Clik here to view.
StockXchng image.
Not to beat a dead horse, but having unearthed numerous pioneer skeletons at the abandoned Placita churchyard, LA Plaza officials might want to think twice before messing with the spot any further. Construction crews assembling an amusement ride in Britain have apparently disturbed a similar old cemetery, resulting in menacing visits by a headless monk.
Here in Los Angeles, no charnel entities have materialized — yet. But boosters of the new LA Plaza de Cultura y Arte center are probably wishing they had a single ghostly friar to contend with rather than a horde of outraged poblador and Gabrielino descendants.
Even now with Placita cemetery excavation suspended, the chorus against the site’s development only continues to grow. The most recent voice to be added to the clamor is that of Clarence Mendelson, a direct descendant of Augustin Olvera, who according to this Star News article may or may not have been buried in the former graveyard.
Clik here to view.
Olvera; public domain.
Olvera, of course, was the eminent early Angeleno judge who, after California was ceded to the United States, presided over 1850s trials in his adobe on Vine (sometimes Wine) Street. Unable to speak English when he first took the bench, he conducted court business in Spanish, aided by a bilingual sherriff. Completing his term as judge, Olvera then went on to become a respected Los Angeles County supervisor and presidential elector.
After the judge’s death, the unpaved alleyway was extended in 1877 and renamed Olvera Street in his memory, making the possible desecration of his beloved Plaza-area Campo Santo especially ironic.
