Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately owned cemetery in Glendale, California, US. It is the original and current flagship location of Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries, a chain of six cemeteries and four additional mortuaries in Southern California.
History
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Forest Lawn Memorial Park was founded in 1906 as a not-for-profit cemetery by a group of businessmen from San Francisco. Dr. Hubert Eaton and C. B. Sims entered into a sales contract with the cemetery in 1912. Eaton took over the management of the cemetery in 1917. Although Eaton did not start Forest Lawn Cemetery, he is credited as being the "Founder" of Forest Lawn Memorial-Park for his innovations of establishing the "memorial park plan" (eliminating upright grave markers and bringing in works by established artists) and being the first to open a funeral home on dedicated cemetery grounds. Eaton was a firm believer in a joyous life after death. He was convinced that most cemeteries were "unsightly, depressing stoneyards" and pledged to create one that would reflect his optimistic, Christian beliefs, "as unlike other cemeteries as sunshine is unlike darkness." He envisioned Forest Lawn to be "a great park devoid of misshapen monuments and other signs of earthly death, but filled with towering trees, sweeping lawns, splashing fountains, beautiful statuary, and ... memorial architecture." A number of plaques which state Eaton's intentions are signed "The Builder." Frederick Llewellyn, Eaton's nephew, became CEO of Forest Lawn in 1966. In 1987 he was succeeded by his son, John Llewellyn, who is the current Chairman of Forest Lawn.
Most of its burial sections have evocative names, including Eventide, Babyland (for infants, shaped like a heart), Graceland, Inspiration Slope, Slumberland (for children and adolescents), Sweet Memories, Whispering Pines, Vesperland, Borderland (on the edge of the cemetery), and Dawn of Tomorrow.
The original Forest Lawn participated in racial segregation and "for decades refused entrance to blacks, Jews, and Chinese".
Forest Lawn Museum
The Forest Lawn Museum in Glendale was founded in 1957 and displays art, artifacts and also regularly hosts rotating fine art exhibits. The museum has hosted solo exhibitions for Henri Matisse, Winslow Homer, Ian Hornak, Francisco Goya, Rembrandt, Marc Davis and Reuben Nakian among many others.
The objects in Forest Lawn's permanent collection represent specific locations and peoples from around the world. There are sections for India, Africa, the Middle East, East and Southeast Asia, the United States, South America, Australia and Europe. Perhaps the most famous object owned by Forest Lawn's permanent collection is William Bouguereau's 84x60 inch, oil on canvas painting, "Song of the Angels" created in 1881 and regarded as one of the most important examples of Bouguereau's work in the United States.
The permanent collection also includes one of the largest and most well respected stained glass collections in North America with over 1000 pieces primarily from France and Germany dating from 1200 A.D. through the present. The stained glass collection includes portions of William Randolph Hearst's former collection and owns the work of Albrecht Dürer and Viet Hirsvogel the Elder. The Museum also houses Western bronze sculptures, American historical artifacts, paintings, actual examples of every coin mentioned in the Bible, exact replicas of the British crown jewels, world cultural artifacts and one of the Easter Island statues, rescued from the bottom of a boat where it was used as ballast. It is named "Henry". All of these precious art pieces are put in storage or hidden behind temporary walls when a special display is on site.
Statuary and art
The six Forest Lawn cemeteries contain about 1,500 statues, about 10% of which are reproductions of famous works of art. Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper has been recreated in stained glass in the Memorial Court of Honor at the Glendale location ‘in vibrant, glowing and indestructible colors.’ There are also a number of full-sized reproductions of other Renaissance sculptures, including Michelangelo's David and Moses. This cemetery is the only place in the world containing a complete collection of replica Michelangelo sculptures, which were made from castings taken from the originals and use marble sourced from the original quarries in Carrara, Italy.
Some of the inspiration at Forest Lawn in Glendale is patriotic rather than pious, such as the Court of Freedom, with its large mosaic of the Declaration of Independence and a 13-foot (4.0 m)-tall statue of George Washington. On display in the "Hall of the Crucifixion" is the panoramic painting by the Polish artist Jan Styka entitled "The Crucifixion." It is the largest permanently mounted religious painting in the world, measuring 195 feet (59 m) in length by 45 feet (14 m) in height. The main gates of Forest Lawn â€" Glendale are claimed to be the world's largest wrought iron gates.
Locations
Forest Lawn has three non-denominational chapels: "The Little Church of the Flowers", "The Wee Kirk o’ the Heather" and "The Church of the Recessional", which are all exact replicas of famous European churches. Over 60,000 people have actually been married here, including Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman.
More than 250,000 people are buried at Forest Lawn, and over a million people visit it each year, including thousands of schoolchildren on field trips.
Forest Lawn's 300 acres (1.2Â km2) of intensely landscaped grounds and thematic sculptures were the inspiration for the biting commentary of Evelyn Waugh's satirical novel The Loved One and Jessica Mitford's acerbic The American Way of Death. Many commentators have considered Forest Lawn to be a unique American creation, and perhaps a uniquely maudlin Los Angeles creation, with its "Disneyland-type theme park" approach to death.
Great Mausoleum
The Great Mausoleum was fashioned after Campo Santo in Genoa, Italy and contains many of the most highly sought after interment places within Forest Lawn, Glendale. Within the portion of the Great Mausoleum accessible to the public is the Court of Honor where individuals are inducted as "Immortals" by Forest Lawn's Council of Regents. The rest of the structure is protected by guards and is closed to the public. Time magazine described it as the "New World's Westminster Abbey". In 2009 the cemetery became the focus of intense media interest surrounding the private interment of Michael Jackson in the privacy of Holly Terrace in the Great Mausoleum.
Notable interments
See also
- List of United States cemeteries
- Providencia Ranch
- The Loved One â€" a satirical novel inspired by Forest Lawn.
References
External links
- Official website
- Evelyn Waugh's witty essay, Half in love with easeful death, imagines archaeologists in 1000 years coming upon Forest Lawn.
- Tribute to the founder of Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks by Charles Elias Disney
