(Roving correspondent Kristen Tobiason revisits the scenes of our past glories. Today, we find out where the bodies are buried — or not.)
“You moved the headstones, but you didn’t move the bodies!” In the Stephen Spielberg film “Poltergeist,” a suburban family is attacked by malevolent spirits provoked by a relocated graveyard.
Calvary Cemetery, a k a “Pioneer Park,” (1501 Washington Place in Mission Hills) shares a similar history (tho’ the only spirits I’ve heard of there are those of the bottled variety). Historically, the area served as a Catholic graveyard “between 1875 and 1919, with burials continuing up until 1960.” In 1970 the cemetery was converted into a public park, and “the grave markers (but not the people) were removed. A group of some of the gravestones were clustered together and a central memorial was placed in the southeast corner of the park. The exact number of people buried there isn’t known, but research alludes to possibly 4,000 burials which have occured there.”
As a youth, I had no idea that my stomping grounds were on the heads of the dead! I have many memories of leaning against these headstones, beer in hand, in the wee hours of the morning. A place to go when all other venues had closed, or reconvening after a bust at Presidio or Balboa Park, Graveyard Park was tucked away, incognito for an all-nighter of drinking and debauchery.
I remember hanging out there with the Wallflowers — and many times with just my boyfriend and his little brother, who liked to jump his Bmx Cruiser off the cement memorial mound in the center of the park. Smoking cigarettes. Making out. Meeting up with friends to get “stuff” or to figure out the plan for the day. On a couple occasions, we played tennis across the street (while smoking, of course).
Now I’m a mom and haunt the park with an entirely different agenda. A new playground was installed last year and always seen crawling with young grommets. The grounds have been maintained beautifully by the community and serve as a recreation area for sunbathers and many dog owners. I take my kid there all the time. Sometimes we have a picnic lunch among the headstones.
Sadly, I’ve never seen any ghosts there. How about you?
— Kristen Tobiason
More views of San Diego then and now:
- Then and Now: New Year’s resolutions
- Then and Now: Saigon Palace
- Then and Now: the Chicken Pie Shop
- Then and Now: Off the Record
- Then and Now: Rock Palace
- Then and Now: The Ken Cinema
- Then and Now: Adams Avenue Theater
- Then and Now: Topsy’s
- Then and Now: Greenwich Village West
- Then and Now: Funland
- Then and Now: Studio 517
- Then and Now: La Posta
- Then and Now: Presidio Park
- Then and Now: El Cajon Blvd. Denny’s
when i first learned to drive i went over to mark’s house which was accessed through the parking lot. i’d spent many a night in the park and at mark’s house, but i had never driven there myself (in fact, typically i arrived on a scooter and probably a little tipsy). so when renee and i pulled into the lot and started across it we were mortified at the boxlike bumps we hit over and over… then we got over it and would drive it on purpose. it both creeped us out and thrilled us. so morbid.
when henry and i came through sd a few years back we went there and as he was running on the grass i could think about was all of you. how i loved meeting there. and how sad i was to find out that the stilinovich family no longer lived back there. that house was awesome. and the park has a special place in my heart.
thanks for this post, mama k.
I drank there with Spagetti-head Brent (I can never remember his name) and Poway’s Jason S I think, and maybe Joe Russo and Eliah Sawyer and Jeff Marino and GReg S. once or twice. Was always a fun place to hang out and emulate the misfits and 45 grave a bit.
My mother went to Grant Elementary, right next door.
Thanks for this interesting post, Kristen. My son attends Grant Elementary School, and we often play in that park as well. There are several great articles online about the cemetery, and one gives a recount of the conversion to a park:
“Calvary Cemetery opened in the late 1870s and by the 1960s held between 1,600 and 3,400 people, possibly up to 4,000 people-no one’s quite sure of the number because most of the cemetery’s records were destroyed in a fire. The five acres it encompassed was city-owned land under the stewardship of the Catholic Church.
