Barton Memorial Park Cemetery

Barton Memorial Park Cemetery. City of Boynton Beach. The Barton Memorial Park Cemetery, originally known as Cherry Hill, was the original burial ground in Boynton for the African-American community. As very few records exist it cannot be established when the first burial took place or who exactly is buried here. A list from the 1970s show 56 burials; however only 33 are named with the remainder listed as “Unknown”. The list was compiled prior to the construction of Interstate-95 which was originally designed to pass through the cemetery. To make way for the new road, remains from the cemetery were to be relocated; however research suggests the road was realigned and no remains were moved., By the late 1970s, the cemetery was in poor condition. Concerns raised by the community resulted in the City cleaning the site and creating the park to the south. The park was named “Barton Memorial Park” in honor of the Barton family. Mary Barton was instrumental in promoting the improvements to the site and her son, Alton, is buried in a cemetery. The grave markers exhibit a variety of styles and materials and several were made by scratching the deceased’s details into wet cement. A Ground Penetrating Radar Survey of the cemetery identified many underground anomalies which could indicate unmarked burials. The location of some of these anomalies can be seen by indentations in the ground.