San Francisco Cemeteries – California’s Gold (2008)

San Francisco is a city of many distinctions, but few are as intriguing as the history of its cemeteries.

As the 19th century came to a close in San Francisco, a movement some say a real estate scheme began to remove all buried remains from within the city. After many ordinances, acts and decrees, cemeteries were carefully relocated to nearby towns, while headstones were recycled as breakwaters and paving material. Only three cemeteries and their inhabitants were left within the boundaries of San Francisco.

Join Huell as he discovers the sacred grounds that still exist today at San Francisco de Asis (Mission Dolores) and the San Francisco National Cemetery at the Presidio. He also enters the neoclassical San Francisco Columbarium where the ash remains of many notable San Francisco family members rest within the beauty of an architectural gem.