Colma, California

Etymology

The most commonly proposed origin of the name "Colma" is the Ohlone word meaning "springs" or "many springs".

There are several other proposed origins of Colma. Erwin Gudde's California Place Names states seven possible sources of the town's being called Colma: William T. Coleman (a local landowner), Thomas Coleman (a local resident), misspelling of Colmar in France, misspelling of Colima in Mexico, a re-spelling of an ancient Uralic word meaning death, a reference to James Macpherson's Songs of Selma, and two Ohlone possibilities, one meaning "moon" and one meaning "springs".

Before 1872, Colma was designated as "Station" or "School House Station", the name of its post office in 1869.

History

The community of Colma was formed in the 19th century as a collection of homes and small businesses along El Camino Real and the adjacent San Francisco and San Jose Railroad line. Several churches, including Holy Angels Catholic Church, were founded in these early years. The community founded its own fire district, which serves the unincorporated area of Colma north of the town limits, as well as the area that became a town in 1924.

Heinrich (Henry) von Kempf moved his wholesale nursery here in the early part of the 20th century, from the land where the Palace of Fine Arts currently sits. The business was growing, and thus required more space for von Kempf's plants and trees. Von Kempf then began petitioning to turn the Colma community into an agricultural township. He succeeded and became the town of Colma's first treasurer.

In the early 20th century, Colma was the site of many major boxing events. Middleweight world champion Stanley Ketchel fought six bouts at the Mission Street Arena in Colma, including two world middleweight title bouts against Billy Papke and a world heavyweight title bout against Jack Johnson.

cemetery relocations

San Francisco cemetery relocations

Colma became the site for numerous cemeteries after San Francisco outlawed new interments within its city limits in 1900, then evicted most existing cemeteries in 1912. In the 1910s, many of the roads to Colma were not maintained. Bodies were transported by street cars in San Francisco down Valencia Street in the Mission District; which resulted in many mortuaries and funeral homes in this location for quick access to Colma. Approximately 150,000 bodies were moved between 1920 and 1941, at a cost of $10 per grave and marker. Many of the remains in Colma came from the Lone Mountain Cemetery complex. Those for whom no one paid the fee were reburied in mass graves, and the markers were recycled in various San Francisco public works. Some examples include drain gutters at Buena Vista Park and bolstering breakwater near the St. Francis Yacht Club. They can be seen at low tide on Ocean Beach. The completion of the relocation was delayed until after World War II. The main rail line between San Francisco and San Jose running through Colma had been bypassed by the Bayshore Cutoff, completed in 1907 and providing a route closer to the San Francisco Bay shoreline, and the former main line was repurposed as a branch line to move coffins to Colma. Decades later, the right-of-way for the branch line through Colma was purchased by BART for use in the San Francisco International Airport extension project.

An early effort to incorporate in 1903 was condemned by the San Francisco Call as "a scheme whereby the town of Colma is to be made a plague spot of vice" to benefit gamblers and crooked politicians. The Town of Lawndale was incorporated in 1924, primarily at the behest of the cemetery owners with the cooperation of the handful of residents who lived closest to the cemeteries. The residential and business areas immediately to the north continued to be known as Colma. As another California city named Lawndale already existed, in Los Angeles County, the post office retained the Colma designation, and the town changed its name back to Colma in 1941.

Notable interments

|shape-color1=#dd0 |shape-outline1=#ffffff |mark-size1=20

|mark-coord1 = |mark-title1 =Colma (BART) |mark-image1 =Colma station from parking garage, March 2018.JPG |mark-description1 =Colma was opened in 1996 as part of the BART extension to San Francisco International Airport

|mark-coord2 = |shape-color2 =#080 |mark-title2 =Japanese Cemetery |mark-image2 =咸臨丸水夫（源之助･富蔵･峰吉）の墓 - panoramio.jpg |mark-description2 =The Japanese Cemetery is a nondenominational memorial park founded in 1901, with internments of Buddhist, Shinto, and Christian faiths.

|mark-coord3 = |shape-color3 =#080 |mark-title3 =Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery |mark-image3 =Woodlawn Memorial Park 3.jpg |mark-description3 =Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery was founded in 1905 and includes internments relocated from the former Masonic Cemetery in San Francisco.

