impulsereader (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
impulsereader) wrote2012-03-31 03:01 pm
impulsereader) wrote2012-03-31 03:01 pm
Entry tags:
A Walk Through Graceland Cemetery - October 2011 - Part 2
Almost 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.
8. Peter Schoenhofen 1827-93
“This pyramid was built for a wealthy brewer. Peter Schoenhofen, born in Prussia, emigrated when he was 24. He and a partner established a brewery in Chicago in 1860. When his partner withdrew seven years later, Schoenhofen continued the business as the Schoenhofen Brewing Company. At the time, the German population of the city was increasing rapidly and a number of breweries were being established. Schoenhofen’s prospered and by the 1880s was one of the largest. The brewery was on the northwest corner of 18th and Canalport. A building designed for the company in 1902 by architect Richard Schmidt still occupies that site.”
I’m hoping it still does.
“The sphinx and angel guarding the entrance of Schoenhofen’s pyramid are a rather unlikely pair. The angel, a Christian symbol and a typical figure on Victorian monuments, seems out of place on this imitation of an ancient Egyptian pyramid. The Egyptians were worshippers of the sun. For them, the pyramid represented the setting sun and the coming of darkness and death. It served as a tomb for royalty.”
9. George Pullman 1831-97
“The monument for the inventor of the Pullman sleeping car is a good place to rest. It’s an exedra, which means it has seats. In ancient Greece, an exedra was an outdoor bench where scholars might gather.
Solon Beman designed this monument with its stately Corinthian column. But what’s underneath the monument is much more unusual. Pullman’s coffin, covered in tar paper and asphalt, is sunk in a concrete block the size of a room. The top of the block is overlaid with railroad ties and more concrete. George Pullan is down there to stay.
Why this remarkably thorough method of burial? The family thought it necessary to protect Pullman’s body from angry workers.”
10. Martin Ryerson 1818-87
“After making a fortune in lumber, Ryerson made another in real estate. During the 1880s, Adler & Sullivan built four office buildings for Ryerson. When he died in 1887, his son, Martin A. Ryerson, commissioned Louis Sullivan to design the tomb.”
“Sullivan designed three tombs in his career, and two of them are in Graceland. The Ryerson was the first. The Getty tomb, done a year later, is not far from here.”
11. Louis Sullivan 1856-1924
“Louis Sullivan, buried here with his parents, is commonly ranked as one of the best architects this country ever produced. Through his theories, expressed in his buildings and his writings, he helped to create modern architecture. But in the last five years of his life, he received only one commission. When he died, he was poor, ill, alone and all but forgotten - except by one man who had been an apprentice in Sullivan’s firm, Frank Lloyd Wright.”
“Sullivan became the leader of the Chicago School, forging the way in developing a new architecture, one that did not rely upon the precedents of the past but responded to the technology and human needs of the day.
Among Sullivan’s finest designs is the Carson Pirie Scott store, one of the few Sullivan buildings left in the Loop. The facade with its large rectangles of windows gives clear indication of the steel skeleton underneath, and the lovely ornament framing the display windows and the rounded corner entrance is unequaled.”
“About five years after his death, some recognition came to Louis Sullivan in the form of this headstone. A committee headed by architect Thomas Tallmadge planned the memorial and financed it with private contributions. An architectural historian as well as an architect, Tallmadge coined the term Chicago School to identify the work of Sullivan and his colleagues. He wrote the tribute engraved on the back of the stone. The sculptured sides of the rough granite symbolize the development of the skyscraper. On the front, Sullivan’s profile is set against one of his own designs.”
12. William Kimball 1828-1904
“A native of Maine, Kimball visited Chicago in 1857 as a traveling salesman. Impressed with the city’s vitality, he entered into business here as a wholesale dealer in pianos and organs. Kimball was confident that, as the area became more settled, interest in music and the arts would grow. By 1881, he was successful enough to open an organ factory. Six years later, his company began making pianos, too.
Kimball’s classical monument was designed by McKim, Mead & White, an East Coast firm that had participated in creating the impressive classical buildings for the 1893 Fair.”
13. William Goodman 1848-1936
“Goodman, like Martin Ryerson, was a lumber magnate. He had this mausoleum built for his playwright son, Kenneth Sawyer Goodman, who died at the age of 35. Kenneth was a naval lieutenant in training at Great Lakes Naval Training Station when, in 1918, he became a victim of the influenza epidemic.”
Downton anyone?
