San Mateo County Cemeteries: St. Johns

All photograph's courtesy of Russ Brabec 2013

Entrance

Tucked away in the hills of San Mateo lies one of the oldest cemeteries in the county.  The land was donated in 1885 by Abby Parrot in memory of her husband who had died the year before.

ST. JOHN’S CEMETERY

GIVEN TO

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

OF SAN MATEO

IN MEMORY

OF JOHN PARROTT

BORN IN VIRGINIA

APRIL 16, 1811

DIED IN CALIFORNIA 

MARCH 29, 1884  

         (inscription west side of Parrot Mausoleum)  

Parrot Mausoleum

The cemetery which is located at 910 Oregon Ave, is open to the public from 9am to 5 pm daily.


The link to the cemetery website was not working on Aug 10 and the notice indicates it has been down for nearly a month.  If it becomes viable again or a new site goes online, the old domain should probably work.  You will find a link on the cemetery page on the San Mateo County First Families Blog.  You will also find a link to a map there to help you find the cemetery.

Among the treasures you will find in the cemetery is the unmarked mausoleum of Agness Poett Howard Bowie.  There are also memorials for many Parrot family members whether they were buried in the cemetery or not.

St. John's Cemetery - Find A Grave lists 2888 burials with about 38% photographed.  Tim Conroy read the entire cemetery in 2004 and the listing is available on Interment.net and USGenWebArchives.

The San Mateo County Community College District is offering a class by Michael Svanevik in September entitled Underground San Mateo - A subterranean look at St. John's Cemetery.

READ MORE:

Cemetery Brochure

• Hidden Treasures in San Mateo County: St. John's Cemetery - San Mateo County Library
• Discovering San Mateo's Hidden Cemetery - Daily Journal (Parrot family history)
• Sally McBurney's  Photos on Flickr (check out her other photo sets from around the Bay Area)
• Spookiest Cemeteries in the Bay Area - SF Gate

San Mateo County Cemeteries: Woodlawn

Every cemetery is exciting, but when you are under two finding one with books, water, pictures, statues, waving birds and more is very exciting.  Woodlawn can provide an hour or so of fun for even the youngest cemetery walker.  

Sweeping views of the area make it a pleasant walk for everyone.  There are a large number of Chinese burials, many with pictures on the tombstones. Perhaps because I am unable to read them, they seem more like works of art than burial monuments.  



Located at 1000 El Camino Real, Woodlawn was established in 1904 as the replacement for San Francisco's Masonic Cemetery, which had been in existence since 1854.  Woodlawn was the twelfth cemetery in the then town of Lawndale.  

You can read more about the cemetery, it's signature castle and early logistics by clicking on History on the cemetery website's About Us Tab.  You will find a contact form on the same tab if you would like to ask for more information on a particular burial.

Brotherhood of the Sea Memorial

Among the special monuments in the cemetery is that of the  Brotherhood of the Sea and among the famous buried here is Emperor Norton.



 Find A Grave has over 8000 interments listed, many with photographs of the tombstones.  You will also find a map of the cemetery.

Billion Graves lists just under 700 burials at Woodlawn.  As most of these have a picture, you might find a photo or burial missing from Find A Grave.

An early picture of Woodlawn can be found in the SF Library photo collection.

Pictures from Woodlawn and other cemeteries can be found on Art in Stitches.

Just in case you would like to understand some of the many symbols found on tombstones, here and elsewhere,check out Cemetery Symbolism - A Wary Glossary. 

Woodlawn Memorial Park
1000 ElCamino Real, Colma CA 94104
Telephone: (650) 755-1727  
 

 

San Mateo County Places

Belmont- Ralston Hall

                       Gardner Sanitarium                     

On 18 Aug 1900, Dr. Alden Monroe Gardner, medical superintendent for the State Asylum for the Insane at Napa, purchased the Ralston estate in Belmont for $35,000 from the Union Trust Company of San Francisco. This was to be the home of the Gardner Sanitarium, the state’s 1st private mental sanitarium. (RD 87 #181)

 

 As advertised in the  California State Journal of Medicine in 1904, the sanitarium specialized in nervous disorders, including substance abuse and also served those recovering from serious illness.

 The Directory of Physicians and Surgeons in the State of California for 1908 includes a multi-page advertisement with variety of pictures of the facilities.  It is interesting to note that there are only 24 physicians listed for all of San Mateo County that year.  Of those nine had been in practice in California for less than ten years. The Gardner Sanitarium is the only medical institution listed in the county.  

The Report of the Commission of Lunacy v.6 (Sacramento: 1908 California Commission of Lunacy p106) - Gardner Sanitarium- Belmont stated that the minimum rate for care at the sanitarium wass $125 a month.  There were at that time 33 patients with a maximum bed count of 60.  Nurses did not wear uniforms, so patients would not stand out.  The 79 acre estate allowed patients to roam without interacting with the public.

Although Dr. Gardner died as a patient in his own sanitarium in 1913, his son  P.S. (Sherman) Gardner continued to run it until 1922. 

In 1923 the Ralston property was sold to the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.  They had been looking to relocate their college from San Jose.  Today, ninety years later, Ralston Hall, mainly closed as funding is sought for seismic restoration is still a part of Notre Dame de Namur University.

Patients Playing Billiards - 1922

                              Ralston Hall                               

• About Ralston Hall
• Wikipedia - Ralston Hall
• Library of Congress - Photographs of Ralston Hall
• Name highlights history of Belmont's Notre Dame

                                  Dr. Alden Gardner (1849 NY - 1913 CA)                         

• The Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 61, Part 1 p210
• Obit City  reported the death of Dr. Gardner on 28 Jun 1913.

                                           Some residents of Gardner Sanitorium                            

• Wallace Coburn
• Lorna Fosberg

                                            San Mateo County Hospitals                                          

• City of Belmont - The Sanitariums