One cemetery that isn't in Colma

As the population of the Peninsula increased and space in individual church cemeteries was used up, a new location more convenient to the southern part of the county seemed desirable. In 1959, a privately owned nonsectarian cemetery was planned. It was to be designed by French and Jones, noted landscape architects from San Francisco.

Architect Aaron Green designed the mausoleum as well as the Jewish section commissioned later. Green was the West Coast representative of renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Green had worked with Wright on the Marin Civic Center. After Wright's death in 1959, Green saw that project through to completion.

Marble works of art

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks dedicated their memorial at Skylawn in 1966. Sculptor Mauritio Bufalini did several of the marble works of art. Other fraternal organizations have sections in the park, and an area is set aside for veterans. There is an extensive area for Asian burials. It is filled with symbolic emblems on terraces and pavilions.

The Jewish memorial garden at Skylawn was dedicated in 1986. The architect of the entryway, Aaron Green, made a special trip to Israel to select the sandstone from a quarry that has been used for buildings in Jerusalem for centuries. The modern depiction of a menorah in bronze was done by David Elalouf.

San Francisco had banished cemeteries from within the city around 1900. Over the next several years, bodies were removed and reburied, usually in Colma. The Lincoln Park Golf Course, built in 1909, and the Palace of the Legion of Honor Museum built in 1921, are both on a site that had once been a cemetery in San Francisco.

300 corpses

In 1993, a renovation of the museum was done which made it necessary to excavate the courtyard between two wings. About 300 corpses were unearthed there. Artifacts found with them indicated they had been buried during the Gold Rush era. It appears that the firm that had contracted to relocate the graves back in 1908 had cut some corners.

The San Francisco Medical Examiner's office arranged to have some of those remains reburied at Skylawn. Their final resting place is now marked with an obelisk. The obelisk was associated with the Egyptian god Re. He was believed to have the power to create, and was thus considered lord over all. This symbol had been popular in cemeteries in earlier times, so it seems to be an appropriate marker for these unidentified pioneers.

Oddly, as Skylawn blends into the natural terrain of the area, restrictions have been placed on floral displays for grave sites. The deer and other animals that share the hills feed on what they find. The concern is not to leave things that would harm the wildlife, nor to attract more than can comfortably coexist.

Rediscovering the Peninsula appears in the Monday edition of the Daily Journal. For more information on this or related topics, visit the San Mateo County History Museum, 777 Hamilton St., Redwood City.