
Graceland Cemetery
Beautiful and serene, Graceland Cemetery is a treasured oasis in the center of our bustling city. Notables…
As you pass through the stone and iron gates of Graceland Cemetery, you leave the city behind and enter a peaceful refuge.
Amid the rolling hills and winding roads, you’ll find the graves of hundreds of Chicago’s most notable residents.
Chicago’s first city cemetery was located on what is now the southern end of Lincoln Park. Burials began there in 1843, when early settlers buried their dead on the banks of the Chicago River. By the late 1850s, the growing city was encroaching on the cemetery, which was also getting crowded. A popular medical theory of the time led people to believe that cemeteries were the source of epidemic disease.
Health concerns, overcrowding, the growth of the Rural Cemetery Movement and Chicagoans’ desire for a lakeside park were a few of the reasons that additional plot sales were prohibited as of May, 1859. Disinterment began the same year, and remains were transferred to several newly established and more desirable cemeteries. One of those cemeteries was Graceland.
Founded in 1860 by attorney Thomas B. Bryan, Graceland was a new type of cemetery. It wasn’t just a utilitarian place to bury the dead. Lush, sculptured, pastoral landscapes with sweeping vistas and carefully chosen plantings created a parklike atmosphere. These “rural cemeteries” offered dignity to the dead and pleasure to their living visitors. Some visitors took picnics and enjoyed a stroll after paying their respects.
Many notable landscape designers had a hand in shaping Graceland:
Graceland was the cemetery of choice for many of Chicago’s best known citizens:
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Beautiful and serene, Graceland Cemetery is a treasured oasis in the center of our bustling city. Notables…
During Chicago’s period of growth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, women played a hugely…
As we explore a venerable section of Graceland Cemetery, we’ll discuss the meanings of and changes…