Query: G.N.I.S.

A welcome to each and everyone on your visit to Evergreen Memorial Park. It is a pleasure to have you as our guest and visitor. We hope your visit with us will be a meaningful and memorable one.

If we may have a few moments of your time, we would like to give you a brief history of Evergreen Cemetery.

To begin with, YOU are within the grounds of the oldest existing Cemetery in Los Angeles. Evergreen Cemetery was founded and developed by a private development company after many months of disagreement by the City Council. The argument was whether a private company had the right to engage in the business of Burials. After all the controversy had settled, the City Council agreed and allowed the private development company to engage in the business of Burials and to create a cemetery. Thus on August 23, 1877, Evergreen Cemetery was established.

As years passed, who would have ever imagined that after over 100 years, Evergreen Cemetery would still have interments and the foresight to continue to develop new interment grounds! What fortitude, that a Cemetery with over 100 years of Los Angeles history could still endure and continue to serve Angelians in a skyline that is forever changing!

Within our Cemetery, you will find an ethnicity that is as colorful as any that can be found. From pioneering Families such as the Hollenbecks, the Workmans, the Lankershims and the Van Nuyses, to such notable individuals as Eddie "Rochester" Anderson (Jack Benny Program), Matthew "Stymie" Beard, Jr. (Little Rascals), Los Angeles Councilman Gilbert W. Lindsay, to families that bear Armenian, Asian, Black, Anglo and Hispanic surnames.

This wonderful diversity of people who have helped in the raising of this great city, are laid to rest among the Pines and the Palms, the Willow and the Wisteria, all in the City that is Los Angeles. Some of the ethnic groups to have burials within our Cemetery were the early Russian-Armenians who settled in Los Angeles just after World War I. They brought with them the tradition of pictures on the grave markers, which is just one of the many different ways cultures contribute in some fashion or form to our society, eventually bringing us all closer together in a World not so far apart.

In another part of Evergreen Cemetery is the final resting place for many Nisei-Second Generation Japanese Americans who died in the Pacific, in Italy during World War II, and the Korean Conflict. And among these valiant soldiers lie Sadao Munemori, the first Japanese American Soldier to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

In another section of the Cemetery, you will find a small set of graves in which are interred veterans of the Civil War. Sometimes just a name or a date, a rank or company division, or just a name and State, is all that provides a simple tribute to those who participated in the making of this Country.

On the Lorena Street side of the Cemetery, you will find an old Chinese Shrine built in 1888. This Shrine was used for the burning of clothes, paper money and incense for the purpose of insuring the decedent had plenty of these items in the next world. To this date, this custom is still practiced by many Chinese as part of the Funeral ritual.

The City of Los Angeles, through the efforts of the Chinese Historical Society have designated this Shrine a Historical Cultural Monument.

Yet still in another part of this Cemetery, you will find the Pacific Coast Showmen's Association and the Women's Auxiliary. This section was founded and dedicated by the Circus and Carnival troupe in 1922, for their members and spouses.

Each year on the Memorial Day Weekend, Evergreen Cemetery is host to a Memorial Day Program honoring our War Dead, our relatives and friends. It is also the weekend that a Buddhist Priest honors the memory of the unknown Japanese who have pioneered and settled in the Los Angeles area.

It is our privilege to host this event and we extend an invitation to all to attend.

These are just some of the highlights in our Evergreen Cemetery. There are many more discoveries to be made. After all, it is over 100 years of History that is contained within these grounds.

As you walk through the Park, you are walking through Culture and Tradition. You are walking among Men and Women who have built our City. Truly, this is a treasured capsule of time. Thank you for visiting with us! We sincerely hope this has been a small inspiration for you and we hope you will visit us again!

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Date and time this article was prepared:5:42:59 PM, 4/14/2024.