Zora Neale Hurston in Fort Pierce

Zora Neale Hurston, the Harlem Renaissance author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, moved to Fort Pierce in 1957 and lived her last years in the city's Lincoln Park neighborhood.

The Florida Department of State says that after the 1950s brought her a litany of troubles, with most of her time spent in South Florida in jobs ranging from maid to newspaper reporter, Hurston moved to Fort Pierce when a family friend from Eatonville offered her a small house, rent-free (Florida Artists Hall of Fame, Zora Neale Hurston). The state entry, which lists her as a folklorist with the years 1891 - 1960 and records her induction in 1990, says she died at the age of 69 in a welfare home and that her grave, in a segregated cemetery, was unmarked.

The City of Fort Pierce ties her to one neighborhood. Its Historical Lincoln Park page says Lincoln Park was home to Zora Neale Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God (City of Fort Pierce, Historical Lincoln Park), and the city's Lincoln Park Master Plan page says the neighborhood is recognized as her home and as the birthplace of the Florida Highwaymen (City of Fort Pierce, Lincoln Park Master Plan). The city's About page sums her up as the noted author and anthropologist who lived her last years in Fort Pierce (About Fort Pierce).

Before Fort Pierce, Hurston grew up in Eatonville, studied anthropology at Barnard College and Columbia University, published novels from 1934 to 1948, and recorded Florida folklore for the federal Florida Writers Project.

Every row comes from the Florida Artists Hall of Fame biography, which says Hurston was born Zora Lee Hurston in Notasulga, Alabama, and moved at age 3 to the all-black town of Eatonville, Florida, where her father became mayor. The entry calls her a major figure of New York's Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and says she toured Florida on a sound recording expedition for the Works Progress Administration, often with co-worker Stetson Kennedy, using equipment on loan from the Library of Congress, where 18 of her original recordings are preserved. The Fort Pierce years are the last chapter of that record, and the state places the start of them in 1957.

The City of Fort Pierce places Hurston's grave site at the Garden of Heavenly Rest, and the state says the author Alice Walker found it in 1973 and marked it with a headstone.

According to the state Hall of Fame entry, Hurston's remarkable life was rediscovered in the early 1970s by Alice Walker, who had been heavily influenced by her writing. In 1973, the entry says, Walker went to Fort Pierce and found what is believed to be Hurston's gravesite, and she had a headstone installed with the inscription "Zora Neale Hurston: A Genius of the South." The wording "believed to be" is the state's own, and the entry describes the original burial as an unmarked grave in a segregated cemetery.

The city names the cemetery. Its Historical Lincoln Park page records that Zora spent many years in Lincoln Park, the last years of her life among them, and that her grave site is located at the Garden of Heavenly Rest. The city's Visitor Center at the Seven Gables House in Fort Pierce holds a Dust Tracks Heritage Trail information kiosk, and the Lincoln Park pages are where the city tells her story.

The Zora Neale Hurston Dust Tracks Heritage Trail is a city heritage trail in Fort Pierce that commemorates Hurston's life, with an information kiosk at the Seven Gables House visitor center.

The city's About Fort Pierce page lists the Zora Neale Hurston Dust Tracks Trail among the city's cultural assets, next to the Sunrise Theatre and the Highwaymen Heritage Trail, and says it commemorates the noted author and anthropologist who lived her last years in Fort Pierce. The Historical Lincoln Park page invites people exploring the area to learn about Hurston by following her Dust Tracks Heritage Trail, which it says commemorates the life and times of this world-renowned Harlem Renaissance author, anthropologist, storyteller and dramatist.

The trail shares its starting point with the Highwaymen route. The city's Highwaymen Heritage Trail page lists stop 1 as the Seven Gables House at 482 North Indian River Drive, Fort Pierce's Visitor Center and the location of a Zora Neale Hurston Dust Tracks Heritage Trail information kiosk. In a June 25, 2026 notice on the Highwaymen Museum's America 250 Road Trip selection, the city said St. Lucie County is home to both the Florida Highwaymen and Zora Neale Hurston and pointed visitors from the museum to the nearby Dust Tracks Heritage Trail (City of Fort Pierce news, America 250 Road Trip). The Florida Highwaymen guide covers that museum on Avenue D.

The state dates her move to Fort Pierce to 1957 and her death to 1960, while the city says she spent many years in Lincoln Park; both accounts are given here as written.

The Florida Department of State entry dates the move to Fort Pierce to 1957 and gives 1960 as the year of her death. The City of Fort Pierce, on its Historical Lincoln Park page, says Zora spent many years in Lincoln Park, her final years among them, and its About page says she lived her last years in Fort Pierce. The two descriptions are printed side by side here, as each agency wrote them.

For a visit, the city links Hurston's final years, her grave and the trail named for her to Lincoln Park, the neighborhood its master plan calls one of the oldest and most culturally significant in Fort Pierce (Lincoln Park Master Plan). The Lincoln Park guide covers the neighborhood's history and the Avenue D work now under way.

Beyond the trail and her grave, Fort Pierce remembers Hurston with a St. Lucie County library branch on Avenue D and with ZoraFest, which the state says is held each spring in Fort Pierce.

The St. Lucie County library system lists the Zora Neale Hurston Branch Library at 3008 Avenue D, Fort Pierce, Florida 34947, just west of 29th Street, with the phone number 772-462-2154 (St. Lucie County Library, Locations and Hours). On October 22, 2026 the county page listed the Hurston branch open Tuesday and Thursday 9 am to 7:00 pm, Wednesday 9 am to 5:30 pm, and Friday and Saturday 9 am to 5 pm; the same page is the place to check holiday closings. The county library also runs a Zora Neale Hurston BookMatch online book group, named in its menu.

The state Hall of Fame entry names two annual festivals that keep her legacy alive: the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities in her childhood home of Eatonville, and ZoraFest, held each spring in Fort Pierce. It also notes the documentary Jump at the Sun, released in 2008, and her 2010 induction into the New York Writers Hall of Fame.