Designations | |
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Designated | 1999 |
Reference no. | 129 |
Chapel of the Chimes was founded as California Electric Crematory in 1909 as a crematory and columbarium at 4499 Piedmont Avenue, at the entrance of Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California. The present building dates largely from a 1928 redevelopment based on the designs of the architect Julia Morgan. [1] The Spanish Gothic architecture features Moorish motifs and the interior is a maze of small rooms featuring ornate stonework, statues, gardens, fountains, and mosaics.
The chapel originates with a crematory built in 1909 by the California Crematorium Association on the site of a trolley car station; the old structure still has train schedules on the wall. Architect Julia Morgan was hired to expand the facility; the new crematory and columbarium were dedicated on Memorial Day 1928, named Chapel of the Chimes for the chimes in the tower. Architect Aaron Green, a protégé of Frank Lloyd Wright, subsequently contributed six additions over 24 years, including mausoleums. [2]
The building maintains its original functions and also serves as the venue for annual music festivals on the winter and summer solstices. [3]
The chapel's owners operate funeral homes and cemeteries, not designed by Morgan, in Hayward, also under the name Chapel of the Chimes, as well as Sunset Lawn Chapel of the Chimes in Sacramento. [4]
Chapel of the Chimes holds the records of the Chapel of Memories on Pleasant Valley Avenue.
Garden of Memory | |
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Genre | Electronic music, experimental music |
Dates | Evening of the summer solstice |
Location(s) | Chapel of the Chimes (Oakland, California) |
Years active | 1996–present |
Website | Garden of Memory |
Garden of Memory has been held 1996–present; this is a columbarium walk-through event held every year on the evening of the summer solstice. [5] It features over 40 musicians performing on unique instruments, or compositions designed for the event. The sound is often electronic or electro-acoustic in source and then electronically processed. [6]
Notable burials include the following:
A columbarium, also called a cinerarium, is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns holding cremated remains of the dead. The term comes from the Latin columba (dove) and originally solely referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons, also called dovecotes.
Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum is a cemetery in Greenburgh, New York, United States, about 25 miles (40 km) north of Midtown Manhattan. It was founded in 1902, and is non-sectarian. Ferncliff has columbariums, a crematory, a small chapel, and a main office located in the rear of the main building.
Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, established by Hamden Holmes Noble in 1892, is a rural cemetery located in Colma, California, a place known as the "City of the Silent".
Rose Hills Memorial Park is a cemetery and mortuary located in Whittier, California. It is owned and operated by Service Corporation International and is the largest cemetery in North America.
Lakewood Cemetery is a large private, non-sectarian cemetery located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is located at 3600 Hennepin Avenue at the southern end of the Uptown area. It is noted for its chapel which is on the National Register of Historic Places and was modeled after the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey.
The Mountain View Cemetery is a 226-acre (91 ha) rural cemetery in Oakland, California, United States. 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 UC Berkeley and Stanford University.
Forest Home Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located in the Lincoln Village neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is the final resting place of many of the city's famed beer barons, politicians and social elite. Both the cemetery and its Landmark Chapel are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and were declared a Milwaukee Landmark in 1973.
Evergreen Cemetery is a garden-style cemetery on Stevens Avenue in the Deering neighborhood of Portland, Maine. With 239 acres (97 ha) of land, it is the largest cemetery in the state. Established in 1855, in what was then Westbrook, the cemetery is home to one of the state's most prominent collections of funerary art. The 140-acre (57 ha) historical portion of the cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
Mervin James Connors was a professional baseball player who played 52 games as an infielder in the Major Leagues from 1937 to 1938 for the Chicago White Sox.
The Missouri Crematory was the sixth modern crematory built in the United States and holds the distinction of being the first crematory built west of the Mississippi River. The crematory is located at 3211 Sublette Avenue in St. Louis, just across from the State Mental Hospital off of Arsenal Street. Now called "Valhalla's Hillcrest Abbey" it is owned by the Zell Family, who also own the Valhalla Chapel and Memorial Park on St. Charles Rock Road.
Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, Connecticut is located at 453 Fairfield Avenue. It was designed by landscape architect Jacob Weidenmann (1829–1893) who also designed Hartford's Bushnell Park. Its first sections were completed in 1866 and the first burial took place on July 17, 1866. Cedar Hill was designed as an American rural cemetery in the tradition of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Evergreen Washelli Memorial Park originated in 1885. It is located on both sides of Aurora Avenue in Seattle, Washington, and occupies roughly 144 acres. It is the largest cemetery in Seattle.
Chapel of the Chimes Memorial Park and Funeral Home is a 61-acre (25 ha) cemetery, mausoleum, crematorium, columbarium and funeral home complex in Hayward, California. The site was first established as a seven-acre cemetery in 1872. One of the memorial park's three mausoleums is circular in design, the only such one in California. The park hosts one of the larger Memorial Day services in the San Francisco Bay Area. A replica of the Angel of Grief statue is located there. The former Masonic Cemetery and Decoto Cemetery are now encompassed within its bounds. The park's owners, NorthStar Memorial Group, also operate the Chapel of the Chimes columbarium in Oakland, California, Skylawn Memorial Park in San Mateo, and Sunset Lawn Chapel of the Chimes in Sacramento.
Forest Lawn-Long Beach is a 38-acre mortuary and memorial garden in Long Beach, California, United States. The gardens were established as Sunnyside Memorial Gardens in 1921 by Cecil E. Bryan, Sr., an entrepreneur whose family operated the facility for three generations. Sunnyside was one of the first major cemeteries in Long Beach. Over the years it served the local area, but fell into disrepair by the 1970s. and was purchased in 1978 by Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries. They renovated the facility, and renamed it Forest Lawn – Sunnyside in deference to its history—later changed to Forest Lawn – Long Beach to match their other properties.
Skylawn Memorial Park is a 505-acre (204 ha) cemetery, mausoleum, crematorium, columbarium and funeral home complex in San Mateo, California, directly accessible from State Route 92. Interment records are at 1,308. The park's owners, NorthStar Memorial Group, also operate the Chapel of the Chimes columbarium in Oakland, the Chapel of the Chimes memorial park in Hayward, and Sunset Lawn Chapel of the Chimes in Sacramento.
Alta Mesa Memorial Park is a non-denominational burial ground located in Palo Alto, California, United States. It was established in 1904 as a 72-acre (29 ha) cemetery. It includes traditional burial plots, a mausoleum and a columbarium.
White Chapel Memorial Cemetery or simply White Chapel Cemetery is a memorial cemetery at 621 West Long Lake Road in Troy, Oakland County, Michigan. In the 1920s, a group of investors led by Clarence J. Sanger had a new vision for a cemetery and proposed their idea to Detroit architect Alvin Harley. After viewing Harley's initial designs, Sanger urged him to make them more grand. Construction began in 1925 and the cemetery began operation in 1929. Harley's plan created a long central boulevard flanked by rectangular sections extending from the main gate. The boulevard ends at a two-story T-shaped mausoleum faced in white marble, set on a white marble base. Above the central entrance is a square two-story tower which houses a grand hall. Directly behind the hall is one of three chapels in the structure. Crypts are housed in wings extending to the east and west of the grand hall.
Oak Hill Memorial Park is a cemetery in San Jose, California, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest secular cemetery in California. Oak Hill is the northernmost hill in the San Juan Bautista Hills of South San Jose.
Wilhelm's Portland Memorial Funeral Home, Mausoleum and Crematory is a funerary establishment in the Sellwood neighborhood of southeast Portland, Oregon, United States. Opened in 1901 as the Portland Crematorium, it is the first and oldest crematorium west of the Mississippi River, and the largest privately managed indoor burial site in the Pacific Northwest.