A historic cemetery is desecrated. It’s filled with tattered tombstones and garbage on grave sites.
People in the Moncrief neighborhood say it’s more than just disrepair. They say the dead are being disrespected.
“It’s been like that for a while. It’s deteriorated over the years,” said Eddrick Harrell.
Those years date back all the way to the 1800s. Memorial Cemetery is near West 45th Street and Moncrief Road in Northwest Jacksonville. An apartment complex and an elementary school sits across the street.
“This is our neighborhood, this is all we got,” Harrell said.
Harrell said he wants more for this historic cemetery, instead of chipped and broken headstones, trash on the ground and several large trees ripped up from their roots during Hurricane Matthew.
“The thing is, the fact that there is an elementary school there and an apartment complex, it’s like it’s embedded in the peoples' minds that this is going to be like this, it’s going to stay this way,” Harrell said.
Action News Jax reached out to the city about the condition of this cemetery. A spokesperson said this Memorial Cemetery sits on private property and is owned by Memorial Cemetery Incorporated.
Our crews could not find a sign posted on the property or even locate contact information for the cemetery.
Cox Media Group