By 1968, it had been seven years since the last burial at Calvary Cemetery, and the place had become a mess-bikers raced their motorcycles between the graves at night and kids threw eggs at the headstones, believing the myth that doing so would wake the dead. Under a 1957 California law, a cemetery could be declared “abandoned”if no one had been buried there for five years. And so, in 1968, the San Diego City Council, at the urging of Mission Hills residents who found the place unsightly, declared Calvary Cemetery closed. The Hillcrest-Mission Hills Improvement Association took photographs of roughly 700 headstones-the photos are now part of the San Diego Historical Society collection-and the headstones were moved out. Mallios hasn’t found record of any bodies being moved. “
A somewhat apocryphal story circulated when I was a student at Grant related to the many bodies said to be buried at Pioneer Park. A windstorm came through San Diego and knocked down a number of large eucalyptus trees in the park. The story was that students who arrived to school early that day checked out the uprooted trees were able to see bones that had been disinterred by the root balls. By the time the rest of the students got there the trees were roped off with teachers making sure we went no where near them.
It may be that the only logical explanation we could come up with of why a group of sub-twelve year olds would be denied access to recently fallen trees was that there were bones mixed in with the dirt. Eucalyptus trees have very shallow roots (part of the reason they fall over so readily) and it feels unlikely to me that this could disturb bodies buried in six feet of dirt.
We also heard that bodies had to be disinterred when the restrooms were built but this actually might be true.
Guys, this whole thing is inaccurate — there are no bodies under Pioneer Park. The truth is, this was the original location of Bodie’s, the dive bar many of us played in the ’80s. When they relocated the club, they simply buried the original venue in situ.
They say that on clear nights, you can still hear Tami and the Monthlies, RV and the Hubcaps, and other local cover groups tuning up for a headline spot that never comes.
matthew… warn a woman. i was drinking coffee while reading that and nearly choked.
haha!!
Funny, I was just at grant park(Pioneer park) with my son yesterday.
I went to Grant in 1980 and before and after school with my friends Tim and Chris we would play on the tomestones, for some reasons we like pretending we were The Beatles and would sing our favorite tunes and jump of the tombstones.
Just a couple of years later it was our favorite place to drink cheap beer at night.
I was just telling my wife while visiting the park a story about running from the police and jumping over the that old abobe wall into the canyon to hide, to avoid yet another cerfew arrest.
I have seen ghost at grant park…ghost of my past, friendly ghosts like casper, the kind that leave with a smile and feeling alittle old.
I love that story Dylan. If I knew what you looked like I might see you there. I like thinking that the ghosts are friendly too. Though, the bikers awakening the dead is a great premise for a zombie movie.
does anyone remember a rope swing that hung off one of the Euclyptus trees over the canyon? it was fun…and dangerous!
Kristen, kind of tired looking blonde dude chasing his 3 your old long blonde hair son around the park.
I have a three year old too. And I am tired.
>>haha!!
“You moved the Headquarters, but you didn’t move Bodie’s!” Hands-down scariest part of the new Che Underground documentary.
Almost as scary as The Spirit!
Haha. Matthew! you make me laugh.
I remember my mom taking me there all the time. Since I did in fact go to Grant Elementary for 5th and 6th grade there was no avoiding spending time in “graveyard park.” We hosted our all school jogathons in the park and also some PE activites. And of course that is where all the kids that bussed in from the inner city areas (i.e. the kids whose parents didnt drive porsches and have a trust fund) gathered to either take the bus back home or buy mexican candy and ice cream bars from the ice cream van. Definitely alot of good memories at that park.
Katy, I forgot you went to Grant (1998-2000?)! My bad. You and Camille (Wendell’s daughter) used to wait for rides together. Sometimes Marlo would pick you up. That’s cool that you wrote on here
but I think this post is dying.
This is how it went for us…
Eric and Jerry call Bill and Mike. We agree on drinking in the park (again). Bill brings a big bottle of whiskey. Mike brings Poe…the rubber skull that lived above Dave. K.’s bass drum. We drink. We kick Poe around like a soccer ball. We drink more.
I find kindling. Make pile around headstone. I find match. Poof.
Time to go home.
Another night in the graveyard.
Patrick…
p.s. one night when we found something else besides a bottle…we read all the names on the “memorial”
All first and last together…complete names…except one:
FRY
LOL we would say today.
pw
Even worse than the cops making us pour out our beers: them cutting their engines, coasting almost on top of us, then hitting the lights. They would make us pour out the open beers, then load the remainder into their trunk. The thought of those guys sitting around later on, sipping my hard earned beer still makes my blood boil!
You’re damn right it does!
