City Panel Recommends Saving Chinese Shrine

Saying it represents a fitting memorial to early Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles, the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission recommended Wednesday that a threatened 19th-Century Chinese burial shrine be declared a historical monument.

Tucked in a corner of a century-old graveyard in Boyle Heights, the twin kilns and stone altar are being eyed by the cemetery owners for removal to make way for new grave sites.

“It would really be a testimony to the 19th-Century Chinese pioneers to preserve this shrine,” said Amarjit S. Marwah, commission president.

If the City Council goes along with the recommendation, the shrine could be protected for up to a year while preservationists draft a plan to save it permanently by either purchasing the 450-square-foot memorial or persuading the owners of Evergreen Cemetery to abandon any plans to uproot it.