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impulsereaderAlmost all pictures were taken by my Kurt Russell. All quoted text comes from A Walk Through Graceland Cemetery: A Chicago Architecture Foundation Walking Tour by Barbara Lanctot. Any errors or typos are mine alone.
Every year on my birthday we do ‘something’ and in 2011 we took a walking tour of Graceland Cemetery, self-guided by the above-named book. It was a lovely day and we took lots of pictures.
1. Eli Williams 1799-1881
“The starting point of our walk is the grave of one of the early settlers of Chicago. Eli Williams came here from Connecticut in the early 1830s when the population was about 200. He ran a store, made money in the booming real estate market, built a hotel, took an active part in civic affairs and died a wealthy man.”
“The vine-covered statue of a woman holding a cross is a good example of Victorian cemetery memorials. Along with their movement to reform cemeteries, the Victorians placed a great emphasis on the ceremonies surrounding death. Lavish funerals became the rule, and sentimental figures such as this one were often part of the extravagant memorials erected over the graves.”
The photo in the book is in fact extravagantly vine-covered; however, on the day we were there it was not as bedazzled.
2. Dexter Graves 1789-1844
"The bronze figure - often called the Statue of Death - was entitled Eternal Silence by its creator, sculptor Lorado Taft, whose monumental Fountain of Time still stands at the west end of the University of Chicago Midway. At the base of the statue are Taft's signature and the year of completion, 1909."
"Just south of Eternal Silence is the Jenney plot. Engineer-architect William Le Baron Jenney invented the skyscraper. In the Home Insurance Building, which he built in 1884, Jenney pioneered the use of the skeleton frame and forever changed the course of architecture."
"In 1982, the 150th anniversary of Jenney's birth, the Chicago Architecture Foundation announced a national design competition for an appropriate monument to mark the last resting place of the father of the skyscraper."
3. John Kinzie 1763-1828
"Here are the very beginnings of Chicago history. The words on the stone are somewhat faded, for this limestone marker has withstood a century and a half of Chicago weather. The modern headstone in front of it bears a clearer inscription. It records the name, date of birth and date of death of trader John Kinzie, the first permanent white settler of Chicago."
"Kinzie and his family remained until 1812. After war was declared against the British in that year, the occupants of Fort Dearborn and the surrounding area were ordered to evacuate. As they did so, they were massacred by the Indians. The Kinzies, however, escaped to Michigan."
"When Kinzie died in 1828, he was buried in the Fort Dearborn cemetery. Later, he was moved to the city burial grounds on the north side and then, as the expanding city once more established a new burial ground, to the lakefront cemetery. When Lincoln Park was developed there, he was moved again, this time to the Kinzie plot here in Graceland."
This is a lot of moving for our friend who avoided being massacred by Native Americans.
We also saw here one of the classic Victorian tree sculptures which always had bits of bark peeled away to reveal writing.
Graceland also has these interesting masses of flat headstones, all done in different times and styles but ending up together. The result is so very mosaic floor that it's spooky.
And - I think these are meant to be dogs...
"Our next stop is the grave of boxer Robert Fitzsimmons, but before we get there, we'll pass Mausoleum Row."
"Tombs, just like any other structure, often followed whatever style happened to be in fashion. Of course, the choice also depended upon the client's wealth and good taste. The people buried here generally seem to have had a fair amount of both."
4. Robert Fitzsimmons 1862-1917
"Boxing champion Fitzsimmons, an Englishman who grew up in New Zealand, had the distinction of winning titles in three divisions. In 1891, he won the middleweight title. On St. Patrick's day in 1897, he became the heavyweight champion by knocking out Irishman James J. Corbett. Fitzsimmons, who weighed only about 160 pounds, floored Corbett with his famous solar plexus punch. In 1903, he won the light-heavyweight title.
The original Fitzsimmons headstone was replaced by a red granite one in 1973. An article about the boxer in the Chicago Daily News had prompted a reader to call the newspaper's attention to the fact that Fitzsimmons' name was misspelled on his headstone (the middle s was missing)."
We had to venture off the path for this one and we could have missed it but there were some other people looking for it as well. My Kurt Russell spotted it first, though - sending more kudos his way...
5. Jack Johnson 1878-1946
"On Christmas Day in 1908, Johnson knocked out Tommy Burns in a prizefight in Australia and became the first black boxer to win the world heavyweight championship. He lost the title in 1915 to Jess Willard in a 26-round fight in Cuba. Johnson said later that he threw the fight to get back into the good graces of those who hated him. Hated him because he dared to marry a white woman. Whites had searched everywhere for someone - "the great white hope" - to beat him.
Johnson died after an auto accident near Raleigh, NC, in 1946. He lies in a family plot he purchased in 1912 for the burial of his wife, Etta. A large stone bears the name "Johnson." In front of it, to one side, is a small headstone with the inscription, "Etta, beloved wife of Jack A. Johnson, 1881-1912." Johnson is buried next to Etta, but his grave is unmarked.
