Mountain View Cemetery (Oakland, California)
Historic rural cemetery in Alameda County
The Mountain View Cemetery is a 226-acre (91 ha) rural cemetery in Oakland, California , United States. It was established in 1863 by a group of East Bay pioneers under the California Rural Cemetery Act of 1859. The association they formed still operates the cemetery today. Mountain View was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted , the landscape architect who also designed New York City 's Central Park and much of UC Berkeley and Stanford University .
Many of California 's important historical figures, drawn by Olmsted's reputation, are buried here. There are many grandiose crypts in tribute to the wealthy, especially along the ridge section with a view across the Bay to the San Francisco skyline, known as "Millionaires' Row".[ 1] docents began in 1970.[ 2]
Design
Panoramic view from the rear of the cemetery, looking out across the San Francisco Bay Olmsted's intent was to create a space that would express a harmony between humankind and the natural setting. In the view of 19th century English and American romantics , park-like cemeteries, such as Mountain View, represented the peace of nature, to which humanity's soul returns. Olmsted, drawing upon the concepts of American Transcendentalism , integrated Parisian grand monuments and broad avenues.
Adjoining Mountain View Cemetery is Saint Mary Cemetery and the Chapel of the Chimes mausoleum and columbarium.
Notable burials
View of the cemetery from Charles Crocker's tomb There are many notable people interred in Mountain View; many are local figures in California history, but others have achieved wider fame.[ 3]
Politicians and government officials
Washington Bartlett , Mayor of San Francisco (1882–1884), Governor of California (1887)Coles Bashford , Governor of Wisconsin and Arizona Territory politicianLeonard W. Buck , rancher, California State Senator.Warren B. English , US Representative (D) CaliforniaJohn B. Felton , Mayor of Oakland (1869–70)William M. Gwin , one of California's first U.S. Senators Henry H. Haight , Governor of California (1867–71)William Knowland , U.S. Senator, Publisher, Oakland Tribune Adolphus Frederic St. Sure , Federal JudgeSamuel Merritt , early Mayor of Oakland [ 1] [ 2] Romualdo Pacheco , Governor of California (1875)George Pardee , Governor of California (1903–1907)[ 2] George C. Perkins , Governor of California (1880–1883); U.S. Senator (1893–1915).Richard P. Hammond , Speaker of the California State Assembly (January - May 1852) and former U.S. Army Major
Industrialists and business people
The statue above Domingo Ghirardelli 's mausoleum. The Crocker mausoleum on Millionaire's Row Warren A. Bechtel (1872–1933), industrialist, founder of the Bechtel company[ 4] Anthony Chabot , the "Water King", father of hydraulic mining and benefactor of Chabot Space & Science Center [ 2] Charles Crocker , railroad magnate, banker[ 2] William E. Dargie , Owner, Oakland Tribune J. A. Folger , founder of Folgers Coffee [ 1] Peter Folger (1905–1980), American coffee heir, socialiteDomingo Ghirardelli , namesake of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company [ 1] Henry J. Kaiser (1882–1967), father of modern American shipbuilding [ 5] Ingemar Henry Lundquist , mechanical engineer, and inventor of over the wire balloon angioplasty Joe Shoong , Chinese immigrant and founder of the National Dollar Stores chain[ 2] Francis Marion Smith , the "Borax King"[ 2] Charles Miner Goodall , Co-Founder of the Pacific Coast Steamship Company Lewis Bradbury , a gold-mining millionaire who owned the Tajo Mine in Mexico, and later became a real estate developer
Military
Thomas Hill's grave marker The Miller Crypt pyramid.
