Here Lies History at Anaheim Cemetery

A patch of lawn shaded by a twisted juniper tree is where Janet Moody will one day be buried, next to her husband at the historic Anaheim Cemetery.

“I said, ‘I want that spot,’ ” she said of arranging William Moody’s burial in October 1996, pointing to an area with a beeline view of the cemetery’s ornate entryway, long-closed because modern cars couldn’t fit through the narrow width -- it was built to accommodate buggies.

As a child, her husband watched from nearby Lincoln Elementary School as somber funeral processions filed through the triple arches, she said as grandchildren Landon, 9, and Shelby, 4, weaved through the grounds reading headstones. Moody has visited the gravesite at least once a month since her husband’s death.

“He was my best friend since I was 15 years old,” she said.

Sandwiched between houses in a suburban neighborhood, Anaheim Cemetery, at 1400 E. Sycamore St., is the oldest of Orange County’s three public graveyards. The city’s German settlers established it in 1866, buying several acres for a total of $100 so they could expand the family plots they had built on the grounds of their vineyards.

The cemetery became the final resting place for several local pioneers, including the Kraemers, for whom Kraemer Boulevard is named; the Langenbergers, Anaheim’s first pioneer family; and Dona Vincente y Serrano Sepulveda Yorba Carillo, sister of Jose Andres Sepulveda, who owned what became the Irvine Ranch.

The cemetery also holds the first public mausoleum built on the West Coast. The words “Community Mausoleum” are etched in stone above the entrance to the concrete-and-marble structure, which opened in 1914. Designed to hold 300 vaults, all but two are filled, with an asking price of about $2,500 each.

The 16-acre cemetery is a stroll through time, punctuated by smaller mausoleums and upright headstones that preceded the flat grave markers allowed today.

There are four family mausoleums, housing the Schumachers, who provided the “S” in Anaheim’s long-gone SQR department store; the Langenbergers and the Rimpaus, whose mausoleums resemble old mission churches; and the Hartmanns, whose 1915 Greek Revival tomb is being restored by the Cemetery Angels. That is a group of volunteers organized through the Anaheim Historical Society.

Dotting the grounds are distinctive white upright headstones that honor 48 Civil War veterans. Near the cemetery archway is a crumbling yet majestic angel perched atop a concrete monument. She heralds the grave of William Koenig, who was manager of the former Kohler and Frohling winery in Anaheim and who died in 1911. His epitaph reads: “Koenig was his name / Noble was his heart / Honest toil his fame / Sadly too we part.”

From 1867 until 1985, Anaheim Cemetery operated as its own cemetery district, with burial open only to Anaheim residents. In 1985, county officials consolidated three cemetery districts -- El Toro Memorial Park and Santa Ana Cemetery, plus the now-private Magnolia Memorial Park -- to form the Orange County Cemetery District, the largest such district in the state. County residents and their families can now be buried in any of the three cemeteries.

The county has about 20 years left of burial spots, said Sam Randall, the district’s general manager. Anaheim has about four years left of space, with more land opened in recent years by filling in old trails and moving irrigation pipes.

The need for burial space is greatest in south Orange County, he said, where El Toro Memorial Park is the only public cemetery. San Juan Capistrano considered building a public cemetery but ran into opposition from residents. Land set aside at the former El Toro Marine base will house a new private cemetery.

“Cemeteries face the same problems as jails or landfills,” Randall said. “There’s a perception that having a cemetery next door might bring down property values, though we know this is not true. There are so many other priorities for the land that cemeteries aren’t on the top of the list. People just don’t think about cemeteries until they have to.”

The county district’s $4-million budget comes from the county’s share of property taxes. The three cemeteries share 22 employees who tend 72 acres.

Interment prices are generally lower than those at private facilities because of the public subsidy, district officials said. Regular burial interments cost about $2,000. In-ground urn space is about $900. Niches in the cemetery’s above-ground “urn garden” run from $590 to $890. A cemetery rose garden is set aside for families to spread ashes.

The cemetery is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, though staff works weekdays only. A private security firm that opens and closes gates on the weekends has been hired to patrol the grounds during summer to deter the occasional beer parties and unauthorized gatherings that occur, cemetery manager Bill Stetler said.

Former Mayor Tom Daly said he and neighborhood friends played football in the cemetery in the 1960s because there was no nearby park. He used to walk to school using the graveyard as a shortcut.

“In the daytime, it was attractive and the shade trees were outstanding,” he said. “At night, it was very scary and the subject of many neighborhood legends. There was a fascination because we lived near it. But the scariest thing was being chased out by the groundskeeper.”