Where the bodies are buried
Cities often conceal their origins (and sins) under layers of concrete and urban renewal, but just beyond the white adobe walls at Mission Dolores the evidence is in plain sight. Visitors enter the grounds through a small room adjoining the original Mission Chapel. Built in 1781, it is by far the oldest building in the city.
The cemetery is situated in a courtyard behind the chapel, thick with rosebushes, twisted old trees, and stone walkways. A statue of Mission founder Junipero Serra stands sentinel, but his head is bowed as if in sorrow. Thousands of Native Californians are buried here, including the Miwok and Ohlone converts who first built the missions, some of their own free will, though many not. A replica of an Ohlone hut in one corner of the cemetery pays them homage.
Info
Address 3321 16th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94114, www.missiondolores.org/old-mission/visitor.html | Public Transport Light rail: J-Church (Church St & 16th St stop); Bus: 22 (16th St & Dolores St stop) | Hours Daily 9am–4pm| Tip Sample one of the best homemade ice creams in San Francisco at Bi-Rite Creamery at 3692 18th Street. You can choose from many exotic flavors, like orange cardamom and honey lavender.
Names on the worn gravestones echo the progress of California history: there is Luis Antonio Arguello, the first Mexican governor; Francisco De Haro, the first mayor; and Sanchez, a wealthy don of the rancho era, among others. Mexico ceded its lands in Alta California to the United States in 1848, just in time for the Gold Rush era. The appearance of Irish and English names on the gravestones reflects this transition.
Three graves, set apart with wrought-iron railings, belong to Cora, Casey, and Sullivan, victims of the “Vigilance Committee”—a vigilante group that sought to impose order in the crime-infested boomtown of the 1850s. Sullivan, a crook and a pugilist, worked guarding ballot boxes for corrupt politicians. Some say he slit his own wrists in the vigilante prison; others claim that he was murdered. His epitaph reads: Remember not, O Lord, our offenses, nor those of our parents. Neither take thou vengeance of our sins.… Which provides a fitting comment on the history of San Francisco in general.
Back
To the online map