Rosemary Cemetery

Sarasota's first public cemetery was plotted before the town itself was formally incorporated. The original 1886 survey included a parcel designated for burial, and the first recorded interment — Tom Booth — took place in March 1887. Over the following decades the cemetery became the primary resting place for Sarasota's civic and business leaders: first mayor John Hamilton Gillespie, who also introduced golf to Florida; developer Owen Burns, who financed much of early Sarasota's infrastructure; the town's first physician, Dr. Jack Halton; and the Rev. Lewis Colson, one of the first surveyors to arrive in 1884 and a prominent figure in the Black community.

The same year the cemetery opened, it received a burial that residents did not easily forget. Delos Green, a local carpenter, killed his wife Ella and their three children while they slept, then fled. He was shot and killed while resisting arrest. Ella and the three children were buried at Rosemary; Green's body was buried where he fell.

By the early 20th century the cemetery had largely filled, and new burials shifted to other sites. The grounds fell into varying states of maintenance over the decades. In November 2003 — the same month as the 2003 NRHP designation — the site received renewed attention when it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, prompting restoration efforts and the installation of interpretive markers. Today approximately 740 graves are documented on the grounds.