Mountain View Cemetery
- Nov 30, 2016
- 1 min read
It has been a long time since I picked up my camera and walked through a cemetery. In Pittsburgh there were 2 beautiful cemeteries to visit , Homewood and Allegheny that I frequently visited. After we moved to California, I stopped looking for these cemeteries and believed it was a style and culture of the East Coast. Mountain View Cemetery pleasantly surprised me! Not only is it American Landscape Cemetery style but designed by Fredrick Law Olmstead!. He is the landscape architect of several of my favorite cemeteries and large public parks.
Mountain View Cemetery is in Oakland California. The cemetery has more of a public park or sculpture garden look, rather than rows of headstones. The cemetery was established by the East Bay Pioneers under California Rural Cemetery Art of 1859.
This landscaped cemetery stands apart from those I have explored around Pennsylvania. High in the mountains, Mountain View makes you feel surrounded by blue sky with a view you can see for miles. There are great spots to see Oakland, the Bay and San Francisco, with the fog accumulating all around. This photos were taken in summer, during peak drought season. This gives way to dry brown tones and a landscape that doesn't feel as plush as cemeteries in Boston or Philadelphia. This also may be the absence of ponds or fountains. The characteristics that are the most fulfilling in my journey through Mountain View is vertical space of grand architecture, towering sculptures, swaying palms trees and mighty redwoods.
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