The Silver Green Forgotten Cemetery
Welcome to the second of my posts on interesting cemeteries. Last time I wrote about how wonderful cemeteries are for exploring. They contain great artwork and history in stone, interesting architecture, remnant species of wildlife, and a respite from urbanity. I wrote about Mount Olivet in Queens, New York, which is far from forgotten. However this time I’d like to introduce Silver Green Cemetery, a forlorn little resting place in Homestead, Florida.
There is not much in the way of history available about little Silver Green. One source claims it was a “negro cemetery” provided by an employer for his workers, but I can’t find that source! You kind of stumble upon it after driving around residential and agricultural areas. I followed Google’s directions to it, but still it was tricky to find. Suddenly I was driving along a little dirt road lined with pine trees on one side and a large field on the other. The field is Silver Green Cemetery. On the day I visited, there was a somewhat questionable person hanging about, but my curiosity conquered my fear.
A strikingly lonely pine at Silver Green Cemetery
I had to get out and wander to start seeing the markers — they are scattered, broken, and few.
The most touching for some reason — to me at least — was the concrete stone of Randolph Harris. It’s the one with the engraving done by hand, not too neatly. This person was clearly loved, and the concrete marker with its hand-written epitaph is simple and sincere, if not fancy.
Headstones, Silver Green
There were indications of some maintenance at Silver Green. Little marker flags were placed over depressions in the ground where clearly there were now-unmarked graves, so perhaps they’ll get markers back eventually.
Currently unmarked graves
Otherwise this statue was the only other human-made item I saw:
Kenneth Setzer 