PINEWOOD (COCOPLUM) CEMETERY, Coral Gables, Dade County, Florida

Directions: Take Interstate 95 south till it turns in to US-1. Proceed about 7 miles to Sunset Drive (Margery Stoneman Douglas [1890-1998] Way) and turn east towards Biscayne Bay. About 1.8 miles turn right or south on Erwin (47th Avenue) and it's on the left about 600 feet south behind a coral wall. Brief History: Pinewood is a 4-acre burial ground started around 1897 although a few funerals had been reported as early as the 1840's from a very sparse group of settlers. It has never been filed with the State of Florida and is still not recognized as an official cemetery. New burials stopped about 1968. Burial records have never been maintained: only the land deeds are officially registered with the City. Many of the names here have been reconstructed from family members, a few deeds, and the even fewer headstones. Lists from Oby Bonawit, printed in "Miami Florida Early Families and Records 1980, an unpublished list by Mrs. Ann J. McFadden, Feb. 2000, & existing gravestones. There have been an estimated 250 burials, with only 15 original markers, and about 25 replacement gravestones still on the grounds. Given the fact that the area was rural and undeveloped, often time's money was not available for a proper gravestone. Also, over the years fraternities during rush week at the University of Miami in the 50's & 60's, as well as general vandalism have depleted the small number of markers that did exist.