Arts and culture
Lucy Adeline Briggs Cole Rawson Peckinpah Smallman , botanical artist and plant collector.Leandro Campanari , Italian-American violinist, conductor, composer and music teacher.Herbert A. Collins , landscape and portrait artistIna Coolbrith (1841–1928), California's first poet laureate Margaret Girvin Gillin (1833–1915), painterAndre Hicks (aka. Mac Dre ), Bay Area rapper, record label owner, and producer[ 1] [ 5] Thomas Hill , artistWilliam Keith (1838–1911), California landscape artistBernard Maybeck , architect[ 2] Julia Morgan (1872–1957), architect[ 1] [ 2] Frank Norris (1870-1902), author[ 2] Floyd Salas (1931–2021), authorMargaret Singer (1921-2003), researcherIsabel Seal Stovel , organizers of the City of San Francisco Music WeekBella French Swisher (1837–1893), writerDouglas Tilden (1860–1935), sculptor
Local history
David Douty Colton , vice president of the Southern Pacific Railroad , namesake of the city of Colton, California Henry Durant , first president of the University of California, Berkeley [ 2] Nannie S. Brown Kramer (1883–1953), organizer, president and membership director of the Oakland Women's City Club[ 8] Virginia Prentiss , African-American midwife and nanny to Jack London Jane K. Sather , donor of Sather Gate and Sather Tower to the University of California, BerkeleyFrancis K. Shattuck , prominent in the politics and early development of Alameda County, Oakland and BerkeleyWilliam T. Shorey , African-American whaling captain and Oakland civic leader[ 2] John Swett , founder of the California Public School SystemCharles Lee Tilden , namesake of Tilden Regional Park
Other
David Hewes burial vault Volney V. Ashford , exiled revolutionaryCloe Annette Buckel , one of the first female doctors in CaliforniaGlenn Burke (1952–1995), first openly gay player in Major League Baseball [ 1] Henry D. Cogswell , dentist and temperance movement crusader[ 2] Marcus Foster , first Black Superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District in Oakland, California, first victim of the Symbionese Liberation Army Eliza Nelson Fryer , educator and missionaryDavid Hewes , who provided the "Golden Spike "Bobby Hutton , first treasurer of the Black Panther Party Fred Korematsu , challenged Executive Order 9066 in the landmark Supreme Court case Korematsu v. United States [ 5] Ike Lassiter , football playerJoseph LeConte , co-founder of the Sierra Club Ernie Lombardi , Hall of Fame Major League Baseball playerJohn Norton Pomeroy , law professor at Hastings College of the Law Elizabeth Short , unsolved Hollywood murder victim known as the Black Dahlia [ 1] [ 5] There is one British Commonwealth war grave , of Pilot Officer James Raymond Lippi, an American born member of the Royal Canadian Air Force , who died in 1942.[ 9] Santa Cruz, California and went to Canada to enlist for World War II
Lee Ya-Ching , China's First Lady of Flight, first female pilot graduated from Geneve-Cointrin (Switzerland) and from Boeing School of Aeronautics .Zedekiah Johnson Purnell (1813–1882), was an African-American activist, and businessman[ 10]
In popular culture
Mountain View Cemetery is featured prominently in the 2018 film Blindspotting Daveed Diggs 's character is shown going there for morning runs, and an important scene happens in the cemetery where the character imagines Black victims of police brutality standing over the graves.[ 11]
In The Big Wake-Up , a 2009 crime novel by Mark Coggins , the main character in the book, a detective named August Riordan, discovers that Argentine first lady Eva Perón is not at rest in the Duarte family tomb in La Recoleta Cemetery , Buenos Aires, but is actually buried in Mountain View Cemetery.[ 12]
References
^ a b c d e f g h Andrew Chamings (March 2, 2020). "From the Black Dahlia to Mac Dre: The bodies of Mountain View" . San Francisco Chronicle . ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Abby Cohn (January 5, 2001). "They're 6 Feet Under, But Pioneers Draw Crowds to Oakland" . San Francisco Chronicle . ^ "Famous People at Mountain View Cemetery - Comprehensive List" . Mountain View Cemetery. Archived from the original on December 10, 2005.^ "Bechtel" . The Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2022-09-13 – via Newspapers.com .^ a b c d Matthews, Allen (December 7, 2020). "Beloved Oakland cemetery, resting place of Kaiser, Ghirardelli and Mac Dre, still off-limits to visitors" . San Francisco Chronicle . ^ "Freed from Debt, Bethel Church Pays Off a Mortgage" . San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved 2024-11-21 – via Newspapers.com .^ "Summers, Obediah – Age 18, Year: 1864 – 18th US Colored Infantry" . African American Civil War Memorial Museum . Retrieved 2024-11-22 .^ Binheim, Max; Elvin, Charles A. (1928). Women of the West; a series of biographical sketches of living eminent women in the eleven western states of the United States of America . Retrieved 8 August 2017 . public domain .^ http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2719634/LIPPI,%20JAMES%20RAYMOND CWGC Casualty Record.^ "California, Oakland, Mountain View Cemetery Records, 1857–1973, Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland; FHL microfilm 008266227" . FamilySearch ^ " . KQED . 2018-07-17. Retrieved 2018-09-05 .^ "Evita Plays Oakland?" . Southern Cone Travel . 2010-04-20. Retrieved 2020-03-17 .
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