Saturday, July 21, 2012

Long Beach Cemetery

The Palm Cemetery of Long Beach was for the poor people who couldn't afford fancy funerals, or even graves. The land was donated by Jotharn Bixby, and no one is sure how far back it goes.

Where is it now?

According to this article in the Press Telegram, it lies beneath the Forest Lawn Sunnyside Cemetery and Mausoleum, on Cherry Avenue.

The newspaper interviewed librarian Claudine Burnett, who has done extensive research into the final resting places of Long Beach notables. Apparently, only an old groundskeeper at Forest Lawn knew about Palm Cemetery, even though it's mentioned in obituaries dating back to 1918.

Palm Cemetery is probably under the courtyard of the Sunnyside Mausoleum, which was built in 1923. That's it, above. Although it doesn't really look like that at the moment--the courtyard is being redesigned, and will soon include a marker about Palm Cemetery.

Leslie K, thank you for sending me this article!

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