|mark-coord4 = |shape-color4 =#080 |mark-title4 =Eternal Home Cemetery |mark-image4 =Eternal Home Cemetery, Colma California 4.jpg |mark-description4 =Eternal Home Cemetery was founded in 1901, serving the Jewish community.

|mark-coord5 = |shape-color5 =#080 |mark-title5 =Italian Cemetery |mark-image5 =Italian Cemetery, Colma, California 7.jpg |mark-description5 =The entrance to Italian Cemetery is on F Street.

|mark-coord6 = |shape-color6 =#d00 |mark-title6 =Colma Historical Park and Community Center |mark-image6 =Colma depot building.jpg |mark-description6 =The former Southern Pacific depot was relocated to Colma Historical Park in 2003.

|mark-coord7 = |shape-color7 =#080 |mark-title7 =Olivet Gardens (Mount Olivet) |mark-image7 =Mount Olivet cemetery, Colma California.jpg |mark-description7 =Mount Olivet Cemetery was founded in 1896.

|mark-coord8 = |shape-color8 =#080 |mark-title8 =Serbian Cemetery |mark-image8 =Serbian Cemetery, Colma, California 4.jpg |mark-description8 =Serbian Cemetery was founded in 1901 and is open for burials from the Orthodox Christian community. Several internments were relocated from the former Serbian Cemetery, which was part of Lone Mountain Cemetery (1854) in San Francisco.

|mark-coord9 = |shape-color9 =#00d |mark-title9 =280 Metro Center |mark-image9 =280 Metro Center.jpg |mark-description9 =280 Metro Center, which opened in 1986, is credited as one of the first power centers in California. It has 228000 ft2 of retail space.

|mark-coord10= |shape-color10=#080 |mark-title10=Greenlawn Memorial Park and Greek Orthodox Memorial Park |mark-image10=Green lawn Memorial Park, Colma, California.jpg |mark-description10=Greenlawn Memorial Park was founded in 1904 as a non-sectarian cemetery. Burials from the International Order of Odd Fellows cemetery in San Francisco, some dating back to 1865, were relocated to a private section here in the 1930s. Greek Orthodox Memorial Park serves members of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

|mark-coord11= |shape-color11=#00d |mark-title11=Serramonte Boulevard / Serramonte Auto Row |mark-image11=Serramonte Road, the main street 2014-04-17 09-52.jpg |mark-description11=Serramonte Boulevard bisects Colma; the town hall and police offices are at the intersection of Serramonte and California State Route 82 (El Camino Real). Many automobile dealerships lie along both sides of Serramonte between Junipero Serra and Hillside.

|mark-coord12= |shape-color12=#080 |mark-title12=Hills of Eternity Memorial Park and Home of Peace Cemetery |mark-image12=Wyatt & Josephine Earp grave.JPG |mark-description12=These two adjoining cemeteries serve Jewish communities. Hills of Eternity was originally founded in 1850 for Congregation Sherith Israel and Home of Peace was originally founded in 1860 for Congregation Emanu-El; both were in San Francisco and moved to Colma in 1889.

|mark-coord13= |shape-color13=#00d |mark-title13=Serra Center |mark-image13=Serra Center sign, Colma, California.jpg |mark-description13=Serra Center is a power center that is geographically close to but distinct from the enclosed Serramonte Center shopping mall. Serra Center is anchored by a large Target store.

|mark-coord14= |shape-color14=#080 |mark-title14=Cypress Lawn Memorial Park |mark-image14=Cypress Lawn cemetery, Colma, California 11.jpg |mark-description14=Cypress Lawn was founded in 1892 as a non-sectarian cemetery; it has since been expanded by nearly four times its original size through land purchases and acquisitions, including the former Mount Olivet cemetery.

|mark-coord15= |shape-color15=#080 |mark-title15=Hoy Sun Ning Yung Cemetery and Chinese Christian Cemetery |mark-image15= |mark-description15=The Hoy Sun Ning Yung cemetery was founded in 1898 to serve the Chinese immigrant community in San Francisco.