In 1969, the cast of The Great White Hope came to Graceland in chartered buses, brought flowers and listened to a eulogy by the actor who was portraying the fighter. The group had also planned to put a headstone on Johnson's grave, but the family objected, calling the whole thing a callous public relations stunt."
6. Victor Lawson 1850-1925
"Lorado Taft sculpted this larger-than-life Crusader in 1931 for the grave of newspaper publisher Victor Fremont Lawson. Lawson's Chicago Daily News was a paper that took pride in its political independence and its factual reporting. It was the first paper west of New York to sell for only a penny. Its Chicago competitors cost three or five cents."
"The Kroeschells' rough-edged marker, across the road from Lawson's grave, looks as if part of it might have been torn away by some inexplicable force. No, it started out this way. This kind of monument symbolizes that a life has been broken, torn asunder by death."
"Near the Kroeschells' plot is the Hutchinson monument decorated with a bronze bas-relief, A Man of Sorrows. Charles Hutchinson was a banker and the first president of the Art Institute. The panel is signed n the lower right corner by its sculptor, A. Faggi. The work, with its Christ figure, is similar to the Stations of the Cross that Faggi did for the church of St. Thomas the Apostle on the city's south side.
7. John Root 1850-91
"Southerner John Wellborn Root came to Chicago in 1871 with a degree in civil engineering and a year's experience in a New York architectural firm."
Here he meets Burnham and we begin to see the beginning of the school of architects which was so very important to Chicago's development. The guide harkens back to Jenney - the father of the skyscraper.
"These men were in the forefront of what came to be called the Chicago School of Architecture. It was not a school in the literal sense, of course. It was a group of architects who, instead of adhering to tradition and looking to the past for architectural models, used a new technology - iron and steel, a skeleton frame, fireproofing, the elevator - to create a new kind of building, the skyscraper.
John Root was an important part of the Chicago School, but his role ended abruptly. He died of pneumonia at the age of 41, just as he and Burnham were beginning to get involved in planning for the Columbian Exposition of 1893.
Root had spent his career breaking away from architectural tradition, but his Graceland monument is wholly traditional. Members of his firm designed a Celtic cross because he had admired those he had seen in English cemeteries. Charles Atwood chose as a model the crosses left by the Druids, and Jules Wegman did the design work. Although Celtic crosses were usually carved in sandstone, this one was done in a more durable red Scottish granite so it could better withstand Chicago's climate. A panel on the face of the cross contains one of Root's drawings, the entrance to the Phoenix Building (demolished in 1959)."
Sadly, not many Burnham & Root buildings still stand.
To continue the tour please go on to the next journal entry.
Every year on my birthday we do ‘something’ and in 2011 we took a walking tour of Graceland Cemetery, self-guided by the above-named book. It was a lovely day and we took lots of pictures.
1. Eli Williams 1799-1881
“The starting point of our walk is the grave of one of the early settlers of Chicago. Eli Williams came here from Connecticut in the early 1830s when the population was about 200. He ran a store, made money in the booming real estate market, built a hotel, took an active part in civic affairs and died a wealthy man.”
“The vine-covered statue of a woman holding a cross is a good example of Victorian cemetery memorials. Along with their movement to reform cemeteries, the Victorians placed a great emphasis on the ceremonies surrounding death. Lavish funerals became the rule, and sentimental figures such as this one were often part of the extravagant memorials erected over the graves.”
The photo in the book is in fact extravagantly vine-covered; however, on the day we were there it was not as bedazzled.
2. Dexter Graves 1789-1844
"The bronze figure - often called the Statue of Death - was entitled Eternal Silence by its creator, sculptor Lorado Taft, whose monumental Fountain of Time still stands at the west end of the University of Chicago Midway. At the base of the statue are Taft's signature and the year of completion, 1909."
"Just south of Eternal Silence is the Jenney plot. Engineer-architect William Le Baron Jenney invented the skyscraper. In the Home Insurance Building, which he built in 1884, Jenney pioneered the use of the skeleton frame and forever changed the course of architecture."
"In 1982, the 150th anniversary of Jenney's birth, the Chicago Architecture Foundation announced a national design competition for an appropriate monument to mark the last resting place of the father of the skyscraper."
3. John Kinzie 1763-1828
"Here are the very beginnings of Chicago history. The words on the stone are somewhat faded, for this limestone marker has withstood a century and a half of Chicago weather. The modern headstone in front of it bears a clearer inscription. It records the name, date of birth and date of death of trader John Kinzie, the first permanent white settler of Chicago."
"Kinzie and his family remained until 1812. After war was declared against the British in that year, the occupants of Fort Dearborn and the surrounding area were ordered to evacuate. As they did so, they were massacred by the Indians. The Kinzies, however, escaped to Michigan."
"When Kinzie died in 1828, he was buried in the Fort Dearborn cemetery. Later, he was moved to the city burial grounds on the north side and then, as the expanding city once more established a new burial ground, to the lakefront cemetery. When Lincoln Park was developed there, he was moved again, this time to the Kinzie plot here in Graceland."
