A Bahamian immigrant burial ground established in the early 1900s, purchased by five families in 1913, featuring 12 anthropomorphic headstones found nowhere else in Miami-Dade County
3650 Charles Ave, Miami, FL 33133
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Publicly accessible historic cemetery at no charge
Access
Wheelchair OK
Grass and paved paths through cemetery grounds
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1913 · Bahamian Immigrant Heritage · Unique Anthropomorphic Headstones · African-American History in Miami · Historic community burial ground
The Bahamian community that settled Coconut Grove beginning in the 1880s and 1890s established Miami's most unusual ethnic burial ground. The early community used a small city-provided lot on what is now the 3500 block of Charles Avenue beginning around 1904, but as the community grew, that space proved insufficient. In 1913, five families jointly purchased the current property at 3650 Charles Avenue for $140: the Burrow, Higgs, Reddick, Ross, and E.W.F. Stirrup families.
E.W.F. Stirrup — Ebenezer Woodbury Franklin Stirrup — was the most prominent figure among the Bahamian settlers. A Bahamian-born developer and property owner, he was one of the wealthiest Black residents of early Miami. The adjacent Charlotte Jane Memorial Cemetery was named for his wife, Charlotte Jane. The two cemeteries together form the historic core of West Coconut Grove's Bahamian-American burial grounds.
The site holds 12 anthropomorphic head-and-shoulder gravestones — a style unique to this cemetery within Miami-Dade County. These stones, carved in a form that suggests a human torso rather than the standard rectangular slab or cross, represent a distinct funerary tradition brought from or developed by the Bahamian community. Their presence has made the cemetery a subject of study by cemetery historians and cultural anthropologists.
The Coconut Grove Cemetery Association, comprising representatives of the original five purchasing families, continues to maintain the property. The City of Miami also recognizes the site as a historic landmark. The cemetery remains active, with descendant family members still buried here.
Sources
Ghost Tours Miami's Coconut Grove walking circuit makes the Bahamian cemetery one of its primary stops, drawing on the site's combination of unusual physical features and the documented history of the community interred here.
The above-ground burial vaults common in this cemetery — a feature also found in New Orleans cemeteries and traceable to Caribbean and African burial traditions — lend the grounds a different visual quality than the flat-stone municipal cemeteries common in Miami. The 12 anthropomorphic head-and-shoulder stones are the most frequently cited feature: their human form, unique in the county, makes them visually arresting in a way that standard grave markers are not.
The ghost tour's framing draws on the broader history of West Coconut Grove's Bahamian community — people who built much of early Miami under exploitative conditions and were systematically excluded from the city's benefits. The cemetery holds the remains of that founding labor community, and the tour treats their presence here as a form of historical witness rather than conventional haunting narrative.
No specific paranormal incidents have been formally documented at the site by investigators. The cemetery's dark tourism draw is primarily historical and cultural rather than based on reported phenomena.
Free public access to this historic Bahamian immigrant cemetery. The grounds contain 12 unique anthropomorphic head-and-shoulder gravestones found only here in Miami-Dade County, along with above-ground burial vaults. The Coconut Grove Cemetery Association continues to maintain the site for the descendant families of the original five purchasing families.
Ghost Tours Miami includes this cemetery as a centerpiece stop on its Coconut Grove walking tour. Contact Ghost Tours Miami for current schedule and booking.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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