|mark-coord16= |shape-color16=#080 |mark-title16=Holy Cross Cemetery |mark-image16=Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery (Colma, California) 2.jpg |mark-description16=Holy Cross opened in 1887 to serve the Catholic community of San Francisco; the site is 300 acre.

|fullscreen-option=1

• }} |auto-caption=1 Many, if not most, of the well-known people who died in San Francisco since the first cemeteries opened there have been buried or reburied in Colma, with an additional large number of such burials in Oakland's Mountain View Cemetery. Some notable people interred in Colma include:
• Cypress Lawn Memorial Park
  • William Henry Crocker, business magnate
  • Charles de Young, San Francisco Chronicle founder
  • Phineas Gage, famous 19th-century medical curiosity
  • Edward Gilbert, California politician and co-founder of the Alta California
  • William Randolph Hearst, newspaper tycoon
  • Ed Lee, first Asian American Mayor of San Francisco
  • Willie McCovey, Major League Baseball Hall of Famer
  • John McLaren, horticulturist
  • Turk Murphy, jazz musician and bandleader
• Hills of Eternity Memorial Park and Home of Peace Cemetery (side-by-side Jewish cemeteries, serving different congregations)
  • Wyatt Earp is buried next to his wife, Josephine Marcus Earp
  • Julie Rosewald, America's first female cantor
  • Levi Strauss, denim trouser pioneer
  • Alice B. Toklas is not buried in Colma, though there is a large Toklas cenotaph for her and markers there for some of her relatives
• Holy Cross Cemetery
  • Joseph Alioto, San Francisco mayor
  • Jimmy Britt, lightweight boxer
  • Pat Brown, 32nd governor of California
  • Beniamino Bufano, sculptor, noted for peace monuments and other statues
  • Frankie Crosetti, New York Yankees shortstop
  • Joe DiMaggio, Yankees center fielder
  • Abigail Folger, coffee heiress and Manson murder victim
  • A.P. Giannini, Bank of America founder
  • Vince Guaraldi, jazz musician
  • Capt. Michael A. Healy, United States Revenue Cutter Service Officer, and first man of African-American descent to command a ship of the United States government.
  • James D. Phelan, senator
• Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery
  • Thomas Henry Blythe, developer of Palo Verde Valley
  • Henry Miller, California cattle rancher
  • Emperor Norton, a late-1800s San Francisco celebrity known as "Emperor of these United States and Protector of Mexico"
  • José Sarria, LGBT political activist who styled himself "The Widow Norton" in reference to Norton
• Eternal Home Cemetery (Jewish Cemetery)
  • Bill Graham, music promoter
• Greek Orthodox Memorial Park
  • George Christopher, San Francisco mayor
• Serbian Cemetery
  • Boris Pash, Russian-American military intelligence officer
  • Gregory Udicki, Serbian Orthodox Bishop of the Diocese of Western America
• Greenlawn Memorial Cemetery
  • James Rolph, San Francisco mayor and 27th governor of California
• Japanese Cemetery
  • George Shima, businessperson

Businesses

Originally, Colma's residents were primarily employed in occupations related to the many cemeteries in the town. Since the 1980s, however, Colma has become more diversified, and a variety of retail businesses and automobile dealerships has brought more sales tax revenue to the town government. In 1986, 280 Metro Center opened for business in Colma; it is now recognized as the world's first power center.

Geography and geology

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.9 mi2, all land. The town's 17 cemeteries comprise approximately 73% of the town's land area.

Colma is situated on the San Francisco Peninsula at the highest point of the Merced Valley, a gap between San Bruno Mountain and the northernmost foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountain Range. The foothills and eastern flanks of the range are composed largely of poorly consolidated Pliocene-Quaternary freshwater and shallow marine sediments that include the Colma and Merced Formations, recent slope wash, ravine fill, colluvium, and alluvium. These surficial deposits unconformably overlay the much older Jurassic to Cretaceous-aged Franciscan Assemblage. The Junipero Serra Landfill, which closed in 1983 and extended approximately 135 ft deep, was developed and reopened as the 260000 sqft mixed-use Metro Center.

Colma Creek flows through the city as it makes its way from San Bruno Mountain to San Francisco Bay.

Transportation

BART has two stations serving Colma: Colma, at the northern border near Daly City, and South San Francisco, just across the southern border. In addition, SamTrans buses serve the city with public transportation.

