Mountain View Cemetery (Oakland, California)

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Mountain View Cemetery
Millionaires row.jpg
Millionaire's Row, Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, California.
Mountain View Cemetery (Oakland, California) is located in Oakland, California
Mountain View Cemetery (Oakland, California)
Details
Established1863
Location
Oakland, California
CountryUnited States
Coordinates37°50′07″N 122°14′13″W / 37.83528°N 122.23694°W / 37.83528; -122.23694Coordinates: 37°50′07″N 122°14′13″W / 37.83528°N 122.23694°W / 37.83528; -122.23694
TypeNonprofit
Size226 acres (91 ha)
No. of graves> 24,000
WebsiteMountain View Cemetery web site
Find a GraveMountain View Cemetery

The Mountain View Cemetery is a 226-acre (91 ha) rural cemetery in Oakland, Alameda County, California. 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, and 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] Because of this, and its beautiful setting, the cemetery is a tourist draw, and tours led by 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[]

Industrialists and business people[]

The statue above Domingo Ghirardelli's mausoleum.
The Crocker mausoleum on Millionaire's Row

Military[]

Thomas Hill's grave marker
The Miller Crypt pyramid.

Arts and culture[]

Local history[]

  • , settled in Ohio in the mid 1960's after leaving Frankfurt in hopes of a better life. [Died:2012]
  • , pioneer Episcopalian cleric of the Bay Area, performed the dedication of Mountain View Cemetery and officiated hundreds of its burials
  • , believed to be the first American to settle in the East Bay area[2]
  • David D. Colton, vice president of the Southern Pacific Railroad, namesake of the city of Colton, California
  • , builder of the Dunsmuir House
  • Henry Durant, first president of the University of California, Berkeley[2]
  • , founder of Emeryville, California
  • , founder of the Head-Royce School
  • Nannie S. Brown Kramer, organizer, president and membership director of the Oakland Women's City Club[9]
  • , Quaker abolitionist who first introduced varietal fruit trees to Oregon and California. The orchard he established in Alameda County, Fruit Vale, is the namesake of the present Fruitvale neighborhood in Oakland.
  • 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, Berkeley
  • Francis K. Shattuck, prominent in the politics and early development of Alameda County, Oakland and Berkeley
  • William T. Shorey, African-American whaling captain and Oakland civic leader[2]
  • John Swett, founder of the California Public School System
  • Charles Lee Tilden, namesake of Tilden Regional Park

Other[]

David Hewes burial vault

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[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: 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.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Abby Cohn (January 5, 2001). "They're 6 Feet Under, But Pioneers Draw Crowds to Oakland". San Francisco Chronicle.
  3. ^ "Famous People at Mountain View Cemetery - Comprehensive List". Mountain View Cemetery. Archived from the original on December 10, 2005.
  4. ^ Jump up to: 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.
  5. ^ "Andre Louis 'Mac Dre' Hicks (1970-2004)". www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2018-03-31.
  6. ^ https://www.amazon.com/Janice-L.-Doane/e/B001H6KYUM%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
  7. ^ https://www.stmarys-ca.edu/faculty-award%E2%80%93winner-janice-doane
  8. ^ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19073652/victor-jules-bergeron
  9. ^ 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. p. 59. Retrieved 8 August 2017.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  10. ^ [1] CWGC Casualty Record.
  11. ^ "'Blindspotting' is a Spot-On Portrait of an Oakland in Flux". KQED. 2018-07-17. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  12. ^ "Evita Plays Oakland?". Southern Cone Travel. 2010-04-20. Retrieved 2020-03-17.

External links[]

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