Ah Kristen, always love reading your posts. Tell me, how is it I missed out on this park? Where is Mission Hills again? Ha. Obviously not in my hood. And/or I’ve been away from SD too long. (I actually get lost a lot when I make my annual visit.) Cemeteries are my absolute favorite and whatever city I’m visiting I make a point to see at least one. My all-time fave is Recoleta in Buenos Aires (hubby is from there). Never in my life have I seen so many ornate, private mausoleums packed into such a small space. Each one bears the family name and usually has an altar on the top level, displaying family photos, where the oldest generation is buried, and a basement where the Ah Kristen, always love reading your posts. Tell me, how is it I missed out on this park? Where is Mission Hills again? Ha. Obviously not in my hood. And/or I’ve been away from SD too long. (I actually get lost a lot when I make my annual visit.) Cemeteries are my absolute favorite and whatever city I’m visiting I make a point to see at least one.
My all-time fave is Recoleta in Buenos Aires (hubby is from there). Never in my life have I seen so many ornate, private mausoleums packed into such a small space. Each one bears the family name and usually has an altar on the top level, displaying family photos, where the oldest generation is buried, and a basement where the subsequent generations are buried. I shot several rolls of film during my first visit in ’92. I was utterly awestruck. I felt guilty but pleasured at the same time. 🙂
Mission Hills is the mostly residential area between Hillcrest and Presidio Park.
http://www.briancharlesclark.com/?s=all+souls+dance
Thx Robin. Yeah, I’m pretty sure I know it. Hey, didn’t you go to Crawford? Class of ’82? That was my sister Lisa’s grade. I was the year before you.
Oh, thanks- you made me drag out The Centaur year book. Ack- me with braces…oh wait, you are forgiven, it’s worth it for the picture of Paul Howland in a baseball cap. Ah man, and a sweet note from the late John Johnson. I gave him way too much crap.
I started in Lisa’s class, but graduated with you. I figured out a schedule that let me do 3 years’ work in 2 years. Lisa and I didn’t know each other well, but I remember she was very sunshiny- someone who put everyone at ease.
How did we manage to miss each other in the music scene?
Ah, we all had braces. Mine started in 5th! and continued through high school. Paul’s pic is classic — glasses were HUGE back then. He grew up in the same hood as me (Oak Park). I didn’t find out until I stumbled upon this blog that Jerry C. and Tommy C. also went to Crawford (for a bit). Tommy’s pic is sweet. Jerry doesn’t have one. (Too bad.) 😉
Wait, John Johnson? He died? I didn’t know. 🙁 There have been quite a few over the years. Have you gone to any of the CHS81 reunions?
Alas, it seems I sorely missed out on knowing a lot of ppl from the scene. Until now! I guess I hung with the “Dogs” mostly — that and the fact that I was fiercely shy. Didn’t shake it until I moved to NYC @ 25! Talk about a late bloomer.
i was at crawford. my parents graduated from there, too.
went back in the early 90’s and wow, that place has changed a ton.
never had braces, though. straight teeth. thank maude. but i made up for the expense of orthodontia in other ways!
robin, when did you graduate?
I didn’t have braces. Which kind of sucks now, ’cause I’m grinding away the left side of my mouth, and my insurance won’t cover orthodontia.
Owww, yeah, teeth. Speaking of, my daughter is currently wearing (I bet you’ve never heard of this one) a Herbst Appliance (with braces on the top). http://www.braces.com/mediac/450_0/media/Herbst-2000.jpg Yeah, it’s a mouthful (no pun intended). It’s used to pull her lower jaw forward. It’s in lieu of “headgear” or surgery. She has to wear it for at least a year. Poor girl. But hey! It’s already working after a few months. And she WILL appreciate it when she’s older. (I’ll make sure of that. Ha.)
Ava, when did you attend Crawford? I think I had already graduated. For some reason, I thought you went to SCPA. It just seems fitting. 🙂 Yeah, Crawford is def not the same. It’s segmented now into 4 diff independent schools. I used to live on 58th, right at the end of the dead-end street, Spartan.
Matthew: don’t you have a “Maximum” option on your dental plan? We do, but they only cover up to $1,500 and my paycheck deduction is a whopper. Still, can’t complain too much — it would have cost me $4,220!
Yow.
My teeth hurt now.
Oh geez- now you’ve done it. We all need to swap pictures of our kids. But that would be more appropriate in a place not as public as this.
