Book Review: Mountain View Cemetery, by Dennis Evanosky

Reviewed by Emily Doskow

Courtesy Dennis Evanosky.

Ever since I moved to Oakland in 1986, I've enjoyed taking walks in Mountain View Cemetery, at the end of Piedmont Avenue. I'm amazed and enchanted by everything about the place. My dear friend Margaret's parents are buried there, and we have visited their graves together, pulling a few weeds and contemplating the beautiful view of the bay from their quiet hillside, and then finding new surprises no matter what path we walk. Every time I'm in the cemetery, I feel so grateful to live in this city. And Dennis Evanosky's wonderful self-published book, Mountain View Cemetery, evoked in me the same powerful feelings of appreciation for Oakland.'

Evanosky is an experienced chronicler of Oakland history—his book on the Laurel District is a popular local title. His passion for and deep knowledge of local history come through on every page of this book, and he writes with a matter-of-fact tone and an obvious appreciation for a good human interest story—of which there is no shortage in the cemetery.'

Mountain View Cemetery is organized into four major sections. "The Beginnings" draws the reader into the story by describing the cemetery's beginnings, in which the locally prominent Dr. Samuel Merritt had a large part. Frederick Olmsted, Mountain View's architect, was also one of the architects of New York's Central Park. The basic design of the cemetery is simple: Olmsted drew a line down the middle of the property for a main avenue, and then placed along it three rond-points or circles. From the circles, pathways follow the contours of the hills and shape the plots. (If you've ever enjoyed a walk in the cemetery, you know that the simplicity is somewhat deceptive, and the pathways go on and on.)

"The Personalities" identifies some of the local characters resting at Mountain View. Local luminaries include Jane Sather, Domingo Ghirardelli, Julia Morgan, Henry Kaiser, and Fred Korematsu. In addition to these well-known personages, there are some possibly lesser-known but no less historically important residents: Henry Cogswell, a San Francisco dentist and advocate of clean, available drinking water; Marcus Foster, Oakland's first African-American superintendent of schools, who was assassinated by the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1973; and Anna Head, the founder of Miss Head's Preparatory School for Girls—now Oakland's Head-Royce school.'

"The Landscape" calls out some of the architectural styles that grace the monuments, gives a birds-eye view through historical panoramic photographs, and contains a section dedicated to the various stone angels that appear throughout the cemetery. Finally, "The Civil War" offers moving descriptions of the preservation of the Grand Army of the Republic Plot and other connections between Mountain View Cemetery and the Civil War.

The photographs are wonderful, especially those that compare scenes from the past with the same photograph in the present. Unfortunately, poor contrast on some of the photos renders them somewhat washed-out, the result of a printing error. Even so, the pictures are a delight, as is the entire book.'