This is a lot of moving for our friend who avoided being massacred by Native Americans.
We also saw here one of the classic Victorian tree sculptures which always had bits of bark peeled away to reveal writing.
Graceland also has these interesting masses of flat headstones, all done in different times and styles but ending up together. The result is so very mosaic floor that it's spooky.
And - I think these are meant to be dogs...
"Our next stop is the grave of boxer Robert Fitzsimmons, but before we get there, we'll pass Mausoleum Row."
"Tombs, just like any other structure, often followed whatever style happened to be in fashion. Of course, the choice also depended upon the client's wealth and good taste. The people buried here generally seem to have had a fair amount of both."
4. Robert Fitzsimmons 1862-1917
"Boxing champion Fitzsimmons, an Englishman who grew up in New Zealand, had the distinction of winning titles in three divisions. In 1891, he won the middleweight title. On St. Patrick's day in 1897, he became the heavyweight champion by knocking out Irishman James J. Corbett. Fitzsimmons, who weighed only about 160 pounds, floored Corbett with his famous solar plexus punch. In 1903, he won the light-heavyweight title.
The original Fitzsimmons headstone was replaced by a red granite one in 1973. An article about the boxer in the Chicago Daily News had prompted a reader to call the newspaper's attention to the fact that Fitzsimmons' name was misspelled on his headstone (the middle s was missing)."
We had to venture off the path for this one and we could have missed it but there were some other people looking for it as well. My Kurt Russell spotted it first, though - sending more kudos his way...
5. Jack Johnson 1878-1946
"On Christmas Day in 1908, Johnson knocked out Tommy Burns in a prizefight in Australia and became the first black boxer to win the world heavyweight championship. He lost the title in 1915 to Jess Willard in a 26-round fight in Cuba. Johnson said later that he threw the fight to get back into the good graces of those who hated him. Hated him because he dared to marry a white woman. Whites had searched everywhere for someone - "the great white hope" - to beat him.
Johnson died after an auto accident near Raleigh, NC, in 1946. He lies in a family plot he purchased in 1912 for the burial of his wife, Etta. A large stone bears the name "Johnson." In front of it, to one side, is a small headstone with the inscription, "Etta, beloved wife of Jack A. Johnson, 1881-1912." Johnson is buried next to Etta, but his grave is unmarked.
In 1969, the cast of The Great White Hope came to Graceland in chartered buses, brought flowers and listened to a eulogy by the actor who was portraying the fighter. The group had also planned to put a headstone on Johnson's grave, but the family objected, calling the whole thing a callous public relations stunt."
6. Victor Lawson 1850-1925
"Lorado Taft sculpted this larger-than-life Crusader in 1931 for the grave of newspaper publisher Victor Fremont Lawson. Lawson's Chicago Daily News was a paper that took pride in its political independence and its factual reporting. It was the first paper west of New York to sell for only a penny. Its Chicago competitors cost three or five cents."
"The Kroeschells' rough-edged marker, across the road from Lawson's grave, looks as if part of it might have been torn away by some inexplicable force. No, it started out this way. This kind of monument symbolizes that a life has been broken, torn asunder by death."
"Near the Kroeschells' plot is the Hutchinson monument decorated with a bronze bas-relief, A Man of Sorrows. Charles Hutchinson was a banker and the first president of the Art Institute. The panel is signed n the lower right corner by its sculptor, A. Faggi. The work, with its Christ figure, is similar to the Stations of the Cross that Faggi did for the church of St. Thomas the Apostle on the city's south side.
7. John Root 1850-91
"Southerner John Wellborn Root came to Chicago in 1871 with a degree in civil engineering and a year's experience in a New York architectural firm."
Here he meets Burnham and we begin to see the beginning of the school of architects which was so very important to Chicago's development. The guide harkens back to Jenney - the father of the skyscraper.
"These men were in the forefront of what came to be called the Chicago School of Architecture. It was not a school in the literal sense, of course. It was a group of architects who, instead of adhering to tradition and looking to the past for architectural models, used a new technology - iron and steel, a skeleton frame, fireproofing, the elevator - to create a new kind of building, the skyscraper.
John Root was an important part of the Chicago School, but his role ended abruptly. He died of pneumonia at the age of 41, just as he and Burnham were beginning to get involved in planning for the Columbian Exposition of 1893.
Root had spent his career breaking away from architectural tradition, but his Graceland monument is wholly traditional. Members of his firm designed a Celtic cross because he had admired those he had seen in English cemeteries. Charles Atwood chose as a model the crosses left by the Druids, and Jules Wegman did the design work. Although Celtic crosses were usually carved in sandstone, this one was done in a more durable red Scottish granite so it could better withstand Chicago's climate. A panel on the face of the cross contains one of Root's drawings, the entrance to the Phoenix Building (demolished in 1959)."
Sadly, not many Burnham & Root buildings still stand.
To continue the tour please go on to the next journal entry.
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