Graceland Cemetery

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Graceland Cemetery
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location: 4001 N. Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois
Coordinates: 41°57′16.2″N 87°39′44.2″W / 41.9545, -87.662278Coordinates: 41°57′16.2″N 87°39′44.2″W / 41.9545, -87.662278
Area: 48 ha (119 acres)
Built/Founded: 1860
Added to NRHP: January 18, 2001

Graceland Cemetery is a large Victorian-era cemetery located in the north side community area of Lakeview, in the city of Chicago, Illinois, USA. Established in 1860, its main entrance is at Clark and Irving Park. The Sheridan stop on the Red Line is the nearest CTA "L" station.

In the 19th century a train to the north suburbs occupied the eastern edge of the cemetery where the "L" now rides. The line was also used to carry mourners to funerals, in specially rented funeral cars, requiring an entry on the east wall, now closed. At that point the cemetery would have been well outside the city limits of Chicago. After the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, Lincoln Park which had been the city's cemetery, was deconsecrated and the bodies moved here. The edge of the pond around Daniel Burnham's burial island is lined with broken headstones transported from Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park then became a recreational area, with a single mausoleum remaining, the "Couch tomb".

The cemetery is typical of those that reflect Queen Victoria's reconception of the early 19th century "graveyard". Instead of poorly-maintained headstones, and bodies buried on top of each other, on an ungenerous parcel of land; the cemetery became a pastoral landscaped park dotted with memorial markers, with room left over for picnics, a common usage of the cemetery.

Many of the cemetery's tombs are of great architectural or artistic interest, including the Getty Tomb, the Martin Ryerson mausoleum (both designed by architect Louis Sullivan, who is also buried here), and the Schoenhofen Pyramid Mausoleum. The industrialist George Pullman was buried at night, in a lead-lined coffin within an elaborately reinforced steel-and-concrete vault, to prevent his body from being exhumed and desecrated by labor activists.

Along with its other famous burials the cemetery is notable for two statues by sculptor Lorado Taft, Eternal Silence for the Graves family plot and the Crusader that marks Victor Lawson's final resting place.

Graceland is one of three notable 19th century cemeteries which were previously well outside the city limits; the other two being Rosehill (further north), and Oak Woods (South of Hyde Park) which includes a major monument to Confederate civil war dead.

In addition to the larger ones noted above,directly south of Graceland is the German Protestant Wunder's Cemetery & Jewish Graceland Cemetery (divided by a fence), established in 1851. Also, Saint Boniface Cemetery is four blocks north of Graceland at the corner of Clark & Lawrence.

The cemetery's walls are topped off with barbed wire, as well as razor wire in some locations.

Contents

[edit] Notable burials

The mausoleum of Potter Palmer and Bertha Honoré Palmer
The mausoleum of Potter Palmer and Bertha Honoré Palmer
Getty Tomb for Cary Eliza Getty, designed by Louis Sullivan, 1890
Getty Tomb for Cary Eliza Getty, designed by Louis Sullivan, 1890

[edit] Sources & resources

  • Hucke, Matt and Ursela bielski, Graveyards of Chicago: the People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries, Lake Claremont Press, Chicago, 1999
  • Lanctot, Barbara, A Walk Through Graceland Cemetery, Chicago Architectural Foundation, Chicago, Illinois, 1988

[edit] See also

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[edit] External links