Pascual Marquez Family Cemetery
The Pascual Marquez Family Cemetery, located in Santa Monica Canyon, is the family burial ground of one of the original grantees of the Rancho Boca de Santa Monica. “This is not only one of the original pioneer settlements, but one of the last which survives in the midst of modern developments.” “The cemetery grounds consist of a rectangular lot surrounded by a masonry and stucco wall built in 1926 by architect John Byers. Belonging to the Marquez family, this private family cemetery dates to the 1840s and formed part of the Rancho Boca de Santa Monica, a Mexican land grant given to Francisco Marquez in 1839. The cemetery is…the oldest private family cemetery in Los Angeles.” The cemetery and a separate piece of property owned by descendant Rosemary Marquez Romero Miano are the last remnants of the original ranch to be still owned by the Marquez family. The rancho originally extended along the beach from Topanga Road to Montana Avenue and then east. “The Marquez and Reyes families lived…in the Canyon, under the flags of three countries: Spain, Mexico, and the United States, without ever leaving their Rancho homes.” The first burials in the cemetery were infants of rancho grantee