- Neptune Society Columbarium, San Francisco, CA
First of all, I love to visit cemeteries.
Second, after discovering the existence of the Neptune Society Columbarium in San Francisco, about 10 years ago, I have visited it about 7 times.
Neptune Society Columbarium, San Francisco, CA
The Columbarium is open for visitors. During my last visit there was a memorial service going on. The grounds keeper told us to go ahead and enter the building, go to left and up the stairs. The interior of the building is a series of balconies with the center of the columbarium left open. The further up you go the lower the ceiling is, which gives it a cave like feeling.
Friendly neighborhood columbarium.
In 1902 the city of San Francisco put a stop to the selling of burial plots. In 1920, remains in various San Francisco cemetries where moved to Colma, CA. Here are some of the reasons that I have heard, but can’t substantiate, that the cemeteries where closed and bodies removed.
1. The various cemetaries in San Francisco where considered a health hazard in the highly populated city. The Columbarium survived because the above ground ashes didn’t create a health problem.
2. Claiming health reason, but really wanting more real estate, the city declared the cemetaries unhealthful. The Columbarium was a loop hole that the city couldn’t call a hazard so it remains.
I bit of Lore I have heard:
1. Lots of ghost. One of the care takers at the columbarium has taken on the job of being the keeper of legends for the building. I believe he has been interviewed many times.
2. Because many people could not afford to reinter their deceased family members in Colma there where many bodies left behind in the old cemeteries.
3. Sloppy or fraudulent reinterment practices meant that in the grounds around the columbarium some of the deceased, or at least parts of the decease, never made the move to Colma.
4. When the present houses around the columbarium where being constructed, construction crews would often come across human bones.
5. Current residents often find bones when gardening or putting in new pools.
Looking across from the second level.
It’s hard to tell from photographs, but the columbarium feels very real and special when you are inside.
Niches
Some of the niches are covered with plaques, but the are quite a few niches that have glass coverings that let you see what the families have left with the ashes of their loved ones. I like looking at the variety of items. They tell stories of who the people where that are now at home in the columbarium.
One of many Stain Glass windows.
Lots of beautiful stained glass. I couldn’t get many photo’s of the windows because of the memorial service.
Niche
A Victorian niche with a metal cover.
Niche
I believe the urn in the above niche is for a former member of the BOF, The Benevolent Order of Foresters.
A niche not yet repaired.
With every visit to the columbarium I see new repairs. This Victorian niche has not been repaired.
Visiting
It’s getting harder to find cemeteries that allow the loved ones of the deceased to creatively express their feelings with decorations and artifacts, but the columbarium does.
Come and visit. Each niche tells a story.
Note – I didn’t photograph modern niches. Even though the displays in each niche give you the feeling that the families want you to read and know their deceased loved ones I decided not to present these images. Please visit and enjoy the creativity and love expressed in each niche.
I almost forgot. There is a part of the bay where large blocks where used to shore up a bit of the shoreline. If you look closely at the blocks you’ll discover that the blocks are actually broken up headstones from the 1920 removal of the dead for reinterment.
