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Imagine a cemetery tucked away on the eastern edge of one of San Diego's most beautiful neighborhood parks. This is what you will find when you visit this special place of rest. Many San Diegans who picnic here don't even know that these tombstones exist. Can you find them?
In the early 1870s, the City of San Diego bought 10 acres of land for a cemetery, five acres for Protestants and five acres for Catholics. The Protestants never used the land so it was laid out as a Catholic burial ground. The opening of Holy Cross Cemetery in 1919 spelled the demise of this place then called Calvary Cemetery. In 1939, the City took ownership. The W.P.A. built an adobe wall around the burial grounds. The tombstones were located by the adobe walls. Sections of these adobe walls still remain.
Pioneer Park Cemetery
By 1970, the cemetery had fallen into disrepair and the public pushed for improvements. They wanted a neighborhood park not an underutilized cemetery. A plaque at the site indicates that most of the tomb stones were relocated to Mt. Hope Cemetery; 140 others were reinstalled at the southeast corner of the park.Please note that this means that all the individuals that were once buried here are still buried here. The tomb stones were moved, not the bodies.
This aptly named grave site marker is embedded on a sidewalk along San Diego Avenue. This small disk signals your arrival at El Campo Santo. Enter past the adobe walls and walk past old Spanish style era grave sites with wrought iron and white picket fences. This cemetery features descriptive narratives of the people that rest here.
El Campo Santo (Spanish for the holy ground) is San Diego's second oldest cemetery dating back to 1849. Burials continued until 1880. Like some of San Diego's other older cemeteries, El Campo Santo has deteriorated over the years. The wear and tear of so many visitors discovering this part of Old Town takes its toll. It has been restored several times and is always a popular site during Old Town's Day of the Dead observance which occurs November 1-2 of every year.
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