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["Restroom" sign on a colonnaded
pavilion; beyond a lawn with graves, the great mausoleum.]

View toward the old mausoleum.

The Long Beach Forest Lawn is a relatively recent acquisition by the chain; the main building opened in the 1920s, only a few years after the Great Mausoleum at the Forest Lawn in Glendale, as "Sunnyside Mausoleum," not to be confused with the older Sunnyside Cemetery on Signal Hill about three miles to the south.

[A greenish lantern hangs from an
ornate dome in the center of an octagonal mausoleum, many walls of which are
filled with graves]

Looking for a restroom, I was directed into a stone-covered octagonal rotunda and was drawn up a set of stairs by glimpses of colorful light projected through stained glass hidden in the clerestory above the nave of a chapel.

[Under an elaborately decorated
ceiling, colored light shines through recessed stained glass on walls lined with
graves along the second floor above the side aisles of a church]

From the angle at which I'd entered I'd no idea of the building's size. I followed the path above the chapel toward a door to a gallery along the building's exterior, also lined with graves, looking down toward a funeral then in progress in the building's courtyard.

The door at the other end brought me into another, larger rotunda lined with dense decoration in the "churrigueresque" style that had been made popular at the exposition in San Diego a few years before the mausoleum was built. A curiously swinging cable drew me to the low balustrade.

[View of the ornately decorated
interior of a tower inside the mausoleum, underneath a dome.]

As I'd entered the building at ground level and ascended only one floor, it was disorienting to then find myself looking down into a pit three or four stories deep, at the bottom of which swung a metal ball: This is a Foucault pendulum, by far the largest I've seen and, according to Forest Lawn, the only one in a mausoleum anywhere.

[View of shabby area behind
uppermost decorations that are visible from the public areas of the tower,
directly underneat the top of the dome; a wire hangs from a hole in its
center.]

[Another view of the same area
showing the public face of the decorated parts.]

A nearby staircase leads the unsupervised visitor up to an attic-like area just underneath the dome, where one can observe the concrete base on which all the decoration is mounted.

[View down a steep concrete
staircase that turns out of sight; a ladder made of rebar set into the wall
ascends from a step above the landing, and a thin rope dangles beside it from
the top of the frame. On the wall to the right in rough, angular, white letters
are the words "Here it is."]

"Here it is."

View down from the top of the staircase. The space above the dome seems to be accessible by rebar ladder and rope which I dared not climb.

[Concrete hallway lined on one
side with plaster lumps and on the other with various kinds of standing electric
lamp, mostly in the shape of candled on a metal pole; beyond an archway, a
brighter room with a pebbled window on the floor of which is a column and
various sculptural busts.]

A passage leads off from the staircase into a kind of store-room.

[View further down the hallway of
concrete room lit by large windows with columns, busts, and a pile of plastic
tarp on the floor.]

At one end is a cluster of busts representing various famous men in history.

[View of columns of various sizes
and styles and busts of men dressed in various kinds of historical clothing,
including a representation of Thomas Jefferson.]

[In the center, several busts of
famous men wearing various kinds of historical costume, including
representations of John Knox and John Wesley; in the right foreground, a cracked
column connected to a rusting mirror frame by several years of tattered cobwebs;
in the left background, against the whitewashed concrete wall, a dirty marble
copy of a sculpture of a woman missing its arms and head.]

[Concrete wall lined with plaster
molds wrapped shut with blue tape, presumably in the form of those sculptures
pictured above.]

The passage is lined with plaster molds of these busts, which are on display in a hallway on the mausoleum's ground level. One can observe the wood grain of the molds in which the conrete blocks that form these rooms' walls were cast.

[Concrete wall lined with various
kinds of electric lamp, mostly in the shape of tall candelabras; on the left, a
music stand in a form representing a lyre.]

[Concrete floor lined with
various black boxes with wires going in and out, some going through the floor,
some plugged into a nearby outlet.]

[Blue tape on a concrete wall
secures in place an instruction manual and a package of 10A fuses mounted on a
panel of corrugated cardboard on which someone has written in black marker
"Timer directions" and "Extra fuses for transformers" with arrows pointing in
the appropriate direction.]

[Elaborate metal balustrade
flanks a polished black stone staircase with built-in lights that leads up to a
floor of inlaid marble.]

Marble detailing on the floors and walls recalls other great public buildings, like Los Angeles's City Hall or Natural History Museum.

[Elaborate archways through stone
walls lead into and out of a corridor with an out-of-place dark red spray-on
"popcorn" ceiling and a large boxy light fixture.]

The bright red "cottage cheese" ceiling and boxed fluorescent lighting recalls late midcentury office design.

[View out a window lined with
leaded glass toward a casket under a tent in the courtyard.]

