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Blog Entry 43 of 80 Grave Concerns: Inside Grand View Memorial Park

News you can use regarding Grand View Memorial Park, Glendale, CA's oldest cemetery, which has been closed for regular business since June 13, 2006, due to legal and financial problems. Lisa Burks also runs the website GrandViewMemorialPark.info.

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How to find a grave at Grand View

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Contributed by: Lisa Burks on 4/19/2007

Reader Murray Wagnon writes:

"I was in the Los Angeles area in November, and visited Grandview Memorial Park in an attempt to find some family graves. The offices were closed when I was there, and I was unable to locate the graves. I had been to two of the graveside services in the 1970's, but wasn't able to 'get my bearings' after so many years. Do you know of a directory of the gravesites that could assist people like me in locating the graves of loved ones? I would like to photograph them the next time I am in the area."

Great question, Murray, thanks!

The short answer to this is yes, there is a printed directory available at the information table just inside the front gates on limited visitation Sundays. It consists of an alphabetical listing of people buried at Grand View up until just about the time the cemetery was closed for regular business last year.

But there is a fly in the ointment.

This directory does not contain complete burial records (section, lot and grave number) for every person on the list. Based on my experience, I've had about an 80% success rate in locating gravesites thanks to its contents.

From what I understand, this was a working reference list compiled over time by the cemetery's office staff. The attorney general's office, which began seizing all cemetery records last year, released the lengthy document to the city of Glendale as a finding aid when the city brokered the deal to open the cemetery for limited visitations last summer.

Currently, it is not available online.

The bulk of the cemetery records for approximately 40,000 interments, including plot cards, contracts and copies of death certificates, are being held in a depository in the City of Commerce.

Attorneys for the various on-going lawsuits, including a civil class-action case, were granted access to the records in late March via a court order as part of the discovery process. It is not clear how far back the documents go for the cemetery that began as a rural burial ground in 1884.

When they will be available to the public is anyone's guess. In the meantime, the directory is your best bet to finding a loved one at Grand View unless you can obtain burial records in your family papers.

So what happens if the person you're looking for does not have a complete burial location listed?

The directory does offer some clues in its columns. Often there is just a notation of the section, which narrows the physical search down a bit. Another column titled "Card" is also helpful if you know how to decipher it. Here's what I've figured out about the coding system:

It's usually two letters, C-M for example. This would indicate cremated remains were interred in section M, so you should look for headstones closer to the curb or in areas where they are placed closer together, indicating smaller plots than you'd have with a full burial.

There are lots of different combinations of letters. Here are some of the more prevalent codes I've found that might be helpful:

WM or W-M = West Mausoleum (currently closed to the public by court order) to your left when you enter the cemetery, running the length of Sonora St.

Cremation Gardens in front of the North Mausoleum; these are all marked with iron lettering on the short brick containing walls:

GE or G.O.E = Garden of Eternity, first garden on the left when facing the mausoleum, notable for the small sundial memorial in the center of the garden.

VG or V.G.C. = Vista Grande Court, on the outside wall of the North Mausoleum, to the right of the Garden of Eternity, which consists of full crypts as well as cremation niches; there are also lawn graves under the sign on the center wall.

GP or G.O.P. = Garden of Prayer, to the right of Vista Grande Court, notable for the marble bible monument located on the center of the back wall.

NM or N-M = North Mausoleum (currently closed to the public by court order) which is the smaller mausoleum located on the opposite side of the cemetery from the entrance.

GD or G.O.D = Garden of Devotion, the cremation garden in front of the North Mausoleum.

C-H = cremation garden area of Section H, to the right of the North Mausoleum and Garden of Devotion.

The city also makes available to general section map of the cemetery, which is not to scale. I've found it to be inaccurate as far as plotting out lot numbers, but it still gives you a general idea of where to look.

As always, I am glad to look up and photograph any gravesite for readers who are not able to attend limited visitations, the next one scheduled for Sunday, May 6.

Send your requests to me at lisa.burks@yahoo.com.

I also am fortunate enough to work from detailed sectional maps (courtesy of attorney Paul Ayers) so if you find yourself stuck finding a grave there on any given Sunday, flag me down and I'll be happy to share my resources.

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