Editing Colma, California (section)

===San Francisco cemetery relocations===

Colma became the site for numerous cemeteries after San Francisco outlawed new interments within its city limits in 1900, then evicted most existing cemeteries in 1912. In the 1910s, many of the roads to Colma were not maintained.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Wells|first=Madeline|date=October 14, 2021|title='Sworn to secrecy': Ex-employees say The Chapel's ghost was real|url=https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Haunted-Chapel-SF-venue-ghost-girl-video-not-hoax-16527965.php|url-status=live|access-date=October 14, 2021|website=SFGATE|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211014112334/https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Haunted-Chapel-SF-venue-ghost-girl-video-not-hoax-16527965.php |archive-date=October 14, 2021 }}</ref> Bodies were transported by street cars in San Francisco down [[Valencia Street]] in the [[Mission District, San Francisco|Mission District]]; which resulted in many mortuaries and funeral homes in this location for quick access to Colma.<ref name=":0" /> Approximately 150,000 bodies were moved between 1920 and 1941, at a cost of $10 per grave and marker. Many of the remains in Colma came from the [[Lone Mountain Cemetery]] complex. Those for whom no one paid the fee were reburied in mass graves, and the markers were recycled in various San Francisco public works.<ref name=Branch /> Some examples include drain gutters at Buena Vista Park and bolstering breakwater near the [[St. Francis Yacht Club]]. They can be seen at low tide on Ocean Beach.<ref name=Branch /> The completion of the relocation was delayed until after [[World War II]]. The [[San Francisco and San Jose Railroad|main rail line]] between San Francisco and [[San Jose, California|San Jose]] running through Colma had been bypassed by the [[Bayshore Cutoff]], completed in 1907 and providing a route closer to the [[San Francisco Bay]] shoreline, and the former main line was repurposed as a branch line to move coffins to Colma. Decades later, the right-of-way for the branch line through Colma was purchased by [[Bay Area Rapid Transit|BART]] for use in the [[San Francisco International Airport]] extension project.<ref name=Branch />

An early effort to incorporate in 1903 was condemned by the ''[[San Francisco Call]]'' as "a scheme whereby the town of Colma is to be made a plague spot of vice" to benefit gamblers and crooked politicians.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19030812.2.7 |title=Blacklegs seek to make Town of Colma a plague spot of gambling hells |date=August 12, 1903 |newspaper=San Francisco Call |access-date=September 6, 2023}}</ref> The Town of '''Lawndale''' was incorporated in 1924,<ref name=Branch>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/06/sports/football/the-town-of-colma-where-san-franciscos-dead-live.html |title=The Town of Colma, Where San Francisco's Dead Live |author=Branch, John |date=February 5, 2016 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=January 11, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DNL19240802.2.6 |title=Lawndale will become a city |date=August 2, 1924 |newspaper=Daily News Leader |location=San Mateo |access-date=September 6, 2023}}</ref> primarily at the behest of the cemetery owners with the cooperation of the handful of residents who lived closest to the cemeteries. The residential and business areas immediately to the north continued to be known as Colma. As another California city named [[Lawndale, California|Lawndale]] already existed, in [[Los Angeles County]], the post office retained the Colma designation, and the town changed its name back to Colma in 1941.<ref name=Branch />

[[File:Colma – cemetery city – aerial.jpg|thumb|center|upright 2|Aerial view of Colma, from the south; San Francisco is visible in the distance at upper right and [[Interstate 280 (California)|I-280]] runs north in the lower left corner. The prominent rectangular green space in the foreground is the western campus of [[Cypress Lawn Memorial Park]], acquired in the early 1900s.]]