Angeles Abbey, Compton, CA, 1955
Three palms on one side, two on the other and an almost-centered flagless flagpole compliment one of Southern California’s least known architectural treasures.
According to the legend the builder of the Angeles Abbey Memorial Park sent two architects to India in 1922 for inspiration. Two years later this Byzantine-Moorish-Spanish hybrid style Castle-esque mausoleum, was standing in stark contrast in the middle of a patchwork quilt homes and of small farms in one of Los Angeles oldest suburban cities.
I discovered this amazing place quite by chance one day about a decade or so ago when I got a bee in my bonnet to go check out my mother’s childhood home in Compton. After driving back and forth a few times in front of the ‘ol house and being reminded of some of my earliest childhood memories I decided to drive around the neighborhood. Two short blocks later I found this. I was shocked! I drove around the tombstone decorated grounds a bit but was a too chicken to get out and go inside.
A couple of months later I couldn’t stand the suspense any longer so decided to go back and this time go in. Walking inside felt like walking into a European Cathedral. Spectacular old world style hand painted motifs repeating on walls, wood beams, and balconies were peeling form age. Stained glass windows colorized the late afternoon sunbeams that illuminated the one thousand crypts. In a dusty room upstairs urns filled floor to ceiling glass front cabinets. Another room housed babies and children.
And as if one castle in Compton isn’t enough there is another one behind it. The second little tower that you see sticking up on the right is actually on the slightly smaller sister mausoleum behind this one. It was built in the late ‘20s.
Discovering architectural treasures and oddities is always a joy to behold. But finding them in places where they are least expected is even better. Angeles Abbey is located at 1515 E. Compton Blvd. Compton, CA 90221-3499. Call first to make sure they are open 310-631-1141
Here’s to The Angeles Abbey, treasures in unexpected places, and YOU!
I have enjoyed reading these comments and I too walked past the mausoleum on my way home from Roosevelt Jr. high. We attempted to get in the elevator a few times but we’re always too scared. Also I do recall a man that scared us too which made us turn and run out. This was back in the 50s.
I lived two blocks east of the Mausoleum on San Vincente St. when I attended Roosevelt Junior High School. I cut through the yard on my way to school or the Tower theater and one day I and some friends got up the nerve to enter and look around. It was scary but sacred. We were teenagers but never had a thought of doing any damage as would probably happen now unless it were kept locked. The years were 1946-’49.
I grew up in Compton. My friend Terri and I used to walk past Angeles Abbey quite often going between her house and my house. (This was in the mid-1960′s.) We lived about two miles apart. We would knock on the concrete wall by the sidewalk as we walked along. One time someone (or something) knocked back. We never walked on that side of the road again. My mother, who moved from Michigan to Compton in the early 1940′s, went into the abbey with a friend – they were teenagers – and they were practically scared to death by a maintenance worker who jumped out at them from behind a curtain in a doorway. They never entered the abbey again after that. As kids we were told that the blood that was drained out of the deceased people was poured onto the plants around the abbey and that’s why they were always so beautiful. I found out years later that was not true. It was truly a scary place for kids . . . especially as Halloween drew near. But as I grew up I realized it was a just a beautiful, quiet, peaceful place that I eventually enjoyed wandering through and around now and then. I think about Angeles Abbey now and then. I’m glad I looked it up online.
Hello,
I have been visiting the Abbey since I was a small child. My grandfather, grandmother, great uncle and two uncles from my Sims family are entombed in the small mausoleum on the left.
My mother grew up in Compton and unknowingly she and her cousins played around the buildings which already held my father’s father and youngest brother.
I never found anything scary about the Abbey. It seemed to be a place of peace to me. We came in reverence for those who had passed. I have not been back in many years and hope it is in some kind of decent condition today.
Hi,
I can attest to the beauty of this unusual building having seen it throughout my childhood in Compton. When I went to the Tower Theatre across the street from the Abbey,or El Jay Drive In was all were on the corner of Compton Blvd and Atlantic Blvd. Whenever I went to the movies, on a dare I would go into the scary abbey and run the elevator up and down and it almost always quit between floors and I would push the buttons like a madwoman trying to get off. My Sister wouldn’t go with me on the elevator and waited below screaming till I got back down. We were so scared each time, but I could hardly wait till the next trip. This story is one of the family favorites for us to tell on each other.
