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From: <>
Subject: [CASANFRA] A visit to the Columbarium
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 12:53:36 EDT

Today I went to the Columbarium in San Francisco to do lookups for myself and
a couple of others. The Columbarium is located at 1 Loraine Ct. in SF. It
only holds Cremated remains. The Columbarium is an impressive building at the
end of the court.
I headed for the Office (which is clearly marked) and noted on the way
several workman working on the Main Building. (Massive Renovation going on!)
The receptionist referred me to Michele Carondelet who proceeded to cover the
rules, etc. She said first off that they discourage people coming in to
research as the records just were not available. According to Michele they
only have one record book! It is a rather small ledger type book. The names
are alphabetized and the entry is the Surname, First name, Room and location
of Niche. For example Jones Henry Euro 3 5/6 would mean Jones, Henry
(deceased) Euro (room) 3 (row) and counting from the left niche 5 & 6 (this
would be a double sized niche)
There just were not that many names in this book! I asked her about the
original books (my note: there were 22 original books and over 22,000
supposed to be inurned here) and she said she did not know anything about the
original books and that they only had the one book. Also she had no idea who
might have the original books. But I know they must be somewhere because they
were printed at one time in a Genealogical publication. And of course my
GUncle is on the list of about 600 names I have with the Volume and Page
number entered. These 600 are mostly before 1900 and probably from another
cemetery as Columbarium I don't think opened until 1898!
Anyhow I looked up my Great Uncle who I know for sure is there and lo and
behold he is not listed in the their one book! I looked up other names and
only found three of the names I went for, two for another NORCALER and one
for a requester.
Michele stated that they prefer you call for an appointment before coming to
do research. The telephone number for Michelle is (415) 752-7891 and Fax is
(415) 221-5761. She said the building was abandoned in 1960 and boarded up
until the Neptune Society took it over. (1975 I got this from a gentleman
employee, did get his name)
Michelle said if you find the name in the book they will help you find the
niche; But, they really like to discourage any kind of research due to the
absence of records!
I then proceeded to the building as I was determined to look for my Great
Uncle, and Great Grandfather (who I only suspect is there) and the other
people for whom I was searching. BTW this is a beautiful building kinda
reminds you of a mosque in style or something from a great mystical land!:>)
There are four floors Ground, 1st, 2nd and 3rd. I spent the next two and a
half hours going through the whole building. I did not find any of my
relations but did find a couple of my family names; but, the one name had
people in the niche who are not from my family and the other niche they had
no record of who was in it!
Anyhow I went floor by floor and I'll share my observations. First off there
are a lot of new people here DOD after 1975 and a couple for 2000. Many of
the Niches were empty and either available or reserved. They are currently
taking reservations!
The workmen were working on (but not while I was there) one of the rooms as
the whole room was draped with painters cloths and quite a few niches covered
with the cloth. I nosed around and carefully checked the room (large number
of the niches empty) being renovated.
As you enter the building it is like a great rotunda and all around in a
circle are niches broken up by rooms (which are more like alcoves) Each room
and area has a name.
Then the columns in the building hold niches too. Many of the columns had
more empty spaces then filled ones.
Many of the niches are unreadable or have little handwritten cards. I do mean
little like about 3/4 of an inch high and maybe 2 1/4 inches wide. It is a
shame to see how badly the engraving on the urns has deteriorated. But what
boggles the mind is the amount of empty niches!
BTW the workmen outside the building are putting in a new entrance door.
Anyhow, I was able to locate a small amount of information for the two other
people I was checking for but nothing on mine.
Such a beautiful and sad place! The building is magnificent and yet it is so
sad the condition of some of the niches and the fact that apparently no one
that works there know exactly who is in so many of them.
Evalou

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