Woodlawn Memorial Park, also known as the Masonic Burial Ground, is a cemetery located at 1000 El Camino Real in

Colma, California Colma (Ohlone for "Springs") is a small incorporated List of municipalities in California, town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 1,507 at the 2020 U ...

. It was established in 1905.

History

The Masonic

Grand Lodge of California The Grand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons of California, commonly called the Grand Lodge of California, is one of the two Masonic Grand Lodges in the state recognized by the United Grand Lodge of England, the other being the Prince Hall Freemasonr ...

laid the cornerstone for the cemetery during a ceremony held on October 29, 1904, at a site formerly used as the Seven Mile House on the stagecoach route linking

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and San Jose. The entrance to the cemetery is marked by two prominent arches; T. Paterson Ross was responsible for designing the original entry arch, which was built with blue

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

blocks quarried from

Raymond, California Raymond (formerly, Wildcat Station) is an unincorporated community in Madera County, California. It is located north-northeast of Madera, at an elevation of 948 feet (289 m). Raymond has fewer than 1,000 residents. It is located approximate ...

. A second arch was added in the 1930s alongside administrative offices, a columbarium, mausoleum, and chapel, designed by William G. Merchant and

Bernard Maybeck Bernard Ralph Maybeck (February 7, 1862 – October 3, 1957) was an American architect. He worked primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area, designing public buildings, including the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, and also private houses, ...

. When the former Masonic Cemetery in San Francisco closed around 1935, approximately 40,000 remains were moved to this cemetery in a project that spanned many years. The Masonic Cemetery Association erected a memorial pillar in April 1933 to honor those moved.

Notable burials

* Alex Anderson (1920–2010),

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

who created the characters of

Rocky the Flying Squirrel Rocket "Rocky" J. Squirrel, also known as Rocky the Flying Squirrel, is one of the two protagonists of the 1959–1964 animated series ''Rocky and His Friends'' and ''The Bullwinkle Show'' (both shows often referred to collectively as '' The Roc ...

, Bullwinkle, and

Dudley Do-Right Dudley Do-Right is a fictional character created by Alex Anderson, Chris Hayward, Allan Burns, Jay Ward, and Bill Scott, who appears as the main protagonist of "Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties", a segment on ''The Adventures of Rocky and Bullw ...

, as well as

Crusader Rabbit ''Crusader Rabbit'' is an American animated cartoon series created by Alexander Anderson and Jay Ward, and the first of its kind to be produced specifically for television. Its main characters were Crusader Rabbit and his sidekick Ragland T. T ...

. *

Humbert Allen Astredo Humbert Allen "Bud" Astredo, Jr. (April 4, 1929 – February 19, 2016) was an American stage, film, and television actor. He made several notable Broadway and Off-Broadway theatrical performances, but was best known for the numerous roles he perf ...

(1929–2016), stage, film, and television actor; was part of the cast of the television series.

Dark Shadows ''Dark Shadows'' is an American Gothic fiction, Gothic soap opera that aired weekdays on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television network from June 27, 1966, to April 2, 1971. The show depicted the lives, loves, trials, and tribulatio ...

(1968–1971). *

Thomas Henry Blythe Thomas Henry Blythe (born Thomas Williams; 1822–1883), was a Welsh-born American businessman; he became a successful self-made capitalist and tycoon after emigrating to San Francisco in the United States. Blythe is most remembered for purchas ...

(1822–1883),

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

tycoon A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

, property developer. *

Henry Clausen Henry Christian Clausen (30 June 1905 – 4 December 1992) was an American lawyer, and investigator. He authored the ''Clausen Report'', an 800-page report on the Army Board's Pearl Harbor Investigation. He traveled over 55,000 miles over seven ...

(1905–1992), lawyer, investigator; authored the ''Clausen Report.'' *

Aylett R. Cotton Aylett Rains Cotton (November 29, 1826 – October 30, 1912) was an American politician, lawyer, judge, educator and miner active in Iowa and Northern California. Early life and education Born in Austintown, Ohio, Cotton attended local publ ...

(1826–1912), politician, lawyer, judge, educator and miner. *

Laura Fair Laura D. Fair (née Laura Ann Hunt; 1837–1919) was an American murderer, whose death sentence was overturned. Her court case is notable due to her gender and the legal case framed around her gender; it received much attention in the press, and ...

(1837–1919), murderer; with a notable court case due to gender. * Etienne Guittard (1838–1899), founder of the oldest continuously family-owned chocolate company, ''Guittard Chocolate Company''. *

Warren Hinckle Warren James Hinckle III (October 12, 1938 – August 25, 2016) was an American political journalist based in San Francisco. Hinckle is remembered for his tenure as editor of '' Ramparts'' magazine, turning a sleepy publication aimed at a lib ...

(1938-2016), American political journalist, muckraker, editor, and author. * James Augustus Johnson (1829–1896), politician; 14th

Lieutenant Governor of California The lieutenant governor of California is the second highest Executive (government), executive officer of the government of the U.S. state of California. The Lieutenant governor (United States), lieutenant governor is elected to serve a four-yea ...

. * Charles H. Larrabee (1820–1883), politician; member of the

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from

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

for the 36th Congress (1859 to 1860); his grave was moved from the Masonic Cemetery, San Francisco. * Robert L. Lippert (1909–1976), film producer and

cinema chain A movie theater (American English) or cinema (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a movie house, cinema hall, picture house, picture theater, the movies, the pictures, or simply theater, is a business ...

owner. *

Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, so ...

(1827–1916), rancher who founded the cattle firm, ''Miller and Lux.'' * Jacob H. Neff (1830–1909), politician, served as the 22nd

from 1899 to 1903. *

Emperor Norton Joshua Abraham Norton (February 4, 1818 – January 8, 1880) was a resident of San Francisco, California, who in 1859 declared himself "Emperor of these United States" in a proclamation that he signed "Norton I., Emperor of the United States" ...

(1819–1880), real name Joshua Abraham Norton, self-proclaimed Emperor of the United States; his grave was moved from the Masonic Cemetery, San Francisco in 1934. *

José Sarria José Julio Sarria (December 13, 1922 – August 19, 2013), also known as The Grand Mere, Absolute Empress I de San Francisco, and the Widow Norton, was an American political activist from San Francisco, California, who, in 1961, became the f ...

(1922–2013), LGBT political activist, who styled himself as "The Widow Norton".

References

{{Authority control Cemeteries in San Mateo County, California Colma, California 1905 establishments in California Cemeteries established in the 1900s Service Corporation International

History

Notable burials

See also

References