“William Goodman’s close friend, architect Howard Van Doren Shaw, designed the tomb. A fittingly dramatic resting place it is, rising out of the sheltering hillside, with an entrance directly on the water and a roof balcony overlooking the lake. There’s a good view of its neoclassical facade from across the lake at the grave of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
Shaw used the same architectural style in 1925 when he designed the Goodman Theatre, which the William Goldmans founded as a memorial to their dramatist son.”
And from the other side
14. Potter Palmer 1826-1902
“A lovely surprise awaits you as you leave the Goodman tomb and walk past the row of bushes. At the top of a rise, overlooking the lake, sits a Greek temple. Potter and Bertha Palmer lie at rest here in the same grand style and sumptuous splendor in which they lived...proving, perhaps, that you really can take it with you after all.”
“McKim, Mead & White designed the Palmers’ temple with its twin sarcophagi, or stone coffins. (The word sarcophagus comes from the Greek, to eat flesh. It was thus applied because the material used by the Greeks for a sarcophagus - limestone - caused a rapid disintegration of its contents.)”
The Palmers have some really great views.
“Across the road are real-estate tycoon Henry Hamilton Honore and his wife, Bertha Palmer’s parents. McKim, Mead & White also designed their charming Gothic tomb - French Gothic, in keeping with the ancestry of the Honores.”
15. Charles Wacker 1856-1929
“This is the man for whom Wacker Drive is named. He was thus honored because of his work as chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission. The commission was formed by civic leaders to win public acceptance for Daniel Burnham’s Chicago Plan of 1909.
This is amazingly less impressive than the Wacker Drive underpass, and I can’t help but feel our author is just including Wacker’s gravestone as a waymarker as she next instructs...
“Turn right at Wacker’s tomb and go east across the grass, almost to the road on the other side. You’ll find John Altgeld’s marker next to a white birch tree.”
This was one of the more difficult ones to find, adding to my suspicions. But it was worth the effort.
16. John Altgeld 1847-1902
“John Peter Altgeld - lawyer, judge and author of a book on prison reform - served as governor of Illinois from 1893-97. The bronze plaques on the stout shaft which marks his grave contain excerpts from his public statements.”
Seriously - Google this guy in relation to the Haymarket Riot trials - he was a stand up judge who agreed with Clarence Darrow and said, ‘these guys didn’t get a fair trial,’ and he pardoned them. Then he took the morally right side during the Pullman strike and completely ended his career as public opinion crucified him.
His birch tree
To continue on please continue on to the next journal entry.
8. Peter Schoenhofen 1827-93
“This pyramid was built for a wealthy brewer. Peter Schoenhofen, born in Prussia, emigrated when he was 24. He and a partner established a brewery in Chicago in 1860. When his partner withdrew seven years later, Schoenhofen continued the business as the Schoenhofen Brewing Company. At the time, the German population of the city was increasing rapidly and a number of breweries were being established. Schoenhofen’s prospered and by the 1880s was one of the largest. The brewery was on the northwest corner of 18th and Canalport. A building designed for the company in 1902 by architect Richard Schmidt still occupies that site.”
I’m hoping it still does.
“The sphinx and angel guarding the entrance of Schoenhofen’s pyramid are a rather unlikely pair. The angel, a Christian symbol and a typical figure on Victorian monuments, seems out of place on this imitation of an ancient Egyptian pyramid. The Egyptians were worshippers of the sun. For them, the pyramid represented the setting sun and the coming of darkness and death. It served as a tomb for royalty.”
9. George Pullman 1831-97
“The monument for the inventor of the Pullman sleeping car is a good place to rest. It’s an exedra, which means it has seats. In ancient Greece, an exedra was an outdoor bench where scholars might gather.
Solon Beman designed this monument with its stately Corinthian column. But what’s underneath the monument is much more unusual. Pullman’s coffin, covered in tar paper and asphalt, is sunk in a concrete block the size of a room. The top of the block is overlaid with railroad ties and more concrete. George Pullan is down there to stay.
Why this remarkably thorough method of burial? The family thought it necessary to protect Pullman’s body from angry workers.”
10. Martin Ryerson 1818-87
“After making a fortune in lumber, Ryerson made another in real estate. During the 1880s, Adler & Sullivan built four office buildings for Ryerson. When he died in 1887, his son, Martin A. Ryerson, commissioned Louis Sullivan to design the tomb.”
“Sullivan designed three tombs in his career, and two of them are in Graceland. The Ryerson was the first. The Getty tomb, done a year later, is not far from here.”
