Graceland Cemetery is the final resting place for some of the biggest names in Chicago history, including architects Louis Sullivan and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and retail magnate Marshall Field. Most of the notable tombs lie around the lake, in the northern half of the 121 acres. Pick up a map at the entrance to navigate the swirl of streets.
Many of the memorials relate to the lives of the dead in symbolic and touching ways: National League founder William Hulbert lies under a baseball; hotelier Dexter Graves lies under a work titled Eternal Silence; and George Pullman, the railroad car magnate who sparked so much labor unrest, lies under a hidden fortress designed to prevent angry union members from digging him up.
Daniel Burnham, who did so much to design Chicago, gets his own island. Photographer Richard Nickel, who helped form Chicago’s budding preservation movement and was killed during the demolition of his beloved Chicago Stock Exchange Building, has a stone designed by admiring architects. Power couple Potter and Bertha Palmer also have a doozy memorial.
