Oakhill Cemetery - San Jose, CA

Oakhill Memorial Park in San Jose, CA

Oakhill Memorial Park is is the oldest secular cemetery in California, having been in constant use since 1839. In 1949 surveyors laid out 25 acres for a Protestant and Catholic cemetery with an additional four acres for a Potter's Field. In 1853 the Common (City) Council appointed two Protestants, two Catholics and two Jews to aid the County surveyor in selecting "enough ground with sufficient and separate space for each faith to bury its dead". By the end of 1958 the name Oak Hill Cemetery appears in City records and an ordinance was approved for its regulation. Many pioneers and prominent early citizens are buried on these lovely grounds.

These pictures and the information on the graves are meant to assist descendants, family historians and genealogists to find their relatives.

There is an excellent book, detailing the more prominent and historically well-known citizens buried here: A Walk Through the Past: San Jose's Oak Hill Memorial Park by Patricia Loomis. ISBN: 0-9662244-0-X, printed at The Press, 75 Notre Dame Avenue, San Jose, CA 95110 by the Argonauts Historical Society of San Jose. If a grave pictured is mentioned in Loomis, the page number is given for reference.

The address is

Oak Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Park
300 Curtner Avenue
San Jose, CA 95125
408-297-2447

This site is very much still under construction (initialized 5/30/2001), and the cemetery inventory is barely begun. Here is table of the first ~200 graves surveyed. If, whilst I work to get the images online, you find one of your ancestors here, please mail me and request an image.

ATTENTION! I lost my e-mailbox with all prior Oakhill requests. If you have an unfilled request, please get in touch with me. My apologies to everyone who is waiting.

Table of currently available photographs.