City of Tampa to buy parts of historic West Tampa cemetery

TAMPA, Fla. - Patrick Thorpe is an architect who wrote a master’s thesis on graveyards, and a few years ago he even bought part of a cemetery. 

He felt he had to. 

"I really didn’t know what I was getting into other than somebody had to do something to protect this," said the 39-year-old Navy reservist.

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The cemetery Thorpe vowed to protect is West Tampa’s old Marti-Colon Cemetery near the intersection of Columbus Drive and MacDill Avenue.

Out-of-state buyers had purchased parts of it when the taxes weren’t paid, and some had ideas of building houses or a shopping center. 

Thorpe used his own money to buy five small pieces of the graveyard to ensure the land wouldn’t be built on. 

"There’s supposed to be a perpetual care, trust to maintain this land, but who knows what happened to that money?" Thorpe asked.

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He says the demands of family, his career and lack of interest by city officials scuttled his hopes of starting a private-public partnership to revitalize the cemetery. It's where mainly members of Tampa’s Latin community were buried years ago with many of them having worked in the city’s iconic cigar industry.

Recently Thorpe struck a deal to sell his part of the cemetery to the City of Tampa, which owns most of the cemetery. 

The agreement calls for the city to pay Thorpe just over $22,000 for his holdings in the graveyard. Thorpe says it covers the money he spent on the cemetery, plus 30%. 

He hopes the city will reach out to neighborhood groups to make Tampa’s historic cemeteries – like this one – a larger focus of community interest. 

"Because they are a historical marker for the growth and development of a community," said Thorpe. 

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Many of the headstones at the cemetery are cracked or faded. With more people choosing cremation over burial, cemeteries drift further into the past.

Thorpe believes communities should revitalize and celebrate their historic cemeteries. 

"This is a daily reminder every time you pass by that if you’re going to treat this place poorly, don’t expect anybody to memorialize you," he said.