Cricket and I have traded our family photos (as well as a few others from way back in time) and I have to say that not only do we all seem to live somewhat parallel lives in many ways, but it seems to continue somewhat along generational lines. No hard fast rule there- but it’s uncanny how similar everyone seems to stay as they grow and evolve, and it’s always funny to see the kids and how much they are like their parents- or their parent’s childhood friend’s kids.
p.s. I was born with great teeth. Funny for a smart-ass like me- kind of ironic. Even more ironic that I never got them knocked out (the gods smiled upon my great teeth but cursed me with an honesty that is apparently unappealing.) My sister had braces and a retainer and is not nearly the contrary asshole I can be. 😉
Ava: I was there 1979-1981. You?
Lori: Jerry is the Artist Formerly Known as John Turek. He’s in your 1980 yearbook with the sophomores, looking quite beach boyish, in what could be a Hang Ten shirt, and on p. 6 with other Rival Street Gang members laughing and gesturing about something.
John Johnson, the nicest boy in the world who tried hard to stop me from being a danger to myself, died in a mountain climbing accident several years ago. Of all the people I would not have expected to be gone. One of the few I really wanted to talk with at a reunion. And you know he would have been there- all officious and fresh-faced. Elisa Wiggins said it was the saddest funeral she’d ever been to.
I went to the 2001 reunion. Hung out with Jeudi Brealey and Elisa for awhile. Sat with the other math geeks who hadn’t transferred to Gompers. I said I was a little surprised to see so few people I hung out with. Dean put his arm around me and said, “Robin, didn’t you know? Kids who spent lunch doing bong hits on the football field don’t usually go to reunions.” A light went on and I said, “Right. Of course. I guess I figured we’d show up to see each other though.” There was a shocked silence. Henry Ho whimpered a little. Then I laughed: “Oh, you were joking! I’m sorry. Yeah. Can we say I was too?”
Lori- weren’t you at Lisa Pedace’s graduation party? Everyone was shaking it there.
i was in the class of 86 but transferred to john muir in 84. i was in with aj croce and squire.
crawford was the school where i got jumped for being a so called dyke and had to contend with the likes of people who were so small minded that i had no choice but to hang with the bong hitters and other mods. we left at lunch and shared protection in the halls.
muir was rad. i loved that school.
Ava- sorry about the scary mean people. They show up everywhere. Glad you found sanctuary. That’s rare.
I feel like I was at Crawford in a sort of gilded age. I made great friends and got away with ridiculous shit with no serious consequences from authorities or peers. Most of the teachers were former hippies who liked our punk-ass attitudes.
my son was born thirty years too late. he’s a punk with attitude and smarts and gets busted for every. little. thing.
Smart energetic boys are mistaken for delinquents every day. Breaks my heart now more than ever.
word. and my son is on the spectrum so it’s even more intense. i often wonder how many of US are in some way autistic. i mean damn, look at how many of us were outside the “norm” yet found each other and made a life raft of sorts in our friendships. it’s something i think about. people are far more interested in labels these days than they were when we were all in school. breaks my heart, too.
Autism is the label du jour. Ritalin must have gotten less profitable. Or too many parents started questioning the ADHD label.
It’s good your son has you to teach him the things that make him different are wonderful.
I honestly do like the term “on the spectrum.” It makes the kiddos sound like they’re riding rainbows, which is pretty cool.
the rainbow spectrum. WOW…imagine that . I would definitely be periwinkle on the spectrum.
Yes labeling is a great way to make a reason to have “experts”. I just finished a book titled: The Careless Society: Community and it’s Counterfeits.
The writer John McKnight has a great perspective on what has created all this labeling and why it is occuring. In his book he describes several areas like professionalism, medicine,human service systems, the criminal justice system, community and last but not least christianity and their influences on destroying community. He also looks at their ability to create community.
The book speaks to the heart of what you stated ava and that was that we all had the ability to create a sense of community which is really important. I know it was a great lifeline to me as I flitted between several “communities”.
this is why i got my ma in human service psychology. i was intrigued by the seeming need for people to have labels for everything that falls outside the so-called norm.
i will look for that book. thanks.
On the Injections history thing….I jsut want to make it clear that it is frm the perspective of Jim Woods. I think there are parts that are close to what actually happened and others that are not so much. I have mentioned to Lou that we should write it from our own perspective. I think he/we are holding out for the big bucks. HAHA
yeah ..that book puts that nagging label question in perspective. I have a MS in Human Services too and in May I will graduate from SDSU and complete another MS in Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling. I was reading the book for a class. I am also reading for class Raymond’s Room, similar in that it discusses how the human service chain of delivery is set up for dependency rather than interdependency.
p, please get in touch via email. matthew has my info. i’d really love to talk to you.
have you read, “look me in the eye”?
ava, done.
