The Historical Society of Long Beach (HSLB) will guide residents through the afterlife with its 30th annual Historical Cemetery Tour, held at the Sunnyside and Municipal cemeteries on Halloween.
The self-guided tour has a “choose your adventure” format and runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The tour features seven stories from performances by community theater actors portraying the lives of people lying at rest. Gravesites, vignettes, displays and timelines of the city’s LGBTQIA+ trailblazers, political movers and shakers and more will adorn the fence separating Sunnyside and Municipal Cemeteries.
“It’s a family-friendly day in a beautiful green space, learning about Long Beach and the people who’ve lived here and the history of the city and the way that the people have moved in the city,” said Jen Malone, Deputy Director of HSLB.
The tour’s centerpiece is the lively stories it tells, reflecting upon the city’s diverse history from immigrant trailblazers to civil servants and the Cambodian American community’s resilience.
For example, one featured vignette tells the love story of Farmers and Merchants Bank founder Charles Walker and Carrie Ziegler, who met at a Tulare Thanksgiving dinner. “The Five Weddings and a Golf Pro” shares the story of Dick Linares, a professional golfer who fought to get the city to purchase a recreational park, while his sister has married five times.
Another standout story is Abram Cleag’s, who was born into slavery, freed by President Abraham Lincoln and made his home in Long Beach, where he and his wife raised their wayward daughter and protected their young granddaughter in the early 1900s.
After Cleag left the plantation where he was held, he joined the Union Army as a member of the Colored Brigade. His story is told through the lens of his wife and granddaughter, and both he and his granddaughter are buried at the Long Beach Municipal Cemetery.
“Because he was a member of the army, his headstone is missing. One of our historians and community partners worked together with the family to try and get a new headstone for him that was provided by the military, and it still is not in place.” Malone said. “He was a janitor who worked at City Hall in the early 1900s, and the city loved him so much that they fought to get him buried there.”
Over the years, the cemetery tour has drawn 1,000 to 1,500 attendees annually, making it one of the city’s biggest single-day local history events. Malone recommends that attendees arrive early to experience the event in its entirety and familiarize themselves with the people who were there before them.
“It just brings a lot of different kinds of people together. I think people are always surprised at how many different kinds of people there are, and it’s not a spooky event at all,” Malone said. “There’s always something new to learn about history; that history keeps giving in Long Beach.”
Presale tickets are $32.50, with prices rising to $45 on the day of the event; kids’ tickets for ages 5-18 are $10 and kids under 5 are free. They recommend carpooling as limited parking will be available at Willow Springs Park. Bike parking is also available.
For more information about the cemetery tour and to purchase tickets, visit their website hslb.org/historical-cemetery-tour.
