Domingo Marcucci (1827-1905) immigrated from Venezuela to Philadelphia in the 1840s to study shipbuilding. Days after his arrival in San Francisco in 1849 at the age of 22, Marcucci began assembling a steamboat on the beach of Yerba Buena Cove at the foot of Folsom. It would become the first steamboat to run between San Francisco and Stockton. In 1858 Marcucci opened a shipyard at Steamboat Point at Fourth and King in Mission Bay, where he would remain a successful shipbuilder until his retirement in 1900. Marcucci died five years later and his cremated remains can be found at San Francisco’s Columbarium.
The San Francisco Columbarium and Funeral Home, located at 1 Loraine Court, was built in 1895 to support an existing crematorium at Odd Fellows Cemetery on the the western slopes of Lone Mountain[1]. Enveloped today by a populated residential neighborhood, the Columbarium is a distinctive building with a copper dome and a neoclassical design (it is similar to the Hibernia Bank Building[2] though much smaller in size).
In 1900 Mayor James Phelan[3] signed an order prohibiting further burials within City limits. At the time there were 30 cemeteries within San Francisco city limits, including two Jewish cemeteries in Dolores Park, a Potter’s Field at Land’s End, Yerba Buena Cemetery under the Civic Center Bart Station, and a Chinese cemetery under Lincoln Park Golf Course. The Odd Fellows were forced to abandon their cemetery and moved to Green Lawn Cemetery in Colma. In 1929 after a law was passed forcing the removal of cemeteries to make way for residential housing, Odd Fellows transferred bodies from San Francisco to Colma. The original headstones were used to build a seawall at Aquatic Park[4]. The Columbarium and crematorium were allowed to remain, but when cremation was also prohibited in 1910, the Columbarium no longer had the means of generating income and it passed from one organization to the next, falling into disrepair. It is rumored to have been used by bootleggers during Prohibition[5].
In 1980 the Columbarium was purchased by the Neptune Society of Northern California and slowly restored to its original grandeur. The interior 45-foot rotunda is gorgeously detailed and capped by a stained glass window. The ground floor has eight rooms bearing the names of mythological winds. Second floor rooms are named after constellations. Human ashes are preserved in everything from ornate jade urns to cookie jars. There are approximately 8,500 niches (recessed compartments) in its three levels, connected by marble staircases.
The building became a City landmark in 1996. It is the only nondenominational columbarium in the City and still has spaces available[6]. The main floor is open to the public while the two upper floors are restricted to friends and family.
[1] Lone Mountain Cemeteries: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3762 [2] Hibernia Bank Building: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4767 [3] James Phelan: story coming February 7th [4] Aquatic Park: story coming July 11th [5] James “Sunny Jim” Rolph and Prohibition: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=5365 [6] Visit them at http://www.dignitymemorial.com
