Tampa's oldest public cemetery, established in 1850 with a deed designating it for 'white and slave, rich and poor,' now a National Register historic district holding the graves of city founders, yellow-fever victims, and the documented 1882 lynching victim Charles Owen.
606 E Harrison Street, Tampa, FL 33602
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free self-guided access during daylight hours; ticketed walking tours offered by the Tampa Bay History Center.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Grass and packed-earth cemetery paths with some uneven sections around 19th-century markers
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1850 · Tampa's first public cemetery (founded 1850) · Burial site of Tampa's first mayor Joseph B. Lancaster and cigar magnate Vicente Martinez Ybor · Grave of William and Nancy Ashley - documented interracial commitment in slavery-era Tampa · Burials from the 1887 yellow-fever epidemic · Listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places (September 19, 2017)
Oaklawn Cemetery was established in 1850 as the first public burial ground for the young city of Tampa. The cemetery's founding deed designated it as a resting place 'for white and slave, rich and poor' - language that, in its 1850 form, both reflected the slave-holding society that wrote it and resulted in one of Florida's earliest integrated burial grounds. Oaklawn occupies a square block in what is now downtown Tampa, bounded by Morgan and Harrison Streets just south of Interstate 275.
The cemetery contains approximately 1,700 graves and represents a cross-section of nineteenth-century Tampa. Among those buried at Oaklawn are Joseph B. Lancaster, Tampa's first mayor; Cuban-born cigar magnate Vicente Martinez Ybor, founder of Ybor City; Confederate soldiers; victims of the 1887 yellow-fever epidemic that struck Tampa with particular force; and an unknown number of enslaved people. The cemetery is also the burial site of William Ashley, a white civic leader who served as Tampa's City Clerk, and Nancy Ashley, an African-American woman who was William's longtime companion. By instruction of William's executor John Jackson, the Ashley grave was reopened to receive Nancy upon her death, and a single headstone was erected 'to commemorate their fidelity in each other,' marking an interracial relationship that the laws of the period did not permit to be a legal marriage.
A simple granite marker in the cemetery reads 'Charles Owen Hanged 1882.' Charles Owen was a white transient who was arrested on March 6, 1882, in connection with a break-in and assault at a Tampa family's home. According to contemporary accounts cited by Ghosts and Ghouls and Tampa historical sources, a mob of approximately one hundred people dragged Owen from his jail cell and lynched him from a tree in front of the jail. He was buried at Oaklawn.
Oaklawn Cemetery and the adjoining St. Louis Catholic Cemetery were added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on September 19, 2017 (NRHP reference #100001668). The City of Tampa partnered with the University of South Florida Department of Anthropology to produce an interactive mapping of the cemetery's burials.
Sources
Local paranormal accounts of Oaklawn Cemetery cluster on a small number of named graves and historical events. The most widely repeated story, documented in Ghosts and Ghouls and Tampa-area paranormal coverage, is tied to the grave of Charles Owen, marked simply 'Charles Owen Hanged 1882.' Owen, a white transient, was lynched by a Tampa mob on March 6, 1882, in connection with a break-in and assault. Visitors report seeing the shadow of a hanging figure among the live oaks near his grave at sunset, and have described the apparition of a man with his head 'slightly askew,' a detail that ghost-tour accounts tie to the manner of his death.
A second cluster of accounts is associated with Vicente Martinez Ybor, who is buried at Oaklawn. Tour materials describe an apparition of Ybor, sometimes in formal attire, said to wander the cemetery grounds at night. These reports should be understood as folklore; the Ybor family burial is documented but the supernatural attribution is not corroborated by independent contemporary sources.
General reports across multiple aggregators describe an uneasy sense of being watched, unexplained cold patches near the older sections of the cemetery, and the sense of footsteps following visitors near the Confederate and yellow-fever burial sections. As with most active cemeteries, Oaklawn closes at dusk and after-hours visitation is prohibited; reported activity is gathered from daytime visitors and from organized walking-tour groups.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Daytime guided walking tour of Oaklawn Cemetery led by the Tampa Bay History Center. Tours cover the cemetery's 1850 founding, the graves of Vicente Martinez Ybor, William and Nancy Ashley, and Tampa's first mayor Joseph B. Lancaster, the 1887 yellow-fever epidemic burials, and the documented 1882 lynching of Charles Owen.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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