in the making, following a request in 2021 from Oviedo Citizens in Action, Inc. and the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church to pave the road leading into the cemetery off of Alexandria Boulevard, the city said in a news release.
The unmarked graves were discovered as surveying work began, putting the paving project on hold as they were found in and near the roadway, the release states. Antioch Missionary Baptist Church reportedly worked with a Florida-based archaeologist to exhume and re-bury the remains within the cemetery, allowing the project to get back underway after about two weeks.
“The paving of this road had been a long time coming,” Oviedo Public Works Director Bobby Wyatt said in a statement. “We are pleased the city could work closely with Antioch Church to help with the exhumation process and have this road paved so families can reach the cemetery safely on a smooth road.”
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Construction on the road began March 11 and the cost of $351,000 was paid for with American Rescue Plan funds, according to the city.
Saturday’s ribbon cutting ceremony was attended by city councilmembers, Public Works staff and church officials.
According to RICHES, which is billed as “an interdisciplinary digital project that partners with multiple academic units at UCF, six Florida universities, and commercial and nonprofit sectors of the community” in order to document regional history and to develop new digital tools for historians, Boston Hill Cemetery came to exist amid the area’s rising need for a place to bury African Americans, who were forbidden from being buried in the town’s cemetery. Prince Butler Boston — the son of a Georgia slave owner, Dr. Alexander Atkinson, who moved to the area in 1885 — donated some five acres of land to the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church and made funeral costs free of charge, RICHES reported.
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