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Nearly 100 years in the making, the Boston Cemetery is finally included in the City of Oviedo. In front of nearly a dozen supporters, the Oviedo City Council adopted the annexation of the cemetery, which had previously been an enclave despite its proximity to City Hall, in a 5-0 vote Monday night.
Owned by the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church since 1927, the cemetery gave Black residents a place to bury their dead when they were not allowed to in other cemeteries during segregation. Being included in the city limits means the still-in-use cemetery is officially eligible to be serviced by the Oviedo police and fire departments and utilize other city services.
“We think this is a win-win,” said Antioch Church administrator Stanley Stone. “I, obviously, agree with the staff in their recommendation to adopt this.”
While the cemetery itself has now been incorporated into the city, Antioch is still working with the city on other issues, primarily widening and paving the road that leads to it. Before any road work can be done, it needs to be determined that there are no caskets underneath it, and if there are, create and execute a plan to remove and relocate them.
“We are in a process of trying to identify if, in fact, there are graves in the roadway,” Stone said. “The annexation, from my understanding, is a separate matter.”
Read OCN’s Feb. 22 report for more background.
