Forest Lawn in Glendale: Life, Death & Resurrection among Palms & Stars

This past fall I started a series on historic cemetery landscape architecture with a piece on Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass. It’s the first purpose-built garden cemetery in America, dedicated since the 1830s to memorializing the dead in a setting with beautiful trees and gardens, elegantly arranged plots, and nice sculpture. The Boston Brahmins might walk the earth no more, but Mount Auburn’s the place to go to channel them. In Washington, Arlington National Cemetery is unequaled for reflection on patriotism and sacrifice for country. It’s got its own unique history, carved as it was, for the Union Army’s dead, from General Lee’s plantation.

Both cemeteries are lovely and moving. So, too, is Forest Lawn in Glendale in Southern California. It’s the newest of the three, incorporated as a cemetery in 1906. It’s unique, too, as a product of California and of Hollywood. It’s the closest this simple Vermont soul will ever get to a critical mass of Oscar winners, however still, horizontal, and subterranean they might be. At least no one has to worry about getting slapped.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

Featured Tags

Manage following

Art

This past fall I started a series on historic cemetery landscape architecture with a piece on Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass. It’s the first purpose-built garden cemetery in America, dedicated since the 1830s to memorializing the dead in a setting with beautiful trees and gardens, elegantly arranged plots, and nice sculpture. The Boston Brahmins might walk the earth no more, but Mount Auburn’s the place to go to channel them. In Washington, Arlington National Cemetery is unequaled for reflection on patriotism and sacrifice for country. It’s got its own unique history, carved as it was, for the Union Army’s dead, from General Lee’s plantation.

Both cemeteries are lovely and moving. So, too, is Forest Lawn in Glendale in Southern California. It’s the newest of the three, incorporated as a cemetery in 1906. It’s unique, too, as a product of California and of Hollywood. It’s the closest this simple Vermont soul will ever get to a critical mass of Oscar winners, however still, horizontal, and subterranean they might be. At least no one has to worry about getting slapped.