Colma, California

Colma is a small town in San Mateo County, California, at the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula next to Daly City and South San Francisco. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 1,191.

Related Topics:
San Mateo County, California - San Francisco Peninsula - Daly City - South San Francisco - 2000

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Much of the land of Colma is dedicated to cemetery usage. With 17 cemeteries for the interment of human beings and one for pets, the dead population outnumber the living by tens of thousands to one. This has led to it being called "the city of the silent", and also led to a more humorous motto among some residents: "It's great to be alive in Colma". Colma became the location of a large number of cemeteries when San Francisco, the town's powerful neighbor to the north, passed an ordinance in 1900 outlawing the construction of any more cemeteries in the city (mainly because of increased property values making the cost of using land for cemeteries prohibitive), and then passed another ordinance in 1912 evicting all existing cemeteries from city limits. (A similar scenario prevails in New York City's borough of Manhattan, where only one active cemetery still exists — the Trinity Church Cemetery and Crematory, at the intersection of 155th Street and Broadway, on the northwestern edge of Harlem). The relocation of cemeteries from San Francisco to Colma is the subject of A Second Final Rest: The History of San Francisco's Lost Cemeteries, (2005) a documentary by Trina Lopez.

Related Topics:
Cemetery - San Francisco - 1900 - 1912 - New York City - Manhattan - Harlem

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Colma was briefly called Lawndale, but because another city with the name Lawndale, California already existed, the town changed its name back to Colma in 1941.

Related Topics:
Lawndale, California - 1941

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Famous Eternal Residents

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Colma also has the unique privilege to contain the final resting place of Norton I, Emperor of the United States, and Protector of Mexico in Woodlawn Cemetery.

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Newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst is buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park; as are business magnate William Henry Crocker; Charles De Young, founder of the San Francisco Chronicle; horticulturist John McLaren; and jazz musician and bandleader Turk Murphy.

Related Topics:
Tycoon - William Randolph Hearst - San Francisco Chronicle

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Wyatt Earp is buried at the Hills of Eternity Cemetery in Colma next to his lover of more than forty years, Josephine Marcus.

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Joe DiMaggio, the famous baseball player once married to actress Marilyn Monroe, is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery; as are San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto; Bank of America founder A.P. Giannini; and Senator James D. Phelan.

Related Topics:
Joe DiMaggio - Baseball - Marilyn Monroe - Holy Cross Cemetery - Joseph Alioto - A.P. Giannini - James D. Phelan

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