Welcome to the Upsala Cemetery Preservation Society
550 Upsala Road, Sanford, Florida
Upsala Swedish Cemetery as it is known today consists of five acres of land with a portion containing the cemetery. The buildings of yesteryear are long gone. This site was the center of the earliest and largest Swedish community in Florida. Located on this site were two buildings: the Scandinavian Hall which served as a school until 1904, and the Scandinavian Society Church which became the Upsala Lutheran Church and its cemetery. This is the burial place for nearly 80 known grave sites and numerous unmarked grave sites of these early pioneers. Although the hall and church buildings have been gone for so many years, these pioneers and their descendants continued to be laid to rest here into the twenty-first century.
The cemetery property is currently under the care of the Upsala Swedish Cemetery Preservation Society, Inc. We are a society of volunteers, and our funding is from donations only. Everyone is welcome to join our efforts.
We have cleared the extensive overgrowth covering headstones. We removed fallen trees and limbs from the cemetery area. We have accounted for all known headstones and we started the proper cleaning process of the headstones. We are financially supporting the professional regular mowing of the front section of the property. Our volunteers are maintaining the cleared section around the cemetery section to prevent overgrowth from reoccurring.
In the future we plan to hold annual cemetery cleanup days and community events that hopefully will attract younger generations to participate with us to help ensure the future care of the property for generations to come. We also plan to hold fundraising events to help cover the cost of maintaining the property.
The Above picture is from April 2023.
The picture above is from July 2023.
Upsala Swedish Cemetery Preservation Society, Inc.
We are a non-profit that has been formed by Upsala Swedish Community descendants.
We seek to honor, restore, and maintain the Upsala cemetery and its history.
Everyone is welcome to join our society.