There are three primary north-south roads for automobile and truck traffic through Colma; from west to east, they are Junipero Serra Boulevard, El Camino Real, and Hillside Boulevard. They are connected approximately through the center of Colma by Serramonte Boulevard.

Government

In the California State Legislature, Colma is in , and in . In the United States House of Representatives, Colma is in .

Education

Colma has one private school, Holy Angels School, a Catholic school for preschool through 8th grade.

Colma belongs to the Jefferson Elementary School District, which has two schools in Colma: Garden Village Elementary (grades K–5) and Benjamin Franklin Intermediate (grades 6–8). High school students typically attend Westmoor High School in the Jefferson Union High School District.

Demographics

Informally, as of 2006 Colma had "1,500 aboveground residents ... and 1.5 million underground".

2020

The 2020 United States census reported that Colma had a population of 1,507. The population density was 796.9 PD/sqmi. The racial makeup of Colma was 347 (23.0%) White, 60 (4.0%) African American, 21 (1.4%) Native American, 460 (30.5%) Asian, 6 (0.4%) Pacific Islander, 368 (24.4%) from other races, and 245 (16.3%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 621 persons (41.2%).

The census reported that 1,450 people (96.2% of the population) lived in households, 26 (1.7%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 31 (2.1%) were institutionalized.

There were 509 households, out of which 192 (37.7%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 224 (44.0%) were married-couple households, 32 (6.3%) were cohabiting couple households, 127 (25.0%) had a female householder with no partner present, and 126 (24.8%) had a male householder with no partner present. 110 households (21.6%) were one person, and 49 (9.6%) were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.85.

The age distribution was 302 people (20.0%) under the age of 18, 116 people (7.7%) aged 18 to 24, 378 people (25.1%) aged 25 to 44, 430 people (28.5%) aged 45 to 64, and 281 people (18.6%) who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 41.8years. For every 100 females, there were 103.6 males.

There were 526 housing units at an average density of 278.2 /mi2, of which 509 (96.8%) were occupied. Of these, 247 (48.5%) were owner-occupied, and 262 (51.5%) were occupied by renters.

In 2023, the US Census Bureau estimated that the median household income was $121,488, and the per capita income was $49,693. About 8.6% of families and 9.5% of the population were below the poverty line.

2010

The 2010 United States census reported that Colma had a population of 1,792. The population density was 938.6 PD/sqmi. The racial makeup of Colma was 620 (34.6%) White, 59 (3.3%) African American, 7 (0.4%) Native American, 619 (34.5%) Asian, 9 (0.5%) Pacific Islander, 366 (20.4%) from other races, and 112 (6.3%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 708 persons (39.5%).

The Census reported that 1,763 people (98.4% of the population) lived in households, 0 (0%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 29 (1.6%) were institutionalized.

There were 564 households, out of which 217 (38.5%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 271 (48.0%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 110 (19.5%) had a female householder with no husband present, 42 (7.4%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 44 (7.8%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 8 (1.4%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 91 households (16.1%) were made up of individuals, and 31 (5.5%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.13. There were 423 families (75.0% of all households); the average family size was 3.45.

The population was spread out, with 390 people (21.8%) under the age of 18, 178 people (9.9%) aged 18 to 24, 532 people (29.7%) aged 25 to 44, 488 people (27.2%) aged 45 to 64, and 204 people (11.4%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36.4 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.9 males.

There were 586 housing units at an average density of 306.9 /sqmi, of which 224 (39.7%) were owner-occupied, and 340 (60.3%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.7%; the rental vacancy rate was 2.3%. 738 people (41.2% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 1,025 people (57.2%) lived in rental housing units.

In popular culture

• Harold and Maude, (1971), a dark comedy about a death-obsessed young man and a vivacious older woman, filmed scenes at Holy Cross Cemetery and elsewhere on the Peninsula.
• Colma (1998), the fourth studio album released by guitarist Buckethead, makes reference to the town of Colma.
• Alive in Necropolis (2008), a novel by Doug Dorst.
• Colma: The Musical (2007) is an American independent film that was shot on location in Colma and Daly City.

References

References

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