Mountain View Cemetery Events - A Tour for Every Season

CGS members can join our "Naughty and Notorious Tour" of Mountain View Cemetery on March 21. You may not know, however, that this famed, park-like cemetery of 226 acres in North Oakland also offers free tours every second and fourth Saturday.

We just missed a Black History Tour that happened on February 22 but it is an annual event, so mark your calendar for next year.

One of the spectacular floral displays from a previous Tulip Festival

The weekend of March 27-29 is the 14^th Annual Tulip Exhibit, which features spectacular floral arrangements created by Bay Area florists, garden clubs, and local college floral design classes. On March 28, Jane Leroe and Michael Colbruno will lead a tour for Women’s History Month, highlighting the lives of influential women such as Julia Morgan, Ina Coolbrith, and Anna Head.

April is when the cemetery hosts the Ching Ming Festival (remembrance of ancestors). This year, it is held April 4-5. On April 25, docent Chris Pattillo, a CGS board member, will lead a tour exploring the Trees of Mountain View Cemetery. 

Deodar Cedar at the Miller pyramid tomb on Millionaire's Row
at Mountain View

Local historian Dennis Evanosky gives a great tour following the Memorial Day Commemoration at the Civil War Plot on May 25. Jack London’s father is buried in the plot, as is Obediah Summers – an African American who served during the war. This tour starts after the commemoration event, at about 11 a.m.

Obediah Summers is buried in the Civil War Plot

Dennis also leads a June 27 tour about the California Gold Rush and Railroad.

This is just a smattering of the Mountain View offerings in 2020; other events include concerts, seasonal festivals, and more. Tours usually start at 10 a.m. and run about two hours. Plan to meet at the office just inside the cemetery gate. For complete details, visit their website: https://www.mountainviewcemetery.org/

Copyright © 2020 by California Genealogical Society

In Memoriam: Gaye Lenahan, 1931-2018

Gaye Lenahan in 2010. Photo: Lacy Atkins, San Francisco Chronicle

Gaye Lenahan, a longtime CGS member and volunteer, passed away at home on October 29, 2018. Her contributions to CGS, her community, and other organizations are too numerous to list, but she was widely beloved and appreciated. Gaye was a docent for 20 years at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, and in 2010 published her extensive research on the cemetery's "Strangers' Plot," which served as the burial place for indigents, unknowns, suicides and criminals from 1863 until World War I. Gaye was featured in a Chronicle article on the subject. Kathryn Doyle's post in this blog gives more information about Gaye's diligent work on this little-known resting place.

Gaye's family wrote in her obituary, "She will be remembered by all who knew her as a kind, generous and brave spirit who did her part to leave the world a little better place." The full obituary from the San Francisco Chronicle can be read online here.


Copyright © 2018 by California Genealogical Society

From Our Manuscript Collection: Joaquin A. Silveira

Joaquin A. Silveira

by Georgia Lupinsky

Have you checked our Manuscript Collection’s searchable database which is available on the California Genealogical Society website? You might find a surname you've been researching and uncover material that will further your research.

This month we highlight the story of Joaquin A. Silveira as revealed in a scrapbook donated to the Manuscript Collection by the Silveira family. Articles within the scrapbook tell how Mr. Silveira built a successful life in the United States and contributed to his Bay Area community.

Born at Ribeira d’Areia, St. George, Azores Islands on October 17, 1873 to a wealthy dairy farmer and his wife, Joaquin Silveira set out in 1891 for California. He arrived in San Francisco with only a ten dollar gold piece left in his pocket, speaking only his native Portuguese. Soon he made his way to Benicia, where he found work on a ranch milking cows.

After a few years in California, he went into the dairy business and began to sell his eggs and butter along a route in West Oakland. In 1906 he opened the American Creamery in Oakland. It eventually became the largest institution to supply dairy products in Alameda County and Richmond on a wholesale and retail basis. In that same year he became a stockholder in the Portuguese American Bank of San Francisco and in 1911 was elected President of the bank. At that time he was the youngest bank president in America.

Next, Mr. Silveira was a commissioner of and primarily responsible for providing funds for the Portuguese Pavilion at the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition. In 1934 he was awarded the Military Order of Christ by the government of Portugal for his public service and philanthropic efforts in behalf of American citizens of Portuguese birth or descent.  A long-time resident of Oakland, he died May 2, 1947 and is buried in Mountain View Cemetery.

To find out more about our collection, visit the CGS website, select the Databases tab in the upper right hand corner on the home page. Under “Databases Free to All” click on the “CGS Manuscript Collection Index” and a current copy of the database will appear for the reader’s review. The database is organized by:  title, geography, timeframe, description and surname.

If you find a collection that is pertinent to your research, call to make an appointment with a member of the Manuscript Collection Committee or the Desk Duty volunteer to view items, as this is a closed stack collection. We have many wonderful research resources for the genealogy community and look forward to seeing you soon!

Copyright © 2017 by California Genealogical Society

Private Tour of Mountain View Cemetery Sunday, June 3, 2012

Sunday, June 3, 2012
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Mountain View Cemetery

5000 Piedmont Avenue
Oakland, CA 94611

Member Gaye Lenehan will lead a special Sunday tour of an Oakland gem. Docent-led walking tours of Mountain View Cemetery are normally held on Saturday mornings so this is a great opportunity for those who have had a conflict with the usual schedule.

