The San Francisco Columbarium & Funeral Home is a

columbarium A columbarium (; pl. columbaria), also called a cinerarium, is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns holding cremated remains of the dead. The term comes from the Latin ''columba'' (dove) and originally solel ...

owned and operated by Dignity Memorial, located at One Loraine Court, near Stanyan and Anza Streets, just north of

Golden Gate Park Golden Gate Park is an urban park between the Richmond District, San Francisco, Richmond and Sunset District, San Francisco, Sunset districts on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of San Francisco, California, United States. It is the Lis ...

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 ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Built in 1898 by architect

Bernard J.S. Cahill Bernard Joseph Stanislaus Cahill (London, January 30, 1866 - Alameda County, October 4, 1944), American cartographer and architect, was the inventor of the octahedral "Butterfly Map" (published in 1909 and patented in 1913). An early proponent o ...

, the copper-domed Columbarium is an example of

neoclassical architecture Neoclassical architecture, sometimes referred to as Classical Revival architecture, is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy, France and Germany. It became one of t ...

. 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 board of supervisors, legislative body within the government of San Francisco, government of the San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco in the U.S. state of California. Government and polit ...

prohibited further burials within the city. By late 1910,

cremation Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a corpse through Combustion, burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India, Nepal, and ...

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 burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type o ...

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 The Neptune Society, Inc. is an American funeral home-based provider of cremation services that was founded in Plantation, Florida. History The Neptune Society was established in 1973 and was incorporated in 1985. In 1999, the Neptune Societ ...

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 The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The ce ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. The diameter, from the entrance to the

stained glass window Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

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 Louis Comfort Tiffany (February 18, 1848 – January 17, 1933) was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is associated with the art nouveauLander, David"The Buyable ...

John LaFarge John La Farge (March 31, 1835 – November 14, 1910) was an American artist whose career spanned illustration, murals, interior design, painting, and popular books on his Asian travels and other art-related topics. La Farge made stained glass ...

. The first floor rooms are named after

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

s. The second and third floors are simpler in design. On the grounds there is a fountain sculpture of

Coit Tower Coit Tower (also known as Coit Memorial Tower) is a tower in the Telegraph Hill, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California, overlooking the city and San Francisco Bay. The tower, in the city's Pioneer Park, San Franc ...

. Many of the interments 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 grave, tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere or have been lost. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although t ...

s of some of

's most prominent founding families, and celebrities: * George Ainslie (1838–1913) – Congressional delegate from

Idaho Territory The Territory of Idaho was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 3, 1863, until July 3, 1890, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as Idaho. History 1860s The territory ...

* Ed Aulerich-Sugai (1950-1994) - artist, AIDS activist, and subject of Robert Glück's "About Ed" (2023) designed his own tomb *

John Backus John Warner Backus (December 3, 1924 – March 17, 2007) was an American computer scientist. He led the team that invented and implemented FORTRAN, the first widely used high-level programming language, and was the inventor of the Backus–N ...

(1928–2007) – Pioneering computer scientist, creator of Fortran and 1977

Turing Award The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in the fi ...

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 major social phenomenon that occurred in San Francisco during the summer of 1967. As many as 100,000 people, mostly young people, hippies, beatniks, and 1960s counterculture figures, converged in San Francisco's Haig ...

" * 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, was a conflict initially fought by European colonization of the Americas, European colonial empires, the United States, and briefly the Confederate States o ...

and

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, military decoration and is awarded to recognize American United States Army, soldiers, United States Navy, sailors, Un ...

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 magician, 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 works, genre painter born in San Francisco, California, United States. She is perhaps best known for her portraits of famous women including Eliza ...

(1856–1942) – Genre painter and companion to the great French animal painter

Rosa Bonheur Rosa Bonheur (born Marie-Rosalie Bonheur; 16 March 1822 – 25 May 1899) was a French artist known best as a painter of animals (animalière). She also made sculptures in a Realism (arts), realist style. Her paintings include ''Ploughing in the N ...

* Dorothea Klumpke (1861–1942) –

Astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

and mathematician * Domingo Marcucci (1827–1905) – Venezuelan-born 49er,

shipbuilder Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other Watercraft, floating vessels. In modern times, it normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation th ...

and

shipowner A shipowner, ship owner or ship-owner is the owner of a ship. They can be merchant vessels involved in the shipping industry or non commercially owned. In the commercial sense of the term, a shipowner is someone who equips and exploits a ship, us ...

Harvey Milk Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Milk was born and raised i ...

(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 Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the Rock music, rock band Santana (band), Santana. Born and raised in Mexico where he developed his musical background, he r ...

. * Edward Robeson Taylor (1838–1923) – 28th

Mayor of San Francisco The mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of the Government of San Francisco, San Francisco city and county government. The officeholder has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either appro ...

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