My brother is interred in one of the buildings at Angeles Abbey, but I cannot find any records. He was interred there in 1945. Any suggestions on finding his records? The oldest building is locked and can’t be entered, but I think he is in the second building. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
THE THREE MAUSOLEUMS AT ANGELES ABBEY ALSO REPRESENT SEVERAL OF LA’S FINEST TILE MANUFACTURERS. THE ONE ON THE RIGHT IS CALCO TILE, MADE IN SOUTH GATE. THE ONE IN THE BACK IS AMERICAN ENCAUSTIC TILE, MADE IN VERNON. AND I BELIEVE THE MAIN MAUSOLEUM IS CALCO AND CLAYCRAFT. THERE IS A LOT OF TILE INSIDE THE MAIN BUILDING, BUT NOT IN THE OTHERS. THEY HAVE BEEN THROUGH SOME VERY BAD FINANCIAL TIMES OVER THE YEARS. THERE IS A VERY LARGE ONION DOME ON THE BACK OF THE MAIN BUILDING, AND I BELIEVE IT WAS ONCE COVERED WITH ISLAMIC STYLE TILE. THERE IS NO TILE LEFT ON THE DOME NOW. IN IT’S DAY, ANGELES ABBEY WAS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE THREE MOST BEAUTIFUL MAUSOLEUMS IN LA COUNTY. THE OTHERS WERE FOREST LAWN, GLENDALE, AND SUNNYSIDE MEMORIAL IN LONG BEACH. SUNNYSIDE, IN LONG BEACH, NOW BELONGS TO FOREST LAWN, AND THE MAUSOLEUM THERE IS ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. GLADDING MCBEAN AND CALCO TILE, TIFFANY STAINED GLASS, HAND PAINTED WALLS AND CEILINGS, ONE OF ONLY THREE FUCAULT PENDULUNMS IN LA, ETC. WELL WORTH A TRIP!!! I OWN THE HOME OF RUFUS KEELER, MANAGER OF THE MALIBU POTTERIES, SO I KNOW A LITTLE BIT ABOUT TILE. THANKS FOR YOUR TIME.
I enjoyed your Downtown tour and look forward to your lecture at the Gamble House
Jack
Thanks, Charles for that bit of history! This is where the remains of my grandparents are interred. You gave me an appreciation for a place I thought was only weird.
This is truly an undiscovered treasure, indeed! Thanks for letting us all know about it. Who woulda thought…in Compton of all places. Very interesting. Gotta go see this one!
I was raised in nearby Lynwood and remember the Abbey well. Went by it many times but never went in. I think the flagpole was in the center, the photographer just shifted a bit north so it wouldn’t cut the building. Thanks For the memory!
I work in Compton, make the drive in from Placentia every day, and see the “Mosque” regularly. It would be kind of spookly to go in. I went in the one in Long Beach on Cherry and San Antonio when we buried my Great Aunt a few years ago and it was kind of spookly in there. Thanks for a great monthly slide!
Hi Charles, As I was viewing this slide, it looked very familiar to me. I have never seen the Abbey in Compton, but there is a similar one in Anaheim called Melrose Abbey on Manchester Ave. next to the 5 freeway. I wonder if they were built by the same builder? Next time you come to Disneyland, go check out Melrose Abbey.
Hi Charles,
I remember this Abbey well! I walked by it every day on my way to and from Roosevelt Elementary School, which we called “Little Roosevelt”, to distinguish it from Roosevelt Junior High which was also located in Compton. I always though the architecture was beautiful, but a little spooky too. I also too a car trip back to my old haunts in Compton last year. My how things have changed!! Thanks for the memories!!
P.S. There was a Drive-in diner called Jerry’s BBQ on Long Beach Blvd. in Compton. They had carhops with the best BBQ pork sandwiches and cherry cokes. If you every come across any photos of it I would love to see one.
Wow! I work in Compton, and I can see these towers when I drive about the city. I always wondered what they were; I thought the buildings were a mosque. Thanks for telling a great story!
That is a great discovery indeed. Not so crazy about the middle octogonal tower, Should have been another graceful elongated dome instead. But a well preserved architectural gem nevertheless. I think the colors it originally had in the moldings suit it much better than the primary out-of-the-tube ones it has today.