11. Louis Sullivan 1856-1924
“Louis Sullivan, buried here with his parents, is commonly ranked as one of the best architects this country ever produced. Through his theories, expressed in his buildings and his writings, he helped to create modern architecture. But in the last five years of his life, he received only one commission. When he died, he was poor, ill, alone and all but forgotten - except by one man who had been an apprentice in Sullivan’s firm, Frank Lloyd Wright.”
“Sullivan became the leader of the Chicago School, forging the way in developing a new architecture, one that did not rely upon the precedents of the past but responded to the technology and human needs of the day.
Among Sullivan’s finest designs is the Carson Pirie Scott store, one of the few Sullivan buildings left in the Loop. The facade with its large rectangles of windows gives clear indication of the steel skeleton underneath, and the lovely ornament framing the display windows and the rounded corner entrance is unequaled.”
“About five years after his death, some recognition came to Louis Sullivan in the form of this headstone. A committee headed by architect Thomas Tallmadge planned the memorial and financed it with private contributions. An architectural historian as well as an architect, Tallmadge coined the term Chicago School to identify the work of Sullivan and his colleagues. He wrote the tribute engraved on the back of the stone. The sculptured sides of the rough granite symbolize the development of the skyscraper. On the front, Sullivan’s profile is set against one of his own designs.”
12. William Kimball 1828-1904
“A native of Maine, Kimball visited Chicago in 1857 as a traveling salesman. Impressed with the city’s vitality, he entered into business here as a wholesale dealer in pianos and organs. Kimball was confident that, as the area became more settled, interest in music and the arts would grow. By 1881, he was successful enough to open an organ factory. Six years later, his company began making pianos, too.
Kimball’s classical monument was designed by McKim, Mead & White, an East Coast firm that had participated in creating the impressive classical buildings for the 1893 Fair.”
13. William Goodman 1848-1936
“Goodman, like Martin Ryerson, was a lumber magnate. He had this mausoleum built for his playwright son, Kenneth Sawyer Goodman, who died at the age of 35. Kenneth was a naval lieutenant in training at Great Lakes Naval Training Station when, in 1918, he became a victim of the influenza epidemic.”
Downton anyone?
“William Goodman’s close friend, architect Howard Van Doren Shaw, designed the tomb. A fittingly dramatic resting place it is, rising out of the sheltering hillside, with an entrance directly on the water and a roof balcony overlooking the lake. There’s a good view of its neoclassical facade from across the lake at the grave of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
Shaw used the same architectural style in 1925 when he designed the Goodman Theatre, which the William Goldmans founded as a memorial to their dramatist son.”
And from the other side
14. Potter Palmer 1826-1902
“A lovely surprise awaits you as you leave the Goodman tomb and walk past the row of bushes. At the top of a rise, overlooking the lake, sits a Greek temple. Potter and Bertha Palmer lie at rest here in the same grand style and sumptuous splendor in which they lived...proving, perhaps, that you really can take it with you after all.”
“McKim, Mead & White designed the Palmers’ temple with its twin sarcophagi, or stone coffins. (The word sarcophagus comes from the Greek, to eat flesh. It was thus applied because the material used by the Greeks for a sarcophagus - limestone - caused a rapid disintegration of its contents.)”
The Palmers have some really great views.
“Across the road are real-estate tycoon Henry Hamilton Honore and his wife, Bertha Palmer’s parents. McKim, Mead & White also designed their charming Gothic tomb - French Gothic, in keeping with the ancestry of the Honores.”
15. Charles Wacker 1856-1929
“This is the man for whom Wacker Drive is named. He was thus honored because of his work as chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission. The commission was formed by civic leaders to win public acceptance for Daniel Burnham’s Chicago Plan of 1909.
This is amazingly less impressive than the Wacker Drive underpass, and I can’t help but feel our author is just including Wacker’s gravestone as a waymarker as she next instructs...
“Turn right at Wacker’s tomb and go east across the grass, almost to the road on the other side. You’ll find John Altgeld’s marker next to a white birch tree.”
This was one of the more difficult ones to find, adding to my suspicions. But it was worth the effort.
16. John Altgeld 1847-1902
“John Peter Altgeld - lawyer, judge and author of a book on prison reform - served as governor of Illinois from 1893-97. The bronze plaques on the stout shaft which marks his grave contain excerpts from his public statements.”
Seriously - Google this guy in relation to the Haymarket Riot trials - he was a stand up judge who agreed with Clarence Darrow and said, ‘these guys didn’t get a fair trial,’ and he pardoned them. Then he took the morally right side during the Pullman strike and completely ended his career as public opinion crucified him.
His birch tree
To continue on please continue on to the next journal entry.
no subject
no subject
(no subject)
(no subject)