I looked that book up..it looks amazing.
it’s next on my list to really read. skimmed it, but need to do a more thorough study.
I love “the rainbow spectrum”! It’s like I’ve got a mouth full of Skittles.
My son is “Cornflower” on the spectrum. My sister…more of a “Burnt Sienna”. I’m glad I’m in close proximity with these magical beings and am totally up to the task of living outside the “norm” -- with bells on even.
I have a dear friend whose son calls his autism his “super powers”.
I can’t wait for the Che family picnic!
>>”The writer John McKnight has a great perspective on what has created all this labeling and why it is occuring. In his book he describes several areas like professionalism, medicine,human service systems, the criminal justice system, community and last but not least christianity and their influences on destroying community. He also looks at their ability to create community.”
Thanks Ms. Gargoyle!
I definitely have to look for this book--it sounds fascinating. I am intrigued how being born at a certain time and place can be a determining factor in how children are labeled. There seems to be a huge influx of autism diagnoses in the past decade (including Asperger’s diagnoses), quite similar to the AD/HD craze of the 1980s. My understanding is that most of what kids are labeled with are merely behavioral descriptors, not at all scientific, but rather subject to a great degree to the whims and prejudices of those who are doing the labeling. I am convinced had I been born a decade or two later, I might have been identified as exhibiting signs of any number of syndromes. For many of us on this blog, our inability to relate socially to those considered normal was a driving force behind the creation of our own communities. We could have easily named our own “syndromes.”
I have heard the term “autistic cousins” to refer to people who have mild autistic tendencies which do not greatly impact their daily lives . . . Anyone else heard of that term?
ray, i was actually wanting to talk to you about this, seeing as you are a teacher.
get in touch.
>>>I have heard the term “autistic cousins” to refer to people who have mild autistic tendencies which do not greatly impact their daily lives . . . Anyone else heard of that term?
otherwise known as m.a.t. -- sorry I couldn’t resist! hahaha…
I think a lot of us have these tendencies. i love that my son is outside the box of what is considered “norm” and that box seems to get more and more particular each year. parents are constantly measuring and labeling their children. I think the kids absorb that on some level which could be damaging.. They feel that “something is wrong with them”.
We grew just fine without weekly “milestones” didn’t we?
I’m not an expert in child development, but daily I do see the effects of labeling upon children who have spent years living down a casually made diagnosis. The real danger to me is that as a culture we have grown increasingly intolerant of behaviors which are well within the range of normal for human beings.
yes. this is my biggest issue with diagnosis. and why i want to talk to you. mostly because i take interest in hearing about it from a teachers perspective, and one who i know sits on my side of the fence.
Ava,
Do you have my email? If not, Matt will hook you up. That is, if he’s not too busy fascinating babies . . .
Matt,
We’re alike in that I do really well with babies and the elderly. It’s everyone in between that I have a hard time relating to . . .
ray, i will check in with him. and about the everyone in between, hear hear! i still fumble about ineptly wondering at why people smile and nod at me a lot.
I can relate
Last night, Raquel and I took our son to visit my parents and I struck up a conversation with my father about Pioneer Park. As it turns out, as the preeminent local historian in 1968, he was contacted by the city to survey the abandoned cemetery and to come up with a plan to make better use of the land, which by this time was being desecrated by kids and vagrants alike, who had taken to tossing headstones into the nearby canyon.
A recent fire had destroyed the caretaker’s house, along with all of the burial records, but through research my father learned there were over 3,000 buried there since the late 1800s, some on top of each other. There was an entire section set aside for Catholic priests, bishops, etc.
My father identified 175 historically significant and aesthetically unique headstones for removal and relocation at the back of the park. The rest of the headstones, nearly 700 of them, were supposed to be moved by city workers out to the Mt. Hope cemetery. Many of these were later found tossed away in canyons by the side of freeways--apparently some of the workers found them too heavy or too much of a nuisance to transport.
yes….let’s blame it on the workers. i’m sure they got some kind of thumbs-up for their sufficiently-inadequate performance of their duties.
it IS the way it works, isn’t it? “look, i don’t care what you do with them….
just don’t make me have to pay you to arrange them nicely at mt. hope.”
>>let’s blame it on the workers.
I blame society.
and really boring comedians….
>>and really boring comedians….
Did you ever really think about twist ties … ?