Huguenot Cemetery

Huguenot Cemetery was created in the aftermath of two changes St. Augustine experienced in 1821: Florida passed from Spanish to American rule, and yellow fever struck the city. The only cemetery then in use was Catholic, while the new Protestant residents had no public burial ground. The epidemic turned that religious division into an urgent civic problem. The city established a new cemetery, later known as Huguenot Cemetery, for the Protestant community.

The name can mislead. The cemetery is not a burial ground for the French Huguenots who arrived in Florida in the sixteenth century. It is associated with the American and Protestant population that came after the U.S. takeover. The cemetery’s early history records how political transitions changed institutions as well as flags: who could be buried where, and which community managed the dead.