[A corridor connects two parts of
the mausoleum decorated in contrasting styles: On the near side, carpet and
plain stone walls; on the far side, elaborately inlaid marble walls and floors,
all lined with graves.]

Around a corner one encounters a sharp transition from all the marble: Suddenly it's wall-to-wall carpeting, wood-panelled walls, and upholstered armchairs, consummating the office look hinted at by the ceiling pictured above.

[Beige chairs on carpet before a
dark wood-textured wall beside a stone wall full of graves.]

[A hallway lit by boxy light
fixtures, with the same carpet, lined with graves.]

[Another hallway with the same
carpet and light fixtures but a painted ceiling and more more elaborate stone
walls.]

[Sign mounted on board screwed
into wall announcing "Regulations for Memorial Decorations," transcribed
below.]

As in other well-appointed mausolea, flower rooms are provided, with appropriate regulations.

Regulations for Memorial Decorations

The following policy has been adopted in the interest of all property owners, and all persons placing floral remembrances are earnestly requested to cooperate.

Artificial or "everlasting" flowers are not permitted.

Memorial locations may be decorated only with cut flowers placed in regulation receptacles that are part of the memorial property, except at time of interment, and on Easter, Memorial Day and Christmas. On these occasions, potted plants and baskets may be placed for a period not to exceed five days - at the owner's sole responsibility; ribbons running to a crypt or a niche are not permitted as this practice obstructs other memorials in the area. Special receptacles should be called for promptly.

The placing of American Flags upon memorials by individuals or patriotic societies is permitted on Memorial Day. However, flags that remain for a period in excess of five days may be removed by the management.

[Elaborately decorated bottom of
the Foucault pendulum, with a compass rose and vague scientific motifs, lit from
a ring of recessed lighting along the bottom.]

Descending below ground level, one can look into the bottom of the pendulum-shaft; what makes this a "Foucault" pendulum are the markings that show the apparent movement, relative to the floor, of the plane along which it swings, illustrating the Earth's rotation.

[Hallway of terrazzo floor and
plain stone walls, lined with graves, lit by lighting recessed just under the
ceiling, which is plain with painted crossbeams.]

The lowest level of the mausoleum includes some of its earliest burials. Miles of hallway are lined with bodies interred more than eighty years ago. It seems few venture down here, but it's all well-maintained.

[Marble slab cut with a name
under an image of a chain with three links over the letters "FLT."]

Oddfellows emblem engraved on a burial vault.

Temporary grave marker, 1929

[Wooden apparatus, tucked into a
corner with a yellow "Caution: Wet Floor" sign, on which someone has written
with blue ink, transcribed below.]

"Pendulum ball installation tool,
save for future use."

[View up a spiraling concrete
staircase with an elaborate iron balustrade.]

Stairs back up to ground level.

[Walls and floors made of several
kinds of stone meet in a corner.]

Many colors of stone meet at almost every corner in the mausoleum.

Ascending a spiral staircase back to ground level, I found myself in yet another part of the mausoleum, branching off of a long hallway featuring, on pedestals, busts like those I'd seen at the top of the pendulum tower.

[Copper bust which a placard
identifies as Charlemagne.]

Charlemagne, "Great Christian Western Emperor."

[Copper bust which a placard
identifies as Ralph Waldo Emerson.]

Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Apostle of Religious Philosophy."

Near this hallway is the mausoleum's main entrance, which faces opposite from where I'd entered; it took a while to find my way back up the pendulum tower and across the courtyard.

[Another view of stained glass
casting colorful light onto a wall lined with graves.]

[View of grave-lined lawn toward
an enormous mosaic, described by text on stone tablet in foreground, transcribed
below.]

The "Gardens of the Sacraments" section is the most prominently placed with respect to the cemetery's main driveway, and is home to its most notable celebrity burial, the rapper Nate Dogg. According to a stone tablet placed beside the walkway,

The central feature of the beautiful Gardens of the Sacraments, the Paradise Mosaic, recreates the masterpiece painted by the Renaissance artist Raphael, on a wall of the Vatican in 1509. The mosaic is 45' wide, 35' high and is constructed from more than a million bits of Venetian glass of many different colors and hues.

There are many distinctive family memorials adjacent to the mosaic, which have a capacity of from two to ten entombments as well as individual crypts now available at affordable prices. Daily personalized tours are conducted by our before need counselors to acquaint families with the gardens and to answer their questions. Just call or visit the office at the main gates.

James Hilton, the author of Lost Horizon, was also once buried somewhere in this cemetery, but his body has since been disinterred.

[Stone wall with graves, one of
which is stained with lipstick.]

Kisses on someone's grave in the Jewish mausoleum

[Marble sculpture of a woman in a
classical style beside a facuet and a sign warning that "Flower theft is a crime
punishable by imprisonment"; beyond a low wall, a lawn covered with graves.]

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