On this day in 1914, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors declared San Francisco’s cemeteries a public nuisance, and voted to have all remains moved. At the time, there were an estimated 100,000 people buried here, and cemetery owners, politicians, and local neighborhoods battled over this issue for the next 23 years. Mayor “Sunny Jim” Rolph and the BOS wanted them gone – the Catholic Church wanted them to stay. They pushed a ballot measure that defeated the bill, but as time went on, the public changed their minds. Without perpetual care funds, these places were a mess. Kids, teens, and bootleggers partied in them; monuments were broken and tombs opened; bones could be easily found in the detritus. I MEAN, IT SOUNDS KIND OF COOL TO ME BUT THEN AGAIN LOOK AT THIS PAGE. In 1937, voters overturned the ban on the ban and removals were started.
Many men working with shovels and hammers in a dirt field amidst great upturned piles of earth and filled wheelbarrows
Men removing graves from Oddfellows Cemetery