Holy Cross Cemetery
The newly created Diocese of Los Angeles-San Diego dedicated Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City on Memorial Day, 1939. The memorial park occupies almost 200 acres of land that had been part of the large land grant of Rancho La Ballona. The Grotto in the southwest section of the cemetery, built mainly with red, volcanic rock, was the work of Ryozo F. Kado. He had moved to Los Angeles from Japan to study with Chotaro Nishimura, designer of the Royal Gardens in Tokyo. He rose above internment at Manzanar to eventually be in charge of creating all “shrines, grottos, waterfalls and rock gardens” for the area’s five Catholic cemeteries. Once the elaborate grotto was constructed, it became the most desirable real estate for departed, many notable, SoCal Catholics. One of the first celebrities to be buried there was Hungarian born Bela Lugosi.
Culver City, Los Angeles County
Photographer: Andrew Schmidt