Historical Society leads guests on tour through ‘the best-kept secret in Glendale’

“This is the best-kept secret in Glendale,” said Glendale resident Jean Baaden of Forest Lawn Memorial Park’s tour this past Saturday held in sweltering heat.

The Glendale Historical Society and Forest Lawn-Glendale provided a guided tour of the early history of the cemetery and the Tropico area of Glendale with about 70 attendees.

They gathered outside the Forest Lawn Museum and were taken by two buses to the Glendale Southern Pacific Railway Depot, formerly the Tropico Railroad Station as well as select Forest Lawn-Glendale sites.

Built in 1890, the original wooden Tropico Railroad Station was used solely for transporting freight, especially lumber, oranges and lemons. The city of Tropico consolidated with Glendale in 1920, by which time the population had grown to 20,000 from only 300 in 1887.

By 1924, the train station was rebuilt in the Spanish Colonial Revival Style and started being used to transport passengers, too. Today, the station serves both Metrolink and Amtrak, with up to 64 trains stopping at the station per day on weekdays.

“I have my own car, so I drive everywhere, and I have a bike so I sometimes bike to do small errands, but never do I think, ‘Let me hop on the train,’” said Ani Nina Oganyan, a member of the Glendale Historical Society and a docent for the Doctors House, which is the last remaining Queen Anne-Eastlake-style Victorian home in Glendale, located in the memorial park. “Ever since we did the rehearsal, I’m gonna look into tickets and take the train. There’s train tickets to San Diego, San Francisco — it’s so cool!”

Attendees followed docent guides to tour the train platforms, mosaic clock, luggage depot and waiting rooms.

The clock, created by famed artist Lynn Goodpasture, was commissioned specifically for the restoration of the train station in 1999.

Goodpasture’s clock features the image of a “Treaty Oak” that is believed to have been located in Glendale. It was underneath that oak tree that discussion of a peace treaty to end the California phase of the Mexican-American War was initiated.

Following the train station, the tour stopped at the Acacia Garden and Masonic Monument of Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

Two businessmen from San Francisco, C.B. Sims and Hubert Eaton, founded Forest Lawn Cemetery when it was still part of Tropico in 1912.

In 1917, Eaton, a devoted Christian, developed the idea of a memorial park with the purpose of celebrating life as opposed to mourning the deaths of those buried, thereby changing the landscape of funerals and cemeteries forever.

In addition to changing the name of Forest Lawn Cemetery to Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Eaton decided to incorporate gravestones flush with the ground to create a more welcoming environment, rather than using the typical upright headstones seen in most cemeteries.

Eaton also added an art gallery, a museum, European-style churches and a castle, which is actually a mausoleum, as well as replicas of famous sculptures throughout the park to encourage visitors to enjoy the sites and linger for a while.

After many years of planning, the Acacia Garden was the first lawn garden to be built in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in 1946.

“Dr. Eaton’s vision and what he had in mind for a memorial park (was) a place that would be beautiful, a place that would be a sanctuary, a place where lovers could stroll and talk about the future and past,” said Anita Wallace, director of community relations at Forest Lawn.

In addition to early dignitaries, other famous people buried in the park include Bette Davis, Lucille Ball, Buster Keaton, Liberace, Freddie Prinze, Gene Autry and Michael Jackson.

Mary Ghazarian, secretary to the vice president of Forest Lawn and memorial counselor secretary, led the groups to the Masonic Memorial, which took 20 years to build from initial concept to its final dedication in 1931.

The 84 local Masonic lodges raised funds to erect the 39-foot-by-45-foot memorial, made of white Georgia marble, which cost $75,000 to construct. At the top is a Bible, the engraved three Masonic principles of brotherly love, relief and truth, and two pillars, representing the celestial and terrestrial.

“It has a lot of Masonic imagery. There are 15 stairs leading up to the top. They broke it up into three, five and seven (steps) to mark the path that an apprentice needs to go on to become a full-fledged Mason. Masons had to be in good standing with their lodge to be interred here,” Ghazarian said.

The three, five, and seven stairs represent the three degrees of Masonry: the Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason.

“The Masonic Temple was really cool, when they talked about the founder who came to redo Forest Lawn and how his idea changed from having high tombstones to a graveyard not being this scary and sad place, but rather, becoming this place where people could walk and enjoy and celebrate people’s lives rather than being sad about them no longer being with us,” Oganyan said.

Many expressed interest in Masonry, asking questions about one of the most secretive and highly controversial religious groups.

“When you are raised in Masonry, you start on a pathway to a better life, one with a higher moral obligation to your fellow man,” said Scott Smissen, a Mason and member of the Glendale Historical Society. “You’re brought into the light, and that’s why the wording across is ‘let there be light,’ so, in other words, you’re seeing humanity in a new and better way.”

Some attendees expressed interest in the basic principles of Masonry and whether it is a religion, to which Smissen explained, “You believe in a god. They call it the ‘Great Architect of the Universe.’ They never say ‘god,’ per se. As long as you believe in a higher power and that there is something stronger than us, as man.”

Forest Lawn Memorial Park is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information about tours and events, visit forestlawn.com/glendale and glendalehistorical.org.

Toy is a contributor to Times Community News.