Graceland Cemetery is a large Victorian-era cemetery located in the north side community area of Uptown, 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 Burhams burial island is lined with broken headstones transported from Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park then became a recreational area, with a single startling mausoleum remaining, the "Couch tomb."
The cemetery is typical of those that reflect Queen Victoria's reconception of the garish, 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 famous burials the cemtery is notable for two graves featuring Lorado Taft statues.
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.
The cemetery's walls are topped off with barbed wire, as well as razor wire in some locations.
Notable burials
- David Adler, architect
- Philip Danforth Armour, meat packing magnate
- John Peter Altgeld, Governor of Illinois
- Daniel H. Burnham, architect
- Fred A. Busse, mayor of Chicago
- Members of the William Deering family
- Augustus Dickens, brother of Charles Dickens (he died penniless in Chicago)
- Marshall Field, businessman, retailer
- Bob Fitzsimmons, Heavyweight boxing champion
- Melville Fuller, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court
- Elbert H. Gary, judge, chairman of U.S. Steel
- Bruce A. Goff, architect
- Carter Harrison, Sr., mayor of Chicago
- Carter Harrison, Jr., mayor of Chicago
- Henry Honore, businessman
- William Hulbert, president of baseball's National League
- Jack Johnson, Heavyweight boxing champion
- Fazlur Khan, architect
- William Kimball, Kimball Piano and Organ Company
- John Kinzie, Canadian pioneer, first white settler in the city of Chicago
- Cornelius Krieghoff, one of Canada's best known artists
- Frank Lowden, Governor of Illinois
- Marion Mahony Griffin, architect
- Cyrus McCormick, businessman, inventor
- Joseph Medill, publisher, mayor of Chicago
- Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, influential photographer, teacher, and founder of the New Bauhaus and Institute of Design in Chicago
- Richard Nickel, photographer, architectural historian and preservationist
- Ruth Page, dancer and choreographer
- Bertha Palmer, philanthropist
- Potter Palmer, businessman
- Allan Pinkerton, detective
- George Pullman, inventor and railway industrialist
- John Wellborn Root, architect
- Louis Sullivan, architect
- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architect
- Howard van Doren Shaw, architect
- Frederick Wacker, politician
- Kate Warne, first female detective, Allan Pinkerton employee