Wilmington Cemetery Expected to Become a Historic Landmark

The cemetery that Wilmington founder Phineas Banning established 131 years ago to bury his first child is about to be declared a Los Angeles city landmark--a year and a half after it went broke and was temporarily forced to shut its gates.

This week, a City Council committee approved a recommendation by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission that the Wilmington Cemetery be declared a historic landmark. And the council is expected to add its approval when it meets Jan. 24, said Susan Pritchard, an aide to harbor-area Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores.

The cemetery, at Eubank Avenue and O Street, just north of Pacific Coast Highway, is said to be the oldest active graveyard in Los Angeles County.

It is the resting place of Civil War veterans, and members of several of the first families of Southern California, including the Narbonnes, the Carsons and the Sepulvedas, as well as Banning’s first wife and five of his children. Banning was also buried at the cemetery, but his remains were moved by his second wife to Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles.

It was not until the financial crisis, however, that many residents learned of the cemetery’s history--or even of its existence. One community leader said she thought it was a pet cemetery until two years ago.

The financial crisis culminated in June, 1987, when the publicly operated graveyard--which had survived on revenue from oil royalties, taxes on the Wilmington Cemetery District and the sale of plots--went into debt. It was forced to cease operations for a month. In the wake of those problems, community leaders pushed for the historic designation.

This week, those leaders heralded Monday’s approval by the council’s Recreation, Library and Cultural Affairs Committee as a step in the right direction for Wilmington.

“This is what we want for Wilmington,” said Gertrude Schwab, who has led the effort for historic status. The cemetery “is a part of Banning’s legacy.”

The designation will have little effect on the cemetery’s day-to-day operations. The historic status will not bring the graveyard grants or other special funding, and city officials say it is not necessary to protect it from development or destruction. Cemeteries are protected under state law.

Nevertheless, Schwab and others pressed for the historical designation because they felt it was important to draw attention to the cemetery’s history, and because they believed--albeit incorrectly--that it was the only way to ensure that the small cemetery would never be converted to industrial uses, like much of the land around it.

The lot next to the cemetery, for example, is a storage yard for shipping containers used at the Port of Los Angeles.

“When they closed that cemetery down . . . we thought that they’re just going to pour concrete over the top of the cemetery and just continue on top of it with the containers,” Schwab said.

Added Simie Seaman, president of the Banning Park Neighborhood Assn.: “It’s very valuable land and it’s right in the midst of all that industrial commercial area. We almost lost the cemetery a year or so ago. . . . If it’s not protected, I could see (business interests) pulling some kind of shenanigans.”

Schwab and Seaman said they intend to seek designation as a state historic landmark as well, and added that they expect the graveyard to be included in historic tours of Wilmington, along with the Banning Mansion and Civil War Drum Barracks.

The cemetery was operated privately for a little more than a century. In 1958, with the graveyard overgrown and in disrepair, Wilmington voters approved the creation of a public cemetery district to run it. The Wilmington Cemetery District is operated by four trustees appointed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Until 1978, when Proposition 13 was approved, the district would submit a budget to the county, which would levy taxes within the district to meet that budget. That arrangement changed with Proposition 13. But it took nearly a decade--until 1987--for the limitations on its tax-raising ability to be felt, in part because the district had a reserve fund and oil revenues to keep it going.

Account Overdrawn

In June 1987, county officials notified the trustees that the district had overdrawn its bank account by $21,428 over a period of about six months. The county’s accountants froze the cemetery’s bank account, forcing the trustees to lay off their three employees and temporarily suspend maintenance--and burials.

The cemetery was reopened the following month with $56,000 in loans: $20,000 from the county and $36,000 from the city. Then the board of trustees imposed an annual special assessment of $8.89 on the 9,300 taxable parcels in the district, which includes all of Wilmington, except for a few blocks west of Figueroa Street.

Now, the trustees say, the graveyard is back on solid financial footing. They recently lowered the annual assessment to $8.09, and residents say the graveyard looks better now than it has in years.

Over the past year, the north and east walls of the cemetery were landscaped with the help of Exxon, which donated $20,000 for trees, shrubs and an irrigation system. In addition, a professional landscaper has been hired to maintain the cemetery. That job was previously done by laborers with little experience, according to Dade Albright, president of the board of trustees.

$95,000 a Year to Maintain

Albright said the cemetery now costs $95,000 a year to maintain. “The new setup costs much more but they’re doing a much more complete job,” he said.

He said there are about 300 plots remaining, selling for between $300 and $500. Plots generally are available only to residents of the district.

Albright and other cemetery trustees were not involved in the push to make the cemetery a historic landmark. Albright said he looks at the cemetery “from a maintenance point of view,” and does not think historic status will help in that regard.

However, he said, “if that’s what people want, then I’m happy to go along with it.”