Mountain View Cemetery
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The Mountain View Cemetery is a large cemetery in Oakland, 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 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 who are buried there. So many that one section is known as "Millionaires' Row." Because of this, and its beautiful setting, the cemetery is a tourist draw and docents lead bi-monthly tours.
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[edit] Design
Olmsted's intent was to create a space that would express a harmony between man 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 man's soul returns. Olmsted, drawing upon the concepts of American Transcendentalism, integrated Parisian grand monuments and broad avenues.
Adjoining Mountain View Cemetery is St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery and the Chapel of the Chimes (cemetery, mausoleum and columbarium).
[edit] Notable Burials
There are many notable people interred in Mountain View, many are local figures in California History, but others have achieved wider fame.[1]
- Edson Adams, laid out the city of Oakland
- Andre "Mac Dre" Hicks Hyphy Rapper
- Washington Bartlett, Mayor of San Francisco 1882–1884, Governor of California 1887
- Coles Bashford, Governor of Wisconsin and Arizona Territory politician
- Alta Bates
- Cloe Annette Buckel, one of the first female doctors in California
- Anthony Chabot, father of hydraulic mining and benefactor of Chabot Space & Science Center
- Moses Chase, believed to be the first American to settle in the East Bay area
- Henry D. Cogswell, dentist and temperance movement crusader
- David D. Colton, namesake of the city of Colton, California
- Ina Coolbrith, California's first poet laureate
- Charles Crocker, railroad magnate
- General Henry Brevard Davidson of the Confederate States Army
- Frederick Delger, German shoemaker and multimillionaire
- Alexander Dunsmuir, builder of the Dunsmuir House
- Rev. Henry Durant, first president of the University of California, Berkeley
- Freda Ehrmann, mother of the California ripe olive industry
- Joseph Stickney Emery, founder of Emeryville, California
- J. A. Folger, founder of Folgers Coffee
- Peter Folger, American coffee heir, socialite
- Marcus Foster, first victim of the Symbionese Liberation Army
- Domingo Ghirardelli, namesake of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company
- William M. Gwin, one of California's first Senators
- Henry H. Haight, Governor of California 1867–1871 (and namesake of the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco)
- A.K.P. Harmon, lumber and shipping magnate
- John Coffee Hays, Texas Ranger and first sheriff of San Francisco
- Anna Head, founder of the Head-Royce School
- David Hewes, who provided the "Golden Spike"
- Andre Hicks (aka Mac Dre), Northern California Rapper
- Thomas Hill, artist
- Henry J. Kaiser, father of modern American shipbuilding
- Ralph Wilson Kirkham, Union Army general
- Joseph LeConte, co-founder of the Sierra Club
- John Marsh, first American doctor in California, also helped spur transcontinental wagon travel
- Bernard Maybeck, architect
- Samuel Merritt, early Mayor of Oakland
- C.O.G. Miller, head of Pacific Gas Lighting Corporation
- Julia Morgan, architect
- Frank Norris, author
- John Lee Hooker, musician
- Rossell O'Brien, American Civil War veteran who started the custom of standing and removing one's hat during the national anthem
- Romualdo Pacheco, Governor of California 1875
- George Pardee, Governor of California 1903–1907
- George C. Perkins, Governor of California 1880–1883
- Isaac Requa, made fortune in the Comstock Lode and railroads
- Adolphus Frederic St. Sure, Federal Judge
- 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.
- Joe Shoong, Chinese immigrant and founder of the National Dollar Stores chain
- William T. Shorey, the only African-American whaling captain on the Pacific coast
- Elizabeth Short, unsolved Hollywood murder victim known as the Black Dahlia
- Francis Marion Smith, the "Borax King"
- Josiah Stanford, older brother of Leland Stanford and ran Stanford Winery
- Jeremiah C. Sullivan, Union Army general and staff member of Ulysses S. Grant
- Charles Lee Tilden, namesake of Tilden Regional Park
- Douglas Tilden, sculptor
[edit] External links
- Mountain View Cemetery web site
- Cohn, Abby, "They're 6 Feet Under, But Pioneers Draw Crowds to Oakland", San Francisco Chronicle, January 5, 2001
- Chapel of the Chimes
