Welcome!

I have loved visiting cemeteries since I was a child. It used to freak out my mom because she thought I was thinking about death too much but I was more curious about the lives of the people buried there. Through the years I have also been fascinated by the numerous head stones and grave markers. Please enjoy my fascination!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

City of the Silent

Colma, California is not know for their live residents but more for who is laid to rest there. In 1900, San Francisco passed an ordinance which outlawed the construction of any more cemeteries in the city (because of increased property value). San Francisco then passed another ordinance in 1912 evicting all existing cemeteries from city limits. Basically anyone who passed away in San Francisco is buried in one of the cemeteries in Colma.
Robyn and I visited Cypress Lawn Memorial Park yesterday for a scheduled walking tour. It is about an hour drive for us but neither of us has been there before. About once a month, the Cypress Lawn Heritage Foundation puts together walking tours and lectures, which are free to the public. They refer to Cypress Lawn as a 200 acre museum of art and history and after walking the tour yesterday, I agree!
Yesterday's topic was 'Gargoyles, Foo Dogs, and More: Interesting and Unusual Memorials'. Our docent was Terry Hamburg, who is the author of "Grand Entrances", a book on unique storefronts in San Francisco. Also helping with the tour was Martin S. Jacobs, Executive VP of Development of the Cypress Lawn Heritage Foundation. http://www.cypresslawnheritagefoundation.com/

The tour started at the Noble Chapel, located on the east side of the main road thru Colma. The Noble Chapel was modeled after the St. Giles Church in Stokes Poges, England. There were about 12 of us ready to walk. They provided us with complimentary bottles of water for our trek.

Noble Chapel

One of the first sites we came to was for the Graves family. The unique part of this one is that they had a bench that had the image of the devil on the sides. This also had an eleborate marker.




We saw a lot of great craftsmanship in the various doors and stained glass windows.


Here are some of my favorites:



More of my photos can be found at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Liner89/CypressLawnMemorialParkColma#

The entire tour was about 2 hours and ended back at Noble Chapel. They had set out coffee, cookies, strawberries and grapes for us to munch on. (and yes.....I had 2 cookies....choco chip and oatmeal....so much for my Cleanse yesterday...lol).
After the tour, Robyn and I drove across the road to the west side to see the graves there. There were not as many ornate and large site as on the east side. We got back on the main road and decided to find the Catholic cemetery.
Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery is designed differently than Cypress Lawn - the word that came to mind was 'busy'. It was a lot of head stones really close together. As we were driving out I happened to see the name of DiMaggio. We stopped and got out and looked closer. It was the grave of Joe DiMaggio!
Robyn and I decided that we definitely need to see about doing a walking tour at Holy Cross and going back to Cypress Lawn for more exploring.

2 comments:

The Farmer Files said...

hubs and I love the Noble Chapel. can you get married there? Ar the cemetery in the suburb of San Diego where I grew up they have a little chapel that is very expensive and beautiful. It is kind of spendy to marry there.

Sweet Caroline said...

The brochure I picked up there says it is a popular backdrop for wedding photos. I can see why! It used to be the main chapel where funeral services were held. It looks like it is still used for that, when requested. The Heritage Foundation does hope to bring back the regular concerts they use to have there. They do hope to totally renovate the chapel inside too.