Crocker Cemetery

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Crocker Cemetery, also known as St. John's Memorial Cemetery, is located in Sarasota, Florida. It was established by Peter Crocker in 1901.

History

Peter Crocker, T.T. Hamlin, and L.C. Demings were the three original trustees of St. John's Church and Cemetery. They were deeded the 2 acres of land from the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company on June 27th, 1901, for $1.^[1][2] The property was meant to be used for a church and a graveyard. The cemetery saw its first burial in 1907 and continued to have burials until 1975, although the attached church was disassembled and moved to Bradenton, Florida in 1927.^[3] The last person to be buried in the cemetery was Elizabeth Yarbrough, although the cemetery closed to burials in 1982.^[4] On February 19th, 2001, the cemetery received historic designation from Sarasota County.

In 1951, J.B. Morris, Sherman Smith, and Isaac Snow were appointed as the new trustees. The next nine rounds of trustee appointments included Hardy Albury, Thomas Foster, Francis Forde, Paul Shetler, Quincy Mixon, John Dibler, Sue Whetzel, Walt Westervelt, and Jon Purdum. The most recent trustees, Sue Whetzel, Walt Westervelt, and Jon Purdum took on their roles in 1997.^[3]

Restoration

After 86 years of existence, the cemetery had fallen into disrepair since it had gone unnoticed for many years.^[5] In 1997, the trustees appointed Bill Whetzel as cemetery coordinator to head the restoration of the cemetery. Whetzel dedicated himself to restoring the property and spent more than 1,300 hours removing 32 tons of debris from the area.^[6] He also oversaw a decade of efforts that included regular grounds maintenance, restoration of headstones for unmarked graves, installation of new signage, and securing historical designation.^[7] Whetzel also received the help of volunteers from different organizations to assist in the restoration.^[8]

In order to obtain the funds necessary for the restoration, the trustees leased the unused portions of the property to Boston Market and Johnny's Car Wash.^[8]

Challenges

The cemetery faced several issues throughout the 1980s and 2000s.

In 1985, the county began the process of widening Bee Ridge Road. This involved paving over part of the cemetery property that had graves present. Since the county and the trustees could not come to an agreement, the issue was taken to court. It was ruled that the county would pay the trustees $35,000 in damages, a funeral director be present to oversee the reinternment of the bodies, $60 to be paid for each new gravesite, and replace affected fencing.^[9]

In 1993, the trustees were taken to court by John Dibler for unknowingly appointing him as a trustee. The court ruled that Dibler was to be removed from the board and all obligations.^[10]

Five years after Bill Whetzel became cemetery coordinator, the county's property appraiser, Jim Todora, imposed a property tax on the parcels leased out to Boston Market and Johnny's Car Wash.^[11] The trustees refused to pay the taxes since the income from the rents collected was only just enough for the cost of maintaining the cemetery grounds. They went up against the Value Adjustment Board and they were denied a reassessment. Whetzel emailed the County and City of Sarasota demanding that the property tax assessments would be revised, and no taxes would be owed.^[12] When that did not work, he went to Pelican Press to have the story published in the paper.^[12] As a last-ditch effort the trustees offered the city or the county to take ownership of the cemetery, but both declined. Finally, at the end of 2004, Whetzel brought the issue to the county commissioners, and it was resolved.

During the property tax issue in April 2004, there were problems with the leases to Boston Market and Johnny's Car Wash. The trustees leased the land adjacent to the cemetery to both Johnny's Car Wash and Boston Market, invalidating Johnny's Car Wash's lease.^[13] When McDonald's took ownership of Boston Market, they threatened legal action against the trustees.

References