Almanac note · History and culture
Colma became the Bay Area town where cemeteries shaped the map
Colma's cemetery story is unusual, memorable, and very local: a small town where burial grounds, flower shops, and monument businesses shaped the place.
Colma is one of California’s stranger small-town stories, but it is not a joke town. Its cemeteries became the thing that shaped the map, the businesses, and the way people know the place.
The story started when San Francisco was running out of cemetery room and looking south. Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery opened in Colma in 1887. By 1900, several more cemeteries had been established, and more followed in the next decade.
That changed the town’s everyday life. Colma became known for burial grounds, flower shops, monument businesses, and the steady work of caring for generations of families. It also became a place where Bay Area history sits out in the open, name by name, row by row.
That is why Colma feels different from nearby Peninsula towns. It is small in living population, but big in memory. If you drive along El Camino Real, the cemeteries are part of the town’s main identity. They are the local story.
Where to see it
Town of Colma history pages and the cemetery landscape along El Camino Real.
Official sources
Official source trail
Reviewed July 1, 2026
California Porch explains the path. The official source is still the place to confirm the current rule, fee, form, map, deadline, or office decision.
Use the official page before you spend money, file paperwork, rely on a deadline, or change a property.
Connected places
Where it fits on the map
Open a place page for the county layer, nearby places, and other California entries tied to that local page.
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