More than a century ago, a group of San Diegans gathered to establish Greenwood Memorial Park & Mortuary. Edgar G. Davies, William Rodgers, Ralph Granger, George W. Marston, Alfred Haines, Ralph E. Jenny, William Kettner and H. J. Parsons provided the secure financial base from which the cemetery would grow.

Greenwood Memorial Park & Mortuary occupies 125 acres on a strategic site five miles east of downtown and situated on a slight hill with an ocean view, directly east of Mount Hope Cemetery. Over the years, development of Greenwood included several chapels, a mortuary, a crematory, three mausoleums, a collection of international and rare vegetation, and a flower shop.

Nature has worked untiringly with skilled engineers in transforming this property into a garden of surpassing loveliness. Most of the site has been landscaped, with palm-lined drives, sprawling lawns, graceful, well-placed trees, shrubs, lagoons, flowers, and lakes dotted with colored lilies.

Many markers here tell a story about the deceased. Several families built private mausoleums, a symbol of prestige. Other families commissioned impressive upright markers. One gravesite features a magnificent bronze Angel of Death sitting in waiting, holding a wilting lily. Its sculptor, H. Augustus Lukeman, created several other important sculptures and memorials throughout the United States.

Another memorial within Greenwood remains somewhat of a mystery. A man purchased a cluster of sixteen gravesites and decorated each space with statuary consisting of angels, dogs and lambs made of granite and Italian marble, facing various directions. Two of the sites were dedicated to friends and two graves mark the remains of this man and his wife, but the rest remain empty.

When Cathedral Mausoleum was built in 1919, the acceptance of crypt burials was not yet popular on the West Coast. The idea caught on quickly and the demands for crypts grew at an unforeseen rate. The Cathedral Mausoleum grew to be one of the largest single building mausoleums in the United States. Alaskan marble, carefully matched when cut, forms unusual designs on the walls of the original section. With expansion, the use of a variety of marbles creates a different mood in each aisle. An abundance of stained glass windows and statuary provides additional atmosphere. Like the cemetery, this mausoleum contains the remains of numerous prominent San Diegans.

The demand for crypts necessitated an additional building. Construction began in 1957 on the Bible Mausoleum. Greenwood now contains two of the largest mausoleums in the United States.

Throughout the grounds, special areas are dedicated to various secular, religious and ethnic groups, including Greek, Jewish, Asian, Muslim, military, firefighters and various fraternal organizations, among others.