There is something strangely beautiful about traipsing through an old cemetery, with its overgrown patches of foliage and ornate headstones.
In the early 19th century, these garden cemeteries became popular destinations for picnics and a mid-day stroll with their beautiful landscaping and shaded trees. The first garden cemetery in the United States, modeled after the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, was Mount Auburn in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1831.
As different burial practices have become more common, such as cremation and green burials, larger memorial parks have become the norm, leaving these smaller resting places, with their weathered headstones and faded etchings, largely forgotten.
Drawing back the curtains of time, Choice Mutual, an insurance agency specializing in final expense life insurance, surveyed 3,007 respondents and asked them to name what they consider the most beautiful hidden gem cemetery they have visited.
In California, three out of 140 made the list. All of them are a moss-filled, storybook of the past. Let’s take a look.
Hidden gem California cemeteries
The establishment of rural or garden cemeteries got a boost in the state when the California legislature enacted the California Rural Cemetery Act of 1859.
This new law allowed for the creation of rural cemetery associations— groups of citizens who could band together to purchase property from private landowners to create cemeteries.
Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland
In Oakland, the 1859 law spurred the creation of the Mountain View Cemetery, home to the famous “Millionaire’s Row.” The lane of ornate crypts runs along a ridge of the cemetery, offering sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay. Many of the region’s wealthy residents are buried there due to the reputation of the cemetery’s designer, Frederick Law Olmsted, the famous landscape architect who designed New York’s Central Park, Capitol Grounds in Washington, D.C., and Stanford University.
With its “stately avenues and winding roadways” and rolling hills dotted with native live oaks, and sweeping Bay Area vistas, Mountain View Cemetery blends garden-like beauty with layers of California history.
Evergreen Cemetery in Santa Cruz
Nestled on a wooded hillside, this historic 1858 cemetery gives atmospheric Wednesday vibes. The weathered headstones are more than 160 years old, and document the tumultuous history of the changing West. Painstaikingly restored over many years by local historians and volunteers, its quiet paths, shaded by giant redwood trees, carry stories of pioneers, early settlers, gold prospectors, artists, Chinese immigrants, and Civil War veterans.
Located near Harvey West Park, the Evergreen Cemetery is free to visit and is one of the oldest cemeteries in California.
Mission San Buenaventura Cemetery in Ventura
Mission San Buenaventura was established by Father Junípero Serra in 1782, the 9th of 21 missions erected in California. Set among palm trees and oaks, the mission was made of adobe, bricks, and stone, and was distinguished by a “unique triangular design on the façade, which may be a religious symbol representing the Holy Trinity,” according to mission history. Mission grounds were filled with abundant fields of orchards, vineyards, and fruit and vegetable gardens.
Over the years, the mission church was destroyed by fire, rebuilt, then stripped of its original fixtures during a 19th-century mass renovation. Restoration begun in 1957 aimed to return the church to its 1812 condition. Early in the 20th century, the mission cemetery, where many Californios and Indigenous people were buried, had its headstones removed and was covered over. Later, an elementary school was built there. Weathered wooden crosses and adobe walls are all that remain of their final resting place.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Channel your inner Wednesday Addams at these hidden-gem cemeteries in California
Reporting by Roseann Cattani, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
