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Greenwood Cemetery, Saint Petersburg
June 2022
This is the 4th oldest cemetery in Saint Petersburg. According ot an article in the archives of the Saint Petersburg Times:
"The history of Greenwood, fourth oldest cemetery in St. Petersburg, dates back to Feb. 1, 1897, when it was platted by H. P. Bussey. Starting as a five acre tract about the size of a good city block, it was portioned into lots and sold by Bussey to individuals. Since no maintenance funds were appropriated, its care fell upon the lot owners or relatives of the dead.ast 1800s, it was not associated with a church. "
--Lorna Carroll, Times staff writer. July 2, 194
As such, though the cemetery holds the remains of pioneers, cibil war soldiers, mayors, and the who's who of this area, the place has been in constant disrepair. Families who were to keep up the plots have moved away. The area was overrun with garbage, vandalism, and weeds. As per the article above, the damage goes back to 1944 so we can suppose that the disrepair dates back even further. There are continual calls and efforts to clean up the cemetery. Years ago, the SPIRITS of St. Petersburg participated in one of these clean up efforts.
The cemetery has a long history of potential hauntings. The SPIRITS of St. Petersburg did go out to investigate the location in the 2005/06 period, though that original documentation is lost form our archives. As per memory, the following did happen:
We had a retired police officer on the team at the time. She would NOT go to the cemetery at any other time but broad daylight. The area was very risky. Going though, we did find a number of spoons and other trash items. We did end up going at 10 a.m. on a Sunday.
This is one of the first places where we discovered the interaction of the EMF meter with cell phones. In the middle of the cemetery, my Trifield meter went crazy. There were no power cords nor were we getting many other readings. It took a bit of time, but we were able to isolate it to a phone call coming in on a silenced cell phone. It may sound odd today, but the interaction of cell phones was much newer 15 years ago. (Initially, we were somewhat alarmed at the readings, though!)
We did find a partially buried jar with a photo and items in it. We did not remove it from the cemetery. (Since that time, I have had a few people email in that htey find similar items in the graveyard. Our general advice is not to touch it and to leave it be).
Greenwood was alleged to be haunted and had that reputation already at the time. Initial research indicated that the spirit of a mayor may be haunting the place. Recent research turned up this information:
