Pinehurst Cemetery

Pinehurst Cemetery is part of the Moncrief Road Cemetery District, established following the Great Fire of 1901 due to a few cemeteries for Jacksonville's African American community during the early 20th century. Situated at the NW corner of Moncrief Road and Restlawn Drive, the 8.5-acre Pinehurst Cemetery was established during the early 1900s by the Afro-American Life Insurance Company's Memorial Cemetery Association. Abraham Lincoln Lewis created the Memorial Cemetery Association to provide burial space for black residents excluded by Southern segregation from "white cemeteries." The location of more than 1,200 graves, Pinehurst Cemetery, was designated as a local landmark site by the City of Jacksonville in 1992 along with Memorial and Sunset cemeteries.

Pinehurst Cemetery was initially privately owned by the Afro-American Life Insurance Company and the Memorial Cemetery Association. It is believed that the Moncrief Cemetery District reflected the social history of the community as well as its religious attitudes towards death and dying during the first half of the 20th century. Pinehurst Cemetery was considered less social and is home to more single burials than family plots, unlike the Memorial Cemetery Association's larger and older nearby Memorial and Sunset cemeteries burial grounds. However, many African American Military Veterans are buried there from as far back as WWI.

In 1986, the ownership of Pinehurst Cemetery was transferred to the Memorial Cemetery Inc., and in the 1990s, the Memorial Cemetery, Inc went defunct, and the cemetery was abandoned, neglected, and in despair for over 20 years with trash, damaged gravesites, and broken headstones. In September 2018, Pinehurst Cemetery served as the launch of a 5-year, $10.8 million plan by Mayor Lenny Curry to clean and restore Moncrief's long-abandoned historic African American cemeteries. It is estimated that adequately restoring this landmark cemetery will take $1.2 million. This restoration will restore dignity and respect to those buried at Pinehurst Cemetery.