The Builder's Creed...
The Great Mausoleum
Dr. Hubert L. Eaton was always precise and exact when he was creating each new addition to Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks. He wanted always to make things visible and clear and also to perhaps create an aura of awesome wonder as viewed through the various art forms so tastefully featured throughout each of the Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks in Southern California. In Dr. Eaton’s words he wanted this magnificent art “To inspire and uplift you; to encourage you to focus on God, The Creator of all things.”
From the very beginning, when Dr. Eaton first assumed ownership of the small cemetery that would evolve into the large and beautiful and inspiring Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale, CA, Dr. Eaton engraved forever in a massive stone tablet at the entrance to The Great Mausoleum what he would call “The Builder’s Dream and The Builder’s Creed.”
From the very beginning, when Dr. Eaton first assumed ownership of the small cemetery that would evolve into the large and beautiful and inspiring Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale, CA, Dr. Eaton engraved forever in a massive stone tablet at the entrance to The Great Mausoleum what he would call “The Builder’s Dream and The Builder’s Creed.”
The Builder's Creed
+ THE BUILDER’S CREED +
I Believe In A Happy Eternal Life.
I Believe Those Of Us Who Are Left Behind Should Be Glad In The Certain Belief That Those Gone Before, Who Believed In Him, Have Entered Into That Happier Life.
I Believe, Most Of All, In A Christ That Smiles And Loves You And Me.
I Therefore Know The Cemeteries Of Today Are Wrong, Because They Depict An End, Not A Beginning. They Have Consequently Become Unsightly Stone yards Full Of Inartistic Symbols And Depressing Customs; Places That Do Nothing For Humanity Save A Practical Act, And Not That Well.
I Therefore Prayerfully Resolve On This New Year’s Day, 1917, That I Shall Endeavor To Build Forest Lawn As Different, As Unlike Other Cemeteries As Sunshine Is To Darkness, As Eternal Life Is Unlike Death. I Shall Try To Build At Forest Lawn A Great Park, Devoid Of Misshapen Monuments And Other Customary Signs Of Earthly Death, But Filled With Towering Trees, Sweeping Lawns, Splashing Fountains, Singing Birds, Beautiful Statuary, Cheerful Flowers, Noble Memorial Architecture With Interiors Full Of Light And Color, And Redolent Of The World’s Best History And Romances.
I Believe These Things Educate And Uplift A Community.
Forest Lawn Shall Become A Place Where Lovers New And Old Shall Love To Stroll And Watch The Sunset’s Glow, Planning For The Future Or Reminiscing Of The Past; A Place Where Artists Study And Sketch; Where School Teachers Bring Happy Children To See Things They Read Of In Books, Where Little Churches, Triumphant In The Knowledge That From Their Pulpits Only Words Of Love Can Be Spoken; Where Memorialization Of Loved Ones In Sculptured Marble And Pictorial Glass Shall Be Encouraged But Controlled By Acknowledged Artists; A Place Where The Sorrowing Will Be Soothed And Strengthened Because It Will Be God’s Garden. A Place That Shall Be Protected By An Immense Endowment Care Fund, The Principal Of Which Can Never Be Expended—Only The Income Therefrom Used To Care For And Perpetuate This Garden of Memory.
This Is The Builder’s Dream; This Is The Builder’s Creed.
I Believe In A Happy Eternal Life.
I Believe Those Of Us Who Are Left Behind Should Be Glad In The Certain Belief That Those Gone Before, Who Believed In Him, Have Entered Into That Happier Life.
I Believe, Most Of All, In A Christ That Smiles And Loves You And Me.
I Therefore Know The Cemeteries Of Today Are Wrong, Because They Depict An End, Not A Beginning. They Have Consequently Become Unsightly Stone yards Full Of Inartistic Symbols And Depressing Customs; Places That Do Nothing For Humanity Save A Practical Act, And Not That Well.
I Therefore Prayerfully Resolve On This New Year’s Day, 1917, That I Shall Endeavor To Build Forest Lawn As Different, As Unlike Other Cemeteries As Sunshine Is To Darkness, As Eternal Life Is Unlike Death. I Shall Try To Build At Forest Lawn A Great Park, Devoid Of Misshapen Monuments And Other Customary Signs Of Earthly Death, But Filled With Towering Trees, Sweeping Lawns, Splashing Fountains, Singing Birds, Beautiful Statuary, Cheerful Flowers, Noble Memorial Architecture With Interiors Full Of Light And Color, And Redolent Of The World’s Best History And Romances.
I Believe These Things Educate And Uplift A Community.
Forest Lawn Shall Become A Place Where Lovers New And Old Shall Love To Stroll And Watch The Sunset’s Glow, Planning For The Future Or Reminiscing Of The Past; A Place Where Artists Study And Sketch; Where School Teachers Bring Happy Children To See Things They Read Of In Books, Where Little Churches, Triumphant In The Knowledge That From Their Pulpits Only Words Of Love Can Be Spoken; Where Memorialization Of Loved Ones In Sculptured Marble And Pictorial Glass Shall Be Encouraged But Controlled By Acknowledged Artists; A Place Where The Sorrowing Will Be Soothed And Strengthened Because It Will Be God’s Garden. A Place That Shall Be Protected By An Immense Endowment Care Fund, The Principal Of Which Can Never Be Expended—Only The Income Therefrom Used To Care For And Perpetuate This Garden of Memory.
This Is The Builder’s Dream; This Is The Builder’s Creed.
