SDSU Professor Unearths the Buried Tales

San Diego State University professor Seth Mallios unearths the secrets buried in San Diego’s cemeteries in his new book which reveals the results of the San Diego Gravestone Project. “Cemeteries of San Diego” is a haunting look at the long and intricate history of “America’s Finest City” retold by the ghosts of San Diego’s past.

“This book is as much about San Diego’s living as it is about its dead,” Mallios said. “Everyone living in San Diego has a link to the region’s past. We occupy the same space and continue to transform the local environment, and for many of us, San Diego will eventually be our own final resting place.”

Mallios, associate professor in SDSU’s department of anthropology, has spent the past five years directing the San Diego Gravestone Project surveying, inventorying, and analyzing all of the region’s historical grave markers. Approximately 500,000 deceased are said to be buried in the city’s nearly two dozen cemeteries and as Mallios reveals, less than half still exist above ground.

The findings of the San Diego Gravestone Project are detailed in Mallios’ new book “Cemeteries of San Diego” which will go on sale Monday, March 19. The book is part of Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America” series which celebrates the history of neighborhoods, towns and cities across the country. 

“Cemeteries of San Diego” tells the long-forgotten stories of cemeteries within the current city limits, including mission cemeteries, military cemeteries and pioneer cemeteries. 

Mallios also clears up some local myths like whether Dr. Seuss’ ashes are sealed inside his bonze statue at UCSD or if a Polish princess is buried under Highway 94.
“There are so many fascinating things we discovered during this project that really make San Diego what it is today,” Mallios said.

“San Diego’s dead truly tell the best stories about the history of this city. It’s a shame so many of these gravestones have been erased from the landscape, because along with them, San Diego has lost touch with its origin and its appreciation for its own history.”

Mallios and his team recorded more than 10,000 historic gravestone markers of various size and distinction. Between 1,650 and 3,400 individuals are buried in Calvary Cemetery in Mission Hills. Among those interred are some of San Diego’s earliest pioneers. As Mallios discovered, the cemetery was abandoned in 1968 and all of the gravestones were knocked down and unceremoniously dumped into a ravine at Mount Hope Cemetery.

“The only indication that Calvary Cemetery ever existed in Mission Hills is a memorial of about 140 gravestones at Pioneer Park,” Mallios said.

“People walking though there today probably don’t realize they are walking on the graves of several thousand individuals.”

The findings of the San Diego Gravestone Project are catalogued at SDSU’s South Coastal Information Center, of which Mallios is the director. In 2006, the project received the annual award for excellence in historic preservation from San Diego’s Historical Resources Board.

The South Coastal Information Center operates under contract with the State Office of Historic Preservation in response to federal (National Environmental Policy Act and National Historic Preservation Act) and state (California Environmental Quality Act) legislation enacted to provide for the preservation of historic resources. The major function of the SCIC is to accumulate and distribute archaeological and historical information in the form of archaeological site records, maps, reports, and electronic data for the county of San Diego.