Requiem for a Graveyard : Sylmar: Abandoned cemetery shows decay, but some want it preserved as a historic site.

It was not the Louisiana Purchase, but the 3.8-acre cemetery that Will G. Noble bought in 1925 north of the San Fernando Mission was a pretty good bargain for $10.

Being the only mortician in the northern San Fernando Valley at the time, it made good business sense for Noble to buy the dusty little cemetery--a lowly plot of dirt inhabited by the earthly remains of those early Valley settlers and Native Americans who lacked the money or Catholic upbringing to be buried at the mission cemetery.

But after Noble died in 1939, the graveyard became almost as forgotten as its occupants.

This parcel on the corner of Bledsoe Street and Foothill Boulevard was eventually abandoned, overrun by waist-high weeds and raided by vandals who pilfered or destroyed most of the headstones.

But a historical preservationist group is pressing the Los Angeles City Council to recognize the San Fernando Pioneer Memorial Cemetery by declaring it a historic and cultural landmark. If approved, it would be one of only five burial sites in the city’s list of 585 historic landmarks.

That status would allow the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission to delay any demolition or major alterations of the cemetery for up to a year to give preservationists time to find ways to save it.

A council vote is expected next week.

Despite the cemetery’s timeworn appearance, city historical experts say the site--the oldest non-sectarian graveyard in the Valley--has great historical value.

“Very often historical cultural monuments are not attractive, but it doesn’t mean they don’t have historical value,” said Jay M. Oren, an architect for the city’s Cultural Affairs Department.

Oren credits a local chapter of the Native Daughters of the Golden West for adopting the forgotten graveyard in 1958 and working to preserve it as a historic landmark.

The group’s first victory in that battle was won in 1961 when the cemetery was declared a state historic landmark, which meant that a state review was needed before the cemetery could be demolished or significantly altered.

Those who visit the graveyard today will find a dry corner lot with only a dozen headstones, about 50 damaged bases, two flagpoles, several benches, a memorial patio (still under construction) and a meandering cement path. About a hundred trees and bushes of various types dot the parcel.

The only regular visitor for the past 10 years or so has been Edith Reber, an 83-year-old Sylmar resident and member of the Daughters of the Golden West, who decided to care for the graveyard.

“I feel like I would kinda like it to be a nice park,” Reber said in a recent visit.

Originally part of the lands of the San Fernando Mission, three miles to the south, the cemetery property passed from owner to owner over the years until 1892, when it was officially dedicated as the San Fernando Cemetery.

According to historical records, the cemetery originally may have been as big as 60 acres but was subdivided down to 10 acres by the time it was officially dedicated.

In 1905, the San Fernando Cemetery Assn. was established to handle the graveyard’s affairs, but the group dissolved in 1923 and eventually sold the remaining 3.8-acre lot to Noble, who operated a funeral home on the corner of Brand and Second streets.

After Noble died, the cemetery fell into disrepair, and in 1958 was declared abandoned. Three years later, Noble’s widow, Nellie Noble, found the cemetery’s quitclaim deed and donated the property to the Native Daughters of the Golden West so that it would be preserved as a memorial park.

Historical records indicate that burials at the cemetery began before 1880 and continued as late as 1939. Over the years, vandals have erased burial records by stealing headstones, including those of Civil War veterans.

However, remaining records indicate that many of those interred in the graveyard were children who died during the 1918 influenza epidemic and others killed during the 1928 St. Francis Dam disaster in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Reber said one stolen headstone was recently found by police in Glendale with a note attached, asking that it be returned to the Pioneer cemetery.

The Daughters of the Golden West first learned of the graveyard in 1958, when an anonymous resident called the group and suggested that they preserve the cemetery, which had been overrun by waist-high weeds that obscured the few remaining headstones.

Carolyn Riggs, a member of the group, led the efforts to save the cemetery until 1980, when Reber stepped in as guardian of the graveyard.

Reber now visits the cemetery three times a week and collects donations to pay for the cemetery’s $350 monthly bills for sprinkler water and electricity for its lighting.

As caretaker, Reber has pulled weeds, planted trees and shrubs and solicited donations to install a $100,000 pathway and sprinkler system.

Even though the developer of an adjacent condominium project installed a wrought-iron fence around the cemetery in the late 1970s, Reber said vandals are still a problem.

“They are driving us crazy,” she said. “They are stealing things right and left.”

She said a plaque with the names of about 500 men, women and children believed buried in the cemetery and in surrounding lands has been broken or vandalized four times.

“It’s always one thing or another,” she said. “But we are getting there little by little.”