Sebastian Cemetery in Sebastian, Florida

The City of Sebastian runs Sebastian Municipal Cemetery on North Central Avenue (City of Sebastian).

The posted address is 1921 N. Central Avenue, Sebastian, FL 32958. The city's cemetery page lists two contact lines: the Deputy Clerk at 772-388-8209 and the Parks and Recreation Director at 772-388-4414. The same page links an interactive cemetery map for finding a grave, the full rate sheet, the cemetery rules and a sheet on free military honors for the families of deceased veterans. Last verified: October 14, 2026, on the City of Sebastian website.

The rules are part of the city code. Chapter 34 of the Sebastian code covers the municipal cemetery, from the trust fund to marker sizes and the duties of vault companies and gravediggers (City of Sebastian rules, Chapter 34). Every interment site must be located by the cemetery sexton or another designated city official, and no work may be done on a site except by the sexton or the sexton's representative, apart from vault companies opening and closing graves and approved monument installers.

The burial ground is older than the city around it. The Park family gave the land to the town after 1895 (Florida Division of Historical Resources), and Sebastian was incorporated as a city in 1923 (UCF RICHES).

The cemetery began as burial ground on the Sebastian homestead of August Park, and after Park's death in 1895 his family donated the land to the town, according to a state historical marker placed at the cemetery in 2022 (Florida Division of Historical Resources).

The marker, titled Park Family Cemetery, stands at 1921 N. Central Avenue and gives the outline. Park was born in Danzig, Germany, in 1833, came to the United States through New York, and later moved to Fort Pierce. Park settled in the Sebastian area in 1865, the first permanent resident of European descent, and bought 43 acres, where he lived for 30 years. He and his wife, Polly Anna Gore of Washington, North Carolina, had seven children.

Park's land served the whole settlement. He took in other settlers arriving in Sebastian until they found a place of their own, and he let them use his land for burial, starting with a father whose son had died. After Park's death in 1895, his family donated the burial land to the town of Sebastian, creating the Sebastian Municipal Cemetery (Florida Division of Historical Resources).

Two official histories disagree on who came first. The state marker calls Park, from 1865, the first permanent resident of European descent, while the UCF RICHES archive dates Sebastian as a fishing village from the 1870s and names David Peter Gibson and Thomas New as the first non-indigenous settlers in the early 1880s (UCF RICHES). Readers citing either claim should name which source they rely on.

Sebastian Cemetery holds veterans of the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II and the Korean War, and its best-known burial is Pelican Island warden Paul Kroegel (Florida Division of Historical Resources).

The marker calls him the manager of the first national wildlife refuge and says he was instrumental in establishing Pelican Island, the first federal bird reservation. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service records that Audubon hired Paul Kroegel as the first warden of Pelican Island after Theodore Roosevelt's 1903 order (USFWS).

The marker notes that burials have long since grown beyond Park's family and neighbors (Florida Division of Historical Resources). Veterans' families can ask the city about free military honors, which the cemetery page lists as a service (City of Sebastian).

The city does not publish a burial index on the page itself; the interactive cemetery map linked from the City of Sebastian cemetery page is the public tool for locating a named grave.

A standard 4 by 8 foot lot at Sebastian Municipal Cemetery costs $2,850 and a 4 by 4 foot cremains lot costs $1,500, under rates adopted by City of Sebastian Resolution R-22-19, and all sales include perpetual maintenance (City of Sebastian rate sheet).

Columbarium niches cost $2,400 single and $4,800 double, each with a plaque, for urns up to 12 1/2 inches wide, 7 inches high and 9 inches deep; a vase and ring adds $200. Interment preparation, which covers surveying and marking the site, flower removal and niche preparation, is listed as included in the price on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. for lots bought after September 13, 2022. The same column lists $150 for lots bought before that date, $350 after 3 p.m. on weekdays, and $500 on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday (City of Sebastian rate sheet). Because the posted PDF prints those columns out of alignment, confirming the figure with the clerk's office before a service is the practical step.

Plot money is protected by code. Chapter 34 sets up a cemetery trust fund with a permanent endowment of at least $375,000, and one-half of the proceeds from selling interment sites goes into that endowment; the rest pays only for expanding the cemetery (City of Sebastian rules, Chapter 34). Plots may not be bought or sold for speculation, and any transfer needs the city's written consent.

The Chapter 34 table of contents still titles Sec. 34-11 as setting fees for Sebastian residents and people outside city limits, but the section text says fees are set uniformly by city council resolution, and the posted rate sheet shows a single price per item, as checked October 14, 2026.

Sebastian Cemetery is open daily from 7 a.m. until sunset, and anyone without authorization on the grounds after sunset is trespassing under Chapter 34 of the City of Sebastian code (City of Sebastian rules).

The grounds rules are short. Speed on internal roads is limited to 15 miles per hour, vehicles may not park on grass burial areas except for interment work and city maintenance, and alcoholic beverages are prohibited on the cemetery grounds. Interments are permitted seven days a week, except Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day when the cemetery is closed, with 48 hours notice to the sexton. Standard graves must be dug at least five feet deep, and every burial in a standard in-ground site needs a concrete vault or approved liner (City of Sebastian rules).

Markers follow fixed standards. All cemetery markers must be bronze, marble or granite and flush with the ground, and they must be installed within 120 days after burial. To keep the historic character of Units 1 and 4 of the Sebastian Cemetery, existing slabs and above-ground markers there may be restored, and above-ground markers on 4 by 8 foot sites are allowed in Units 1, 3 and 4 up to 48 inches high (City of Sebastian rules).

Flowers have limits that matter to visitors. No more than two bouquets of artificial or fresh flowers are allowed at a gravesite, glass and ceramic containers are banned, and flower blankets placed before a holiday must be removed within ten days after it. Fences, hedges, copings and earth mounds are not allowed around graves (City of Sebastian rules).

Future space is paid for from plot sales, because Chapter 34 reserves the non-endowed half of sale proceeds solely for capital expansion of the cemetery (City of Sebastian rules, Chapter 34).

One-half of the proceeds from selling interment sites goes into the permanent endowment, and the rest covers expansion work such as plotting, acquisition and watering system installation (City of Sebastian rules, Chapter 34).

The city does not post a count of open sites. Ground space is stretched by the cremains options on the rate sheet: a 4 by 8 foot lot holds one casket and one cremains or two cremains, a 4 by 4 foot lot holds one cremains, and the columbarium niches take urns with no new ground at all (City of Sebastian rate sheet). For current availability in a given section, the interactive cemetery map and the Deputy Clerk line on the city's cemetery page are the starting points (City of Sebastian).

One point for anyone using the city documents: the Chapter 34 rules PDF still prints older cemetery coordinator contacts and a Public Facilities Director on its cover and refers to a Leisure Services Director in its text, while the city's cemetery page now routes questions to the Deputy Clerk and the Parks and Recreation Director (City of Sebastian, checked October 14, 2026). The phone numbers on the cemetery page are the current ones to call.