Burying Ground

Burying Ground

Public Burying Ground

Protestant Ground

Old Protestant Graveyard

St. Augustine Ground

City Gate Cemetery

Huguenot Cemetery

Reverand Thomas Alexander

William Cullen Bryant

Reverand Robert Lantz

Friends of the Huguenot Cemetery, Inc.

1821

1832

1884

1946

1955

1979-1990

1993

This land is a cemetery for non-Catholics.

In 1821, with the arrival of Protestant Americans, a cemetery was needed as they could not be buried in the Catholic cemetery within city limits, Tolomato Cemetery. In that year, land right outside Las Puertas de La Tierra was selected for burials of non-Catholics. The first burial was August 15, 1821, right before the yellow fever epidemic of 1821, claiming the lives of many St. Augustinians. A little more than a month later, the half-acre cemetery was officially set-aside as a public burying ground with the city paying for the funerals of those unable to pay.

Independent preacher, Reverand Thomas Alexander purchased the cemetery and the land surrounding it from Lorenzo Capella who claimed to have a Spanish land grant from the original owner for the area outside the City Gates. However, Rev. Alexander did not maintain the cemetery and in 1832, after two years of negotiation with the city council, and the Episcopal and Presbyterian churches, he donated it to the fledging Presbyterian church. The City claimed the deed had been transferred improperly and locked the gates. The Presbyterain trustees told member, Dr. Andrew Anderson, to cut the lock and replace it with one of their own. When the court process into Capella's Spanish land grant claims were concluded in the early 1830s, the City acknowledged the legitimacy of the deed held by the church.

Burials from the Presbyterian, Episcopal, and Methodist churches continued until 1884 when it was declared full with health concerns cited. At least 436 people are buried inside. That same year, it was listed as site number 11 for visitors in Bloomfield's guidebook.

There has never been an official name for the cemetery, but Huguenot Cemetery was used colloqually after William Cullen Bryant wrote erroneously in 1872 that it was the old Huguenot Cemetery - implying the French Huguenots of 1565 were buried there. This name predominated by the end of the 19th century though to refer to this non-denominational cemetery.

The current Presbyterian church in downtown inherited ownership of the cemetery when it was built in 1890 by Henry Flagler, Memorial Presbyterian Church. But the ownership and the maintainance of the cemetery fell into obscurity for the first half of the 20th century. In 1946, the cemetery was deeded back to the City of St. Augustine for nine years before the Presbyterian church took back ownership. Starting in 1979, eleven years of deferred maintenance, interpretive signage, and general yardwork restored the cemetery to a cleanly appearance and in 1993, the Friends of the Huguenot Cemetery was formed and have taken over the work of carrying for the deceased or finding others  willing to donate time and talent.

This cemetery was originally owned by the City of St. Augustine and again from 1946-1955.

Once a month, Huguenot Cemetery is open to the public. For more information, please visit the Facebook page for the Friends of the Huguenot Cemetery, Inc.

Huguenot Cemetery
10 1/2 S. Castillo Drive
St. Augustine, FL 32084

Huguenot Cemetery is on San Marco Avenue.

The San Marco Hotel was built next to the Huguenot Cemetery where the St. Augustine Visitor Center now is.

Flagler College’s Rare Books, Floridiana & Institutional Repository are neither the original nor current copyright owner for the photographs. Please contact the publisher or source cited for each photograph to obtain a copy and/or permission to reproduce these items.

The following St. Augustine Fiction books feature this historic site as a location:

After Dark
Always the Vampire
The Bones of the Holy
The Case of the Deadly Diary
The Devil's Own Dear Son
Ghost Squad
La Vida Vampire
The Relic
Sugar Cage
Voices in the Fire

This record was last updated on October 28, 2025.