Staff outlines preservation work, volunteer roles and lantern tours at Sacramento’s Historic City Cemetery

Sarah Musser, park maintenance superintendent with Youth, Parks and Community Enrichment, gave the commission an overview of the Historic City Cemetery on April 16, calling it one of Sacramento’s oldest and most culturally significant public spaces.

Musser said the cemetery, established in 1849, functions as both a burial ground and a public park/outdoor museum that hosts guided tours, educational programming and an annual lantern tour in October. She described ongoing maintenance and preservation work led by city staff and augmented by the Old City Cemetery Committee, a nonprofit partner, a small volunteer base and sheriff-supervised work crews. Musser said the cemetery allows limited cremation burials within existing family plots and that staff are seeking to grow volunteer involvement for landscaping, monument restoration and respectful beautification projects.

Vice Chair Robbins and other commissioners asked about volunteer tasks and logistics; Musser said volunteers typically perform light landscaping, tree planting, cleanup and occasional monument work coordinated with staff. She invited commissioners to tour the cemetery and asked those interested in volunteering to contact staff. Musser noted that some features are privately owned and adjacent (Masonic and Oddfellows cemeteries) even though they are near the Historic City Cemetery.

Ending: The commission received the update; no vote was required.