The tour will start promptly at 1:00 p.m. so come in time to find the meeting place.

Come the main gates of Mountain View at the end of Piedmont Avenue and bear right around the fountain and continue up the main drive. On your right will be the Main Mausoleum (a large building) where the group will gather on the front steps of the Mausoleum.

Map:  http://goo.gl/maps/mSy9

Gaye Lenahan leading a tour in 2010.

Founded in 1863, Mountain View was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, renowned landscape architect of New York City's Central Park. The historic, not-for-profit cemetery is nestled in the foothills of Oakland and Piedmont. Gaye will tell a bit of history of the cemetery and lead the group past the final resting places of some interesting people. She's including a climb up the hill to Millionaires' Row.

Please note: Walking shoes are recommended; the tour covers almost two miles on hilly terrain. It is not suitable for those with walkers, canes or the need to sit down frequently. There is plenty of parking along the roads in the cemetery.

Photograph courtesy of Jane Knowles Lindsey, 3/24/2010, Oakland, California.


Copyright © 2012 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library

Strangers' Plot: A Potter's Field Just Down From Millionnaires' Row

I was so surprised to see Gaye Lenahan’s sad face on page C-1 of the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday, January 24, 2011. It was on the front page of the Bay Area section under the article Strangers’ burial ground: Hundreds of unknown lie in field at Mountain View Cemetery entrance. That got my attention. I’ve visited the cemetery dozens of times and had never heard of the place.

Gaye is a docent at the cemetery and an active volunteer at the library so I contacted her a get the backstory.

Chronicle reporter Carolyn Jones inquired after reading a piece Gaye wrote for the Friends of Mountain View Fall 2010 newsletter entitled “The Strangers’ Plot.” Lenahan agreed to meet reporter Jones and photographer Lacy Atkins at Mountain View Cemetery where Gaye has been a docent for fifteen years.

A couple of years ago Gaye "made it her business" to dig into the cemetery files for the history of the now defunct Stranger's Plot. She found that the early records refer to it as "Potter's Field" or "Poor Ground" and is the resting place of approximately 500 indigent and unknown persons.

Section S - Strangers' Plot, Mountain View Cemetery

Many of the graves are of men, women and children labeled “unknown.” Unknown infants number in the hundreds. A few burials appear to be removals from the old cemeteries in downtown Oakland. One entry specified “Twelve unknown bodies from 14th and Harrison.”There are a number of persons who died of drowning. The files record deaths due to suicide or gunshot wounds. Several “hanged” criminals are buried on this hillside.
– Gaye Lenahan

Michael Colbruno’s excellent Graveyard Rabbit blog, Lives of the Dead: Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland has a nice video of part of one of Gaye’s tours from 2007 as she describes the opulent gravesite of temperance leader Dr. Henry Daniel Cogswell (1820-1900). It's one of the many gravesites that make up Millionnaires' Row.

Gaye will be leading a Black History Month Tour on Saturday, February 26, 2011, at 10:00 a.m.



Photograph by Kathryn Doyle, Oakland, California.

Copyright © 2011 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library

Wordless Wednesday

Mountain View Cemetery Tour
Gaye Lenahan
Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Photographs courtesy of Jane Knowles Lindsey, 3/24/2010, Oakland, California.

Mountain View Cemetery Walking Tour - March 24, 2010

Mountain View Cemetery

5000 Piedmont Avenue
Oakland, CA 94611

Wednesday, March  24, 2010

10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Private Tour of Mountain View Cemetery
Member Gaye Lenehan will lead an exploration of an Oakland gem. The walking tour of Mountain View Cemetery will start promptly at 10:00 a.m. – everyone should gather in front of the main office. If Mother Nature cooperates, attendees should witness a spectacular show since the tour has been timed to occur when the tulips are in full bloom.

Founded in 1863, Mountain View was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, renowned landscape architect of New York City's Central Park. The historic, not-for-profit cemetery is nestled in the foothills of Oakland and Piedmont. Gaye will tell a bit of history of the cemetery and lead us past the final resting places of some interesting people. She's including a climb up the hill to Millionaires' Row.

Please note: Walking shoes are recommended; the tour covers almost two miles on hilly terrain. It is not suitable for those with walkers, canes or the need to sit down frequently. There is plenty of parking along the roads in the cemetery. If it is a nice day bring a brown bag and plan for a picnic. In case of rain, the tour will be rescheduled for the following Wednesday, March 30, 2010. Please E-mail events@californiaancestors.org or call the libary at 510-663-1358 to register for this event.

Gaye is one of two society members who serve as docents at the cemetery. The upcoming schedule includes:

February 27 — Free Docent Tour led by Gaye Lenahan, 10 a.m., Black History Month Tour.

April 24 — Free Docent Tour led by Chris Pattillo, 10 a.m., The Trees of Mountain View. (If you can't make this, Chris has a self-guided tour on her blog, Historic American Landscapes Survey.

Learn more about the cemetery at Michael Colbruno's Lives of the Dead: Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland - a Graveyard Rabbit Association blog.