Grave Concerns : Wilmington Residents Think Oldest Cemetery Should Be Historic Site

Somewhere in the Wilmington Cemetery lie the remains of seven men who fought in the Civil War--an unusual find in states west of the Rockies. But nobody in town knows much about them, and nobody seems to know the exact location of some of their graves.

That makes Wilmington residents Simie Seaman and Gertrude Schwab grimace.

“I think that’s kind of a crying shame,” Seaman told the cemetery’s board of trustees recently, “that you have those type of people buried in your cemetery and you don’t know where they’re at.”

The 130-year-old cemetery, which was forced to close its gates briefly when it ran out of money earlier this year, is reportedly the oldest active graveyard in the county. Ten acres square, it is sandwiched between shipping containers, auto parts yards and a few houses in an industrial section of Wilmington. The roof on its office building leaks, and the building needs a paint job and new furniture.

Its troubles have drawn attention to the long-neglected cemetery. Although it is now back on solid financial footing, some residents, Seaman and Schwab among them, say more should be done. They are pushing to have it declared a historic site to ensure the graveyard’s preservation. Mitch Maracich, aide to County Supervisor Deane Dana, said he is working on their proposal.

“Wilmington is full of history and it is getting away from us fast,” Seaman told the board. “We should try our darnedest to keep what we have.”

The Exxon Corp. is prepared to help with that goal, saying last week that it will give $20,000 to help landscape the bare graveyard.

For Schwab, that was good news. “Oh my gosh!” she gasped. “Twenty thousand dollars! Well, it needs to be landscaped badly. That’s wonderful.”

Exxon, along with harbor area Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, plans a formal announcement Nov. 12, according to representatives in both offices.

Flores’ aide Diane Sallee said the councilwoman had been pressuring the oil company to beautify its drilling sites in Wilmington, and to make other contributions to the community. During those discussions, Sallee said, Exxon officials mentioned they had money available for public contributions. Flores’ staff suggested it be used to landscape the cemetery.

Exxon spokesman Brian Dunphy said the final details of the contribution have not yet been worked out, but the money will probably be used to purchase about 15 full-size trees, as well as flowering shrubs that would be planted along the north wall of the cemetery.

“It seems that the community has a definite interest in the cemetery,” Dunphy said.

That interest is a recent and vociferous one. Lifelong Wilmington residents who barely paid attention to the cemetery now complain about its upkeep and appearance.

Government officials who didn’t know how the cemetery operated are, as Maracich said, “getting an education.” And the cemetery’s board of trustees, which for years operated in obscurity--they used to get together after Lions Club meetings--is suddenly holding public monthly meetings at a specific time and place, and setting up chairs for an audience that used to be nonexistent.

“I was in that cemetery once in my life, and that’s when my sister-in-law’s mother died,” said Schwab, who is active in Wilmington civic affairs. “This is the first time we ever heard of a budget. We didn’t even know these men (the board) existed.”

The cemetery, which runs along Eubank Street just north of Pacific Coast Highway, was catapulted into the limelight in June, when county officials closed it, saying it was $21,000 in debt. The cemetery has a budget of about $100,000 which covers upkeep, primarily the salaries of three maintenance employees.

It reopened after the Los Angeles City Council approved a $36,000 bailout that will see it through the end of this year. The three-member board has levied an annual $8.89 assessment on property owners who live within the Wilmington Cemetery District, which is generally bounded by the Harbor Freeway, Lomita Boulevard, Alameda Street and B Street. The district, along with the board, was created by Wilmington voters in 1958.

Although the district operates the cemetery--which officials say still has about 500 empty plots--the county acts as its banker, and the County Board of Supervisors appoints the board, which is unpaid.

The cemetery’s known history is slim.

According to “Early Cemeteries of the City of Los Angeles,” the Wilmington Cemetery was opened in the 1850s as a family burying ground for Wilmington’s founder, Phineas Banning. Banning’s brother, his first wife and five of his children are buried there. Banning was buried at the cemetery, but his remains were later moved by his second wife to Rosedale Cemetery.

According to the book, in 1875 the cemetery was deeded to the town of Wilmington, “by whom it was operated for many years.” However, Maracich said the cemetery was privately operated for years before the cemetery district was created in 1958.

At one time, the cemetery was filled with ornate headstones and monuments. They were removed in the early 1960s, however, when county officials determined the cemetery would be easier to maintain if all the headstones were flat. Dade Albright, chairman of the cemetery board, said the ornate stones were returned to the families who owned them.

The result is a cemetery that, although rich in history, looks flat and barren. There are only a few trees; some of those are dying.

Residents thought a historic designation might bring with it grant money to fix up the cemetery, as well as protection for its graves. However, Maracich said cemeteries are protected under California law, and that generally, historic cemeteries are not eligible to receive grant money. Those comments prompted Albright to say at the board’s Oct. 27 meeting that he does not see much benefit in historic status.

But Albright said in an interview after the meeting that he would do whatever residents want.

Residents like Schwab and Seaman say a historic designation is the only thing that will protect the graveyard’s future. They fear that eventually, the graves could be dug up and the cemetery converted into an industrial site.

“This is the ‘80s and anything can happen in Wilmington,” Seaman warned the board. “If you’re not careful, it will be covered up with containers or apartment buildings.”