There are plaques scatter throughout Forest Lawn Memorial Park , in Glendale , California , that detail its creator ’s vision . When Dr. Hubert Eaton took over the 300 acre ( 121 hectare ) in 1917 , he install a massive stone tablet engrave with what he called “ The Builder ’s Dream and The Builder ’s Creed . ” It speaks of “ agreat parkdevoid of misshapen monuments and other preindication of earthly death , but filled with towering trees , sweeping lawns , splattering fountains , beautiful statuary and memorial architecture . ” The plaque are ratify , “ The Builder . ”
" That ’s how we touch on to Eaton – ' the Builder ' – it ’s very grand , " saysJames Fishburne , Ph.D. , film director of the Forest Lawn Museum . As is the space Eaton built : " You get that lofty sense when you when you visit , " Fishburne says . " There are rolling hills , sensational landscape painting , mountain views , you’re able to you’re able to see the sea in the aloofness . And then the art compendium is also very grand . "
Forest Lawn is a burial ground , but it ’s not like any burial place before it . While more than 300,000 masses , including some of America ’s most famous names , are buried there , it also boasts gardens , churches , a vast mausoleum and anart museum .
It was designed , says Fishburne , " so it did n’t feel like a property of death and decomposition , but rather a celebration of living , a place you would want to visit . "
All About the Art at Forest Lawn
Today , there are six Forest Lawn Memorial Park locations in Southern California , but the original is in Glendale . From the showtime , the art has been a major attracter at Forest Lawn .
" One of the former ideas was to sort of recreate what ' the Grand Tour ' used to be : If you were very affluent , you could go to Europe and locomote all over and consider awe-inspiring cathedrals and sculptures and house painting , " says Fishburne . Forest Lawn was an drive to " bestow that to Southern California , in a time when outside travel was prohibitively expensive and time - consuming , and when there were relatively few publicly approachable art collections in Southern California . "
The museum put up original art and replica of famous whole kit , including one of the largest replica collections of Michaelango ’s employment . There ’s even a 17 - invertebrate foot - magniloquent ( 5 - meter ) facts of life of his famous statue of David .
Forest Lawn is also home to Jan Styka ’s " The Crucifixion , " which , at 195 foundation ( 159 m ) wide and 45 foot ( 14 cadence ) marvelous , is the " largest religious painting in the United States , and the largest painting of any form in the Western United States , " say Fishburne . " We actually build up an entire construction just to domiciliate that single work . "
Forest Lawn: Created as a New Kind of Park
When Forest Lawn began , the model for what a typical cemetery face like was already hundreds of twelvemonth old . But on the outskirts of the develop city of Los Angeles , Eaton and Forest Lawn ’s founders plant out to do something unlike .
" This is Southern California in the early 20th hundred , " say Fishburne . " There was chance . Many of the with child cemeteries on the East Coast were established , 100 or 200 twelvemonth beforehand , and the conventions were sort of tied to the conventions of 200 year ago . Hubert Eaton had the exemption to sort of remake it , to rethink these convention and make something new . "
And when Eaton bought his acreage on the outskirts of Los Angeles , he make the timing just proper . " When Forest Lawn was established over a hundred ago , it was immediately between two population centers , " says Fishburne . " It ’s located between Pasadena , which was already blast in the early 20th century , and downtown Los Angeles . A few years after we opened , the Los Angeles Aqueduct was build , and there was just a population gold rush . "
At the same fourth dimension , the film industry was detonate in Southern California , and moving picture stars demand a final resting place . Forest Lawn is the burial place of renown such as Lauren Bacall , Humphrey Bogart , Nat King Cole , Clark Gable , Michael Jackson , Will Rogers and Elizabeth Taylor , just to name a few .
But do n’t expect a list of who ’s who – or rather , who ’s where . Forest Lawn employees love mass get to see thefamous graves , but they wo n’t help you find them .
" We attempt to respect the privacy of the phratry that we serve , " says Fishburne . " So we do n’t do celebrity grave spell , we do n’t advertise , ' X , Y and Z are forget here . ' Many of the final resting places of celebrities are openly accessible to the populace , and people are welcome to come visit them . Others are in locked gardens or in secret areas . "
The Walt Disney Connection to Forest Lawn
Walt Disneyis also buried in Forest Lawn , but that ’s not the only connection between the amusement visionary and the memorial common . Forest Lawn ’s Tudor - inspired architectural mode extend through its many burial section , which have name like Eventide , Graceland , Inspiration Slope , Sweet Memories , Whispering Pines and Dawn of Tomorrow . There ’s also a heart - mold domain call Babyland , for infant burying and Slumberland , for child and adolescents .
It ’s reminiscent , in many ways , of the different acres and esthetical of Disney ’s nearby amusement park .
" Eaton and Disney ran in some of the same circle , " aver Fishburne . " And Forest Lawn and Disneyland share the zeitgeist of the early and mid-20th century ; the sort of storybook style that you see in a pile of other Disney movies and in Disneyland . "
In fact , Forest Lawn is sometimes call the " Disneyland of cemeteries , " but Fishburne mark the platter straight . " Forest Lawn was set up first . We like to joke that really , Disneyland is the entertainment park of Forest Lawns . "
Ultimately , Fishburne allege , it ’s a place as much – if not more – for the living than for the dead .
" When you natter on the day of a family member ’s funeral , that ’s plain proceed to be a very intense and very sad second , " he read . " But we want you to be able to follow back prison term and again , impart friends and family and celebrate that mortal and keep Southern California and keep life . "
