RSSHalloween special: Looking back on the Richmond’s cemeteries
I teamed up with VidSF.com to produce a short video in honor of Halloween. Many San Franciscans don’t know that the Richmond District used to be home to several cemeteries. Beginning in the early 1900s and until the 1940′s, the cemeteries were decommissioned and the remains were moved out to Colma. Or at least we think they were…
In the video, we visited what was the location of the Odd Fellows Cemetery, where today you can visit the Columbarium (and be inurned there if you so desire) and enjoy Rossi Playground where bodies were buried and the Oddfellows crematorium stoked its fires.
We also ventured out to Lincoln Park and the Legion of Honor which sit on what was once City Cemetery, a burial ground for ethnic and religious minorities, indigents and members of various benevolent associations. As you’ll learn in the video, some of the remains, well, still remain. Spooky!
For more history on the cemeteries (and the neighborhood), I highly recommend the book San Francisco’s Richmond District by Lorri Ungaretti. You may also want to watch A Second Final Rest: The History of San Francisco’s Lost Cemeteries, a documentary by Trina Lopez which is available for download or for rent at the SF Public Library Main Branch History Center. Both of these were invaluable resources for the video.
Special thanks to the crew that shot the video last weekend:
Host: Dhaya Lakshminarayanan
Camera: Shikiri Hightower
Special guest: Lorri Ungaretti, Author and Richmond District historian
Intern: Hanna Choe
Below are some interesting historical photos of the cemeteries from Lorri Ungaretti’s book. Happy Halloween everyone!
Sarah B.
An 1891 map showing the five cemeteries in the northwestern part of San Francisco.
Note the City Cemetery in the upper left corner, and the the other four on the right side
(Laurel Hill Cemetery, Odd Fellows Cemetery, Masonic Cemetery, Calvary Cemetery).
Courtesy of Richard Brandi.
A crew works to remove the bodies from Odd Fellows Cemetery, December 26, 1933.
This is now the site of Rossi Playground.
A panoramic view of Odd Fellows Cemetery. Note the Columbarium on the far right. On the very
far left edge, you can see the top of the crematorium. 1865.
The Odd Fellows Crematorium building can be seen in the background. Remains were then inurned
in the Columbarium nearby. Courtesy of Glenn Koch.
In the early years of San Francisco, there was little greenery or trees, so it was not unusual for residents
to flock to the cemeteries for recreation. This photo shows a Memorial Day celebration at
Laurel Hill Cemetery in 1909.
I will add one more Richmond district cemetery to this list: The Marine Hospital Cemetery behind the Public Health Service Hospital that the Presidio Trust is currently renovating for housing inside the 15th Avenue gate. Bodies still lie beneath the soil there as well. The Trust is currently filling that area and interpretive signs will be included. For those who are interested, you can read a lot more in this report by the Presidio Archaelology Center:
http://www.presidio.gov/NR/rdonlyres/C44EF70A-582E-4F00-976C-4EA2F06AE09C/0/MHCreportpart1accessible.pdf
Bob
What a killer article. Thank you!
Very interesting Bob! Thanks for the update,
Sarah B.
So cool, thanks for sharing!
I so enjoyed this posting – - very interesting history!
I put a link to it on my graveyard blog from Ohio.
[...] enough to participate in a blog project with me last Fall. She starred as a historical expert in a humorous Halloween video where we revisited the Richmond District’s earliest residents, the ce…. She was a good sport and was full of great information and enthusiasm, both on camera and [...]
[...] The magnificent building is located at 1 Loraine Court, just off Anza Street across from Rossi Playground. The Columbarium used to be part of the much larger Odd Fellows Cemetery back in the early days of San Francisco (more on the Richmond District’s early cemeteries). [...]
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