Colma Town Hall

The City of Souls

The renovation of the Colma Town Hall was a well needed endeavor. But in its newly revised chapter it was vital that the historic council chamber maintain much of its original character. The update posed many challenges for modern accessibility, technology, and seismic strength. In the area of lighting design Cole Lighting was instrumental in fulfilling the integrity of its original architectural style.

Municipal Council Chamber

Town Hall Main Entrance

History of Colma

Events that lead up to the incorporation of the Town of Colma began seventy five years before the incorporation in 1924. On March 26, 1900, the City and County of San Francisco passed an ordinance that there were to be no more burials allowed, as the land was too valuable to be wasted on the cemeteries, it was to be used for the living. January 14, 1914, eviction notices were sent out to all cemeteries to remove their bodies and monuments. Colma then inherited hundreds of thousands of bodies. Many went into mass graves as there were no relatives to pay the $10.00 for removal. Today the city of 1,600 is home to over 1.5 million graves. Since the relocation of 150,000 graves in the early 1900s, the town's graveyards have grown at a pace far exceeding that of its living population. The morbid notoriety of having 1,000 times more dead residents than living ones has inspired Colma to invent a creative slogan. The city council officially gave the town the slogan of "it's great to be alive in Colma." Some notable people interred in Colma include: William Randolph Hearst, William Henry Crocker, Wyatt Earp, Levi Strauss, Joe DiMaggio, Frank Crosetti, Abigail Folger, Vince Guaraldi, Charles De Young, and A.P. Giannini.