Rosemary Cemetery sits on the northwest corner of the original plat of the town of Sarasota, the city's first public cemetery. This small, quiet plot was acquired by the town in 1903 and, as you look around, you are looking at the first public cemetery in Sarasota and the oldest extant man-made landscape feature in the city. Walk slowly among the stones and you can sense the layers of early settlement recorded here.
On November 16, 2003 the site was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places after Uzi Baram, anthropology professor at New College of Florida, and Susan Lynn White, Sarasota County Archaeologist, surveyed and documented the cemetery. In 2014 the City of Sarasota updated signage here, using Baram’s suggestions as Director of the New College Public Archaeology Lab. Notable burials include Owen Burns, remembered as a businessman and community leader, and John Hamilton Gillespie, Sarasota’s first mayor.
Stand with your feet on this ground that has witnessed the city’s beginnings, and let the names, dates, and stones tell you about those early lives. Notice the markers of Owen Burns and John Hamilton Gillespie, Sarasota's first mayor, resting in this northwest corner.