Graceland Cemetery

Graceland Cemetery opened in 1860, as Chicago was growing beyond its older burial grounds. Its founders chose a different model from crowded urban graveyards: paths curved through a landscaped park, and graves and monuments were set within a designed landscape. Architect William Le