Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Memorial cemetery in Hollywood Hills, United States
Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a cemetery in the Hollywood Hills, spread across several terraced sections with wide grass lawns. Bronze markers lie flat in the ground instead of standing upright, allowing the hills and trees around to stay visible and the landscape to feel open.
The land was film ranch country: D. W. Griffith shot much of The Birth of a Nation (1915) on the Providencia Ranch, and Charlie Chaplin filmed Sunnyside (1919) at the Lasky Ranch. After a four-year permit process, Hubert Eaton began construction in 1950; the first buildings went up in 1951 and burials started on March 4, 1952.
The cemetery's name comes from the Forest Lawn company founded by Hubert Eaton, who rejected upright monuments for open lawns and statuary. The Hall of Liberty holds a 162-foot Birth of Liberty mosaic of ten million Venetian glass pieces in twenty-five scenes from early America, 1619 to 1787, and a replica of Boston's Old North Church.
Maps at the entrance help visitors find their way around the large grounds and locate specific sections they want to see. Guided tours are available and take groups through different areas, explaining the layout and pointing out artworks along the way.
Instead of upright headstones, the site uses horizontal bronze markers that sit flush with the grass, keeping the view of the surrounding hills open. This decision shapes how the place looks and sets it apart from other cemeteries in the region.
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