1110 NW 5 Street
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General Information

Acreage:  5.7

Park Hours:  Sunrise – Sunset

Amenities
Benches, cemetery (historical; not available for burials), drinking fountain, nature preserve, nature trail, open play area, picnic table, restrooms

Historical Information

The land was leased from the Florida Department of Transportation by the City starting in 1978. The park consists of 5.6-acres. This property was originally a legitimate City dump and next to it was an informal cemetery used primarily by the African American community who lived in the area. On the property are gravesites dating back to the early 1900's. The site contains 19 marked graves and an undetermined number of unmarked graves. It wasn't known that there was a cemetery on the site until Mr. Alton Barton identified the plots to DOT, as his son was buried in the area. The cemetery portion of the park makes up about 1/2-acre.

The park is named after Alton Barton, who was born in 1944 and was put to rest in 1950. The Barton family still lives in the area and was instrumental in preserving the cemetery when I-95 was constructed through Boynton Beach in the 1970's. The property is now closed to burials.

The DOT had to determine what to do with the remains as I-95 was expected to be built on parts of that property. DOT and the City worked together to create Sara Sims Cemetery to relocate the remains of the people buried under the planned interstate. Graves that were not in the direct path of the interstate were not moved.

The property borders the north end of Galaxy School and scrub (Palm Beach County School District).

A natural scrub area is located on approximately 2-acres of the property along N.W. 5th Street between Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. & N.W. 8th Ave. The site is overgrown with exotic vegetation. Historically a sand pine scrub, some of the plant species found there include sand pines and scrub oaks. While no gopher tortoises have been found on the City's property, an adjacent scrub site belonging to the Palm Beach County School District has traces of gopher tortoise activity, including a burrow within 30 yards from the south end of the City's property line. At one time, a nature path extended through this scrub to Galaxy Elementary School.

In 2002, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission conducted a site review and felt a nature trail would not impact any listed species and, if coupled with exotic vegetation removal and other scrub rehabilitation, the site would provide improved habitat for wildlife including the gopher tortoise (a state species of special concern).