Graceland Cemetery

Coordinates: 41°57′16.2″N 87°39′44.2″W / 41.954500°N 87.662278°W / 41.954500; -87.662278
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For the former D.C. cemetery, see Graceland Cemetery (Washington, D.C.).

Graceland Cemetery
Graceland Cemetery is located in Chicago metropolitan area
Graceland Cemetery
Location in Chicago
Graceland Cemetery is located in Illinois
Graceland Cemetery
Location in Illinois
Graceland Cemetery is located in the United States
Graceland Cemetery
Location in United States
Location4001 N. Clark Street,[2]
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Coordinates41°57′16.2″N 87°39′44.2″W / 41.954500°N 87.662278°W / 41.954500; -87.662278
Area119 acres (48 ha)
Built1860
NRHP reference No.00001628[1]
Added to NRHPJanuary 18, 2001

Graceland Cemetery is a large historic garden cemetery located in the north side community area of Uptown, in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Established in 1860, its main entrance is at the intersection of Clark Street and Irving Park Road. Among the cemetery's 121 acres (49 ha) are the burial sites of several well-known Chicagoans.[3]

Graceland includes a naturalistic reflecting lake, surrounded by winding pathways, and its pastoral plantings have led it to become a certified arboretum of more than 2,000 trees. The cemetery's wide variety of burial monuments include a number designed by famous architects, several of whom are also buried in the cemetery.[4]

History[edit]

Establishment[edit]

Thomas Barbour Bryan, a Chicago businessman, established Graceland Cemetery in 1860 with the original 80-acre (32 ha) layout designed by Swain Nelson.[3][5] Bryan created it though a business partnership with William Butler Ogden, Sidney Sawyer, Edwin H. Sheldon, and George Peter Alexander Healy.[6][7] Bryan was the inaugural president of the Graceland Cemetery Association, with Healy serving as treasurer.[7]

Bryan had been motivated to establish a new cemetery after being disappointed by the "neglected and actually repulsive condition" of Chicago's City Cemetery when his son Daniel was buried there. He sought to create a "rural burying ground, more remote from and worthy of the city [of Chicago]." However, he placed these ambitions on hold after Rosehill Cemetery was opened by a group independent of Bryan's efforts. However, after he was offered the presidency of the company that operated Rosehill Cemetery, Bryan became motivated to pursue his shelved plans to establish his own cemetery.[8]

Bryan purchased land for his cemetery from the heirs of Justin Butterfield, collaborated with a number of landscape architects to design the cemetery, and fought challenges from the owners of adjacent properties who opposed his plans to transform the site into a cemetery.[8] In April 1860,[8] the first burial at Graceland Cemetery occurred when Bryan's late son Daniel was reinterred.[9][6] Graceland Cemetery was formally dedicated that August.[8]

19th century operations[edit]

Daniel Page Bryan's disinterment from City Cemetery was an early part of the a greater process of relocating the thousands of remains at the City Cemetery and transforming that site into a public park (today's Lincoln Park). The remains of approximately 2,000 individuals were relocated in this process, which was completed in the 1870s. Graceland and Rosehill were the reburial sites of many of these remains.[8][9] Graceland quickly established itself as a popular choice of burial site for prominent Chicagoans, with many opting to pre-erect burial monuments at the cemetery in for their future burials.[8] In 1870, Horace Cleveland designed curving paths, open vistas, and a small lake to create a park-like setting.[5]

In 1878, Bryan hired his nephew Bryan Lathrop as president. In 1879, the cemetery acquired an additional 35 acres (14 ha), and Ossian Cole Simonds was hired as its landscape architect to design the addition. Lathrop and Simonds wanted to incorporate naturalistic settings to create picturesque views that were the foundation of the Prairie style.[5][10][11] Lathrop was open to new ideas and provided opportunities for experimentation which led to Simonds use of native plants including oak, ash, witch hazel, and dogwood at a time when many viewed native plants as invasive. The Graceland Cemetery Association designated one section of the grounds to be devoid of monuments and instituted a review process led by Simonds for monuments and family plots.[12] Simonds later became the superintendent at Graceland until 1897, and continued on as a consultant until his death in 1931.[5][13]

20th cenutury[edit]

Graceland's attractive parklike appearance and elaborate burial monuments made it a popularly visited sight. Visitation became so large, that in the early 20th century its operators grew concerned that it had turned into too popular of a recreation grounds to the detriment of its character as a cemetery. For a period, it instituted a policy in which open admission to the grounds was only permitted on Sundays and holidays, with the remaining dates seeing access limited to ticket holders. Graceland's popularity as a pleasure grounds declined in subsequent decades, however, as public attitude moved away from seeing cemeteries as appropriate sites for leisure. At the same time, the condition of the cemetery began to suffer from neglect.[8]

21st century[edit]

In the early 21st century, attention was turned to repair the cemetery and restore much of its 19th-century landscape .[8] Graceland Cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 18, 2001.[14]

In 2020, the cemetery's landscape was damaged in a derecho (severe windstorm) that uprooted 50 mature trees. The cemetery was closed for several weeks thereafter to clean up the damage. Young trees were planted to replace the mature trees that were lost.[8]

Geography[edit]

Graceland Cemetery is an example of a rural cemetery, which is a style of cemetery characterized by landscaped natural areas. The concept of the rural cemetery emerged in the early 19th century as a response to overcrowding and poor maintenance in existing cemeteries in Europe.[15]

In the 19th century, a train to the north suburbs occupied the eastern edge of the cemetery, where the Chicago "L" train now runs. The line was also used to carry mourners to funerals, in specially rented funeral cars. As a result, there was an entry through the east wall, which has since been closed. When founded, the cemetery was 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 some of the bodies were reinterred to Graceland Cemetery.[citation needed]

The edge of the pond around Daniel Burnham's burial island was once lined with broken headstones and coping transported from Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park was redeveloped as a recreational area. A single mausoleum remains, the "Couch tomb", containing the remains of Ira Couch.[16] The Couch Tomb is probably the oldest extant structure in the city, everything else having been destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire.[17]

The cemetery's walls are topped off with wrought iron spear point fencing.[citation needed]

Notable tombs and monuments[edit]

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 in the cemetery), 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.[citation needed]

William Hulbert, the first president of the National League, has a monument in the shape of a baseball with the names of the original National League cities on it.[18]

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

The cemetery is also the final resting place of 31 victims of the Iroquois Theatre fire, in which more than 600 people died.

Notable burials[edit]

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

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ "National Register Information System – (#00001628)". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
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  4. ^ Kamin, Blair. "Column: Graceland Cemetery is an unexpected green oasis, with architecture galore. Don't miss these monuments". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on May 15, 2020. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d "Graceland Cemetery – IL | The Cultural Landscape Foundation". tclf.org. Archived from the original on February 22, 2020. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  6. ^ a b Funigiello, Philip J. (1994). Florence Lathrop Page: A Biography. University of Virginia Press. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-0-8139-1489-3. Archived from the original on May 28, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  7. ^ a b Johnson, Ray (May 7, 2014). "All Chicago Library Branches closed May 7th for H.H. Holmes Execution Day!". Chicago Now. Archived from the original on October 12, 2018. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Selzer, Adam (2022). Graceland Cemetery: Chicago Stories, Symbols, and Secrets. University of Illinois Press. doi:10.5406/j.ctv2p7j66k. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
  9. ^ a b Simon, Andreas (1894). Chicago: The Garden City ... Archived from the original on May 28, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
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  23. ^ Fox News. "'Mr. Cub' Ernie Banks laid to rest at Graceland Cemetery". fox32chicago.com. Archived from the original on November 4, 2016. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
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Further reading[edit]

  • Hucke, Matt; Bielski, Ursula (1999). Graveyards of Chicago: the people, history, art, and lore of Cook County Cemeteries. Lake Claremont Press: Chicago. ISBN 0964242648.
  • Kiefer, Charles D.; Achilles, Rolf; Vogel, Neil A. (June 18, 2000). "Graceland Cemetery" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, HAARGIS Database. Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Retrieved October 8, 2011.
  • Lanctot, Barbara (1992). A Walk Through Graceland Cemetery: A Chicago Architecture Foundation Walking Tour. Chicago, IL: Chicago Architecture Foundation. p. 6. ISBN 9780962056208.
  • Vernon, Christopher (2012). Graceland Cemetery: A Design History. Amherst, MA: Library of American Landscape History and University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 978-1-55849-926-3.

External links[edit]

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