The San Francisco Columbarium & Funeral Home is a columbarium (repository for human ashes) owned and operated by Dignity Memorial, located at One Loraine Court, near Stanyan and Anza Streets, just north of Golden Gate Park in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

. Built in 1898 by architect Bernard J.S. Cahill, the copper-domed Columbarium is an example of Neo-Classical architecture. It is the only non-denominational burial place within San Francisco's city limits that is open to the public and has space available.

History

The Columbarium was once part of the Odd Fellows Cemetery, which encompassed approximately . It was built to complement an existing crematorium designed by Cahill in 1895. In 1902 the

San Francisco Board of Supervisors The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative body within the government of the City and County of San Francisco. Government and politics The City and County of San Francisco is a consolidated city-county, being simultaneously a c ...

prohibited further burials within the city. By late 1910,

cremation Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre ...

was also prohibited. The Odd Fellows, forced to abandon their cemetery, established Green Lawn Cemetery in Colma. Transfer of bodies began in 1929 and many families also chose to remove their urns from the Columbarium. The crematorium and various

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...

s were demolished. Many of the headstones were re-used to build a seawall at Aquatic Park. The Columbarium remained, as well as interments below ground that were missed during exhumation, such as the mummified body of two-year old Edith Howard Cook found in 2016. After a time, the Columbarium was sold to the Bay Cities Cemetery Association and later to Cypress Abbey. As it passed from one organization to another it fell into disrepair. In 1980, the Neptune Society of Northern California bought it and began restoration. Among others, Emmitt Watson was hired by the Neptune Society as a painter but became the primary restorer of the building and functions as de facto tour guide to this day. On March 3, 1996, the building was added to the register of San Francisco Designated Landmarks.

Design

The Columbarium combines baroque and neoclassical features. Cahill was probably inspired by the Columbian Exposition of 1893 in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. The diameter, from the entrance to the stained glass window opposite, is . The width of the rotunda within the Inner circle is and the rotunda reaches a height of about . The eight rooms on the ground floor bear the names of the mythological winds. Six of the ground floor rooms feature beautiful stained glass windows. The window in the Aquilo room depicting three angels in flight, is attributed equally to Louis Comfort Tiffany or John LaFarge. The first floor rooms are named after constellations. The second and third floors are simpler in design. On the grounds there is a fountain sculpture of Coit Tower. Many of the internets have creative dedications and feature personal items. The first floor contains approximately 2,400 niches, the second floor 2,500, and the third and fourth floors approximately 1,800 each, with an overall total of more than 8,500.

Notable interments

The Columbarium holds the remains, memorials, and

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...

s of some of

's most prominent founding families, and celebrities: * George Ainslie (1838–1913) – Congressional delegate from Idaho Territory * John Backus (1928–2007) – Pioneering computer scientist, creator of Fortran and 1977 Turing Award recipient * Ernst Baruth (1842–1906) and Otto Schinkel (1869–1907), the founders of Anchor Brewing Company * Chet Helms (1942–2005) – Music promoter and father of San Francisco's 1967 "

Summer of Love The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people, mostly young people sporting hippie fashions of dress and behavior, converged in San Francisco's neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury. ...

" * Frank E. Hill (1850–1906) – US Army officer during the

American Indian Wars The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were fought by European governments and colonists in North America, and later by the United States and Canadian governments and American and Canadian settle ...

and

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor ...

recipient *Thomas N. Howard (1957–2017) – Music and concert promoter-extraordinaire for Bill Graham Presents and The Howard Company * Harry August Jansen (1883–1955) – Professional

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, also known as ''Dante the Magician'' * Jerry Juhl (1938–2005) – Muppeteer and writer for the Muppets *

Anna Elizabeth Klumpke Anna Elizabeth Klumpke (October 28, 1856 – February 9, 1942) was an American portrait and genre painter born in San Francisco, California, United States. She is perhaps best known for her portraits of famous women including Elizabeth Cady Sta ...

(1856–1942) –

Genre painter Genre painting (or petit genre), a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached ...

and companion to the great French animal painter Rosa Bonheur * Dorothea Klumpke (1861–1942) – Astronomer and mathematician * Domingo Marcucci (1827–1905) – Venezuelan born 49er, shipbuilder and shipowner in

* Harvey Milk (1930–1978) – American politician; first openly gay man elected to a public office in California - his remains were relocated but a dedication still stands. * Jose Santana (1918–1997) – Mexican born violinist who performed with symphony orchestras and mariachi bands. He was the father of rock guitarist Carlos Santana * Edward Robeson Taylor (1838–1923) – 28th Mayor of San Francisco

Gallery

File:San Francisco Columbarium Interior.jpg, View of the Columbarium's interior File:San Francisco Columbarium, room on the second floor.jpg, Room with urns on the second floor File:SanFranColumbariumWindow.jpg, A stained glass window in the Columbarium File:Columbariumceiling.jpg, The stained glass window in the dome ceiling

References

External links