Graceland Cemetery
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Graceland Cemetery
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| Location | 4001 N. Clark Street,Chicago, Illinois |
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| Coordinates | 41°57′16.2″N 87°39′44.2″W / 41.954500°N 87.662278°WCoordinates: 41°57′16.2″N 87°39′44.2″W / 41.954500°N 87.662278°W |
| Area | 119 acres (48 ha) |
| Built | 1860 |
| NRHP Reference # | 00001628 |
| Added to NRHP | January 18, 2001 |
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 the intersection of Clark Street and Irving Park Road. The Sheridan stop on the Red Line is the nearest CTA "L" station. Among the cemetery's 121 acres, are the burial sites of several well-known Chicagoans.
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 some of the bodies moved here. 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 then became a recreational area, with a single mausoleum remaining, the "Couch tomb", containing the remains of Ira Couch. The Couch Tomb is probably the oldest extant structure in the City, everything else having been destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire.
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 cemeteries. The landscape architecture for Graceland was designed by Ossian Cole Simonds.
The cemetery's walls are topped off with wrought iron spear point fencing.
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