Cemetery Is Named Historical Landmark
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A 110-year-old cemetery whose occupants include early San Fernando Valley settlers and Native Americans was declared a cultural and historic landmark Tuesday by the Los Angeles City Council.
The council’s decision makes the San Fernando Pioneer Cemetery in Sylmar only the fifth burial site included on the city’s list of 585 historical landmarks.
The status allows the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission to delay any demolition or major alterations of the cemetery for up to a year to give preservationists time to find ways to save it.
The City Council and the audience in the Council Chambers applauded the work of Edith Reber, a Sylmar resident who has been a voluntary caretaker for the cemetery for the past 10 years.
“I was really tickled to death when they announced it,” Reber said after the meeting. Reber is a member of the Daughters of the Golden West, which adopted the forgotten cemetery in 1958 and has worked ever since to preserve it.
The cemetery is a 3.8-acre corner lot at the intersection of Bledsoe Street and Foothill Boulevard.
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