Martí-Colón Cemetery is the final resting place for African, Cuban and European immigrants who worked in West Tampa's thriving cigar industry in the late 1800s.
Shortly after the cemetery's founding, private and public caretakers let the unmarked, predominantly Black graves in the cemetery's "pauper section" fall into disrepair.
A city work crew routinely dumped raw sewage in an abandoned section, and funeral home owner Arturo P. Boza applied to rezone the northern portion for commercial use.
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In 2018, Patrick Thorpe, who wrote his master's thesis on cemetery conservation, bought two acres of Martí-Colón and vowed to build a nonprofit safeguarding the burial grounds from further commercial development.
"How you treat the dead is indicative of how you treat the living," Thorpe told the Tampa City Council in 2021.
Five years later, Thorpe hopes to build four single-family homes there — possibly on top of unmarked graves.
The ensuing backlash from West Tampa residents and activists centers around what they see as opaquely shifting motivations — those of the developer and of the city officials who approved his permits.
City stance shifts from 2021 to 2025
On June 18, City Attorney Scott Steady told council members the laws on the book don't obligate officials to search for unmarked graves.
"The fact is that this property has the correct zoning and is compliant with our land development code," Steady said. "We were, in my opinion, obligated to issue the permit."
Steady said Section 872 of the Florida Statutes requires Thorpe to stop all development activity if he discovers human remains.
Council member Guido Maniscalco, acknowledging the painful history of Martí-Colón's neglect, said he'd like to see the city take action to protect the cemetery.
"Is there really nothing we can do?" he asked Steady. "These are — possibly — people's relatives."
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Ultimately, the Council voted to consider a land swap or purchase from Thorpe. They'll hear a written report on that possibility on July 16.
In 2021, zoning leadership denied Thorpe's lot split application, citing Section 27-11 of the city code.
"Given the poor maintenance of burial records, I strongly recommend that any area for development be certified that there are no graves in the development area," Cotton wrote in earlier correspondence about the property.
Steady told WUSF he didn't think the 2021 letter was relevant to today's conversations about Martí-Colón's future. He said Thorpe's attorney would ask for $1 million if the city decided to pursue the eminent domain route.
West Tampa rallies around Martí-Colón
In 2025, over 80 Macfarlane Park residents and other West Tampa neighbors wrote opposition letters, urging Cotton not to approve Thorpe's second application to split the parcel.
One of their most vocal supporters is Aileen Henderson of The Cemetery Society, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving historic burial grounds.
She said the city must explain why they changed tack on Martí-Colón, seemingly tabling all concerns about disturbing unmarked graves.
"We have a systemic issue here in terms of a process that favors developers and not the community," Henderson said.
The Hillsborough County Property Appraiser has long classified the lots in question as cemeteries — and, therefore, tax-exempt. Records show Thorpe has never paid property taxes on the West Saint John Street holding.
"The zoning department made the decision to not treat it was a cemetery," Henderson said, referencing the parcel's Residential Single-Family classification. "You can't have it both ways."
In 2024, Chabad Chai of South Tampa considered purchasing the land from Thorpe and creating a Jewish cemetery.
However, when a ground penetrating radar study they commissioned found 16 "anomalies" with unidentifiable origins, Chabad Chai pulled out.
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Barbara Diaz-Juskowski grew up in the neighborhood, and she said the potential housing development was known as "Dead Man's Field."
She wonders why the city won't prioritize the dignity of those unknown bodies, whose families likely could not afford tombstones.
"I don't understand why profit is so much more important than human beings," she said. Just do the right thing."
Thorpe erected a white fence to separate his property from the primary section of Martí-Colón. A sign advertises "easy living, prime location" real estate coming soon.
Diaz-Juskowski said the fence also created another opening for cemetery visitors to access the neighborhood, which already sees a high volume of traffic because of its proximity to the Raymond James Stadium.
She added that Thorpe has failed to properly cut the grass on the border between the unmarked and marked graves.
Geraldine Alvarez's family has been in West Tampa for generations. Her father worked in the cigar industry, and she describes Macfarlane Park as an exceptionally tight-knit neighborhood.
Her parents, great-uncle and great-aunt are all buried at Martí-Colón.
Last year, she joined The Cemetery Society in a burial ground clean-up. While pulling weeds and painting concrete, she heard about Thorpe's plans for 3203 West Saint John Street.
"If there's nothing there, I don't have a problem," she said. "But for him to come in as the savior and the hero? Then, come to 2025, and now it's okay to build on it — what changed?"
State lawmakers have joined the fight to preserve Martí-Colón.
Hillsborough County Representatives Danny Alvarez, R-Riverview, and Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, wrote letters to Tampa city officials, calling on them to investigate claims of unmarked graves on Thorpe's parcel.
The rediscovery of Zion Cemetery, one of Tampa's first Black burial grounds, sparked Driskell's interest in protecting neglected cemeteries.
She's since introduced legislation that would have expanded Florida's conservation easement protections to abandoned cemeteries.
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The House Minority Leader said cemeteries are a window into Tampa's rich, but troubled history.
"You can look at the segregated cemeteries, and they speak to a particular time our society lived through," Driskell said.
She added that Martí-Colón could set a historic precedent, and lawmakers must strike the balance between the rights of private property owners and descendant communities.
"We actually have a chance to intervene before anything gets built on top — we want to protect the dead and give them a good final resting place."
