November 19, 2024
Introduction: In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega describes the creation of a new type of cemetery: the memorial park, focusing on Forest Lawn in Glendale, California. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.”
When you think of a cemetery, do you envision a gloomy place where headstones sit ignored, and harken back to centuries ago when skulls reminded the living that they would one day die? Many of today’s cemeteries look vastly different than what most non-genealogists envision as a cemetery. Manicured lawns stretch out and barely hint at the idea that the dead are entombed there. Why the difference?
Types of cemeteries differ according to location, purpose, and time. In America, communities and their beliefs about burial and what cemeteries should look like influenced new burial places so that by the 20th century, they were envisioned more as a park and less as a place to memorialize death and the dead. These new 20th century cemeteries are referred to as “memorial parks.”
The Beginning of the Memorial Park
The idea of the memorial park has its roots in the vision of a man named Hubert L. Eaton. In Glendale, California, Eaton purchased a cemetery and took over its management in 1917. He transformed that location into his vision of what a cemetery should be:
“The cemeteries of today are wrong because they depict an end, not a beginning. They have consequently become unsightly stone yards, places that do nothing for humanity save a practical act, and that not too well.” (1)
With Eaton’s oversight, Forest Lawn transformed into the first “memorial park.” In this 1947 newspaper advertisement, Forest Lawn remembers its history:
This year is Forest Lawn’s Thirtieth Anniversary. Founded in 1906, Forest Lawn was “just another cemetery” until reborn in 1917 as America’s FIRST memorial-park. Forest Lawn’s memorial-park idea is based upon the conviction that to fulfill its duties to humanity, a cemetery must serve the living as well as the departed.
So how was this new memorial park model different than the existing cemeteries of the time? The biggest change was that Eaton’s memorial park did not allow for upright grave markers. All markers needed to be flush with the earth – great expanses of lawn provide a “happy” place instead of focusing on grief.
Very often, the environment in many cemeteries and mortuaries affirmed the appalling sadness that generally surrounded the entire death care profession. Dr. Eaton moved forward and implemented changes that impacted the face of cemeteries forever! Dr. Eaton was quite sincere when he stated:
“I shall endeavor to build Forest Lawn as different, as unlike other cemeteries as sunshine is unlike darkness, as Eternal Life is unlike death.” (2)
Although Forest Lawn Memorial Park did not include grave marker statues, it did include replicas of great art, such as Michelangelo’s David and the Pietà. Eaton believed art had its place in the memorial park and that place was not atop a grave.
Cemetery as Tourist Destination
What are the possibilities when a cemetery doesn’t look like a cemetery? In the case of Forest Lawn, it introduced the idea of a cemetery as a tourist attraction due to its sculpture, art museum, gift shop and chapels. Yes, Forest Lawn has a gift shop, and like many other tourist-type gift shops, over time it has sold everything from postcards to souvenir spoons.
The art museum includes permanent and visiting exhibits. In this 1965 newspaper article about Forest Lawn’s art collection, it states that the cemetery has “some 700 works of statuary plus a formidable array of paintings, mosaics and stained glass windows” that were viewed by over two million visitors in the 1960s. Today, you can visit one of Forest Lawn’s properties (they have 10 locations in Southern California) to view their artwork or peruse it from home using a mobile app. (3)
Forest Lawn is a place of beauty and art so it’s probably not surprising that major milestone events are celebrated there. One aspect of Forest Lawn that will be a surprise to many is that their chapels are so beautiful that people have chosen to marry there, even celebrities. Ronald Reagan married Jane Wyman in Forest Lawn’s Wee Kirk o’ the Heather chapel in 1940. (4)
Today at Forest Lawn
Forest Lawn in Glendale includes an art museum, several chapels for funerals and weddings, and a gift shop. Eaton believed that his memorial park should be a one-stop shop so that families could take care of all their needs, from the mortuary to funeral to the burial.
Today, memorial parks are instantly recognizable for their vast lawns and small, bronze, flush-with-the-ground grave markers, making groundskeeping easy. The preferred cemetery for many communities, they all grew out of the beliefs of one man who decided to transform an existing cemetery to what he believed was a more modern way of thinking about death.
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Note on the header image: Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California. Credit: Abi Skipp; Wikimedia Commons.
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(1) Jackson, Kenneth T. & Camilo José Vergara. “Silent Cities: The Evolution of the American Cemetery.” Princeton Architectural Press, 1989, p. 30.
(2) “Dr. Hubert L. Eaton – My Tribute to My Friend, Hubert L. Eaton.” Forest Lawn (https://huberteaton.com/index.html).
(3) Available on the web page, “Bloomberg Connects: Forest Lawn Museum Guide” at https://forestlawn.com/exhibits/free-digital-art-guide/
(4) “The Royal Wedding,” Forest Lawn (https://forestlawn.com/2018/05/18/the-royal-wedding/: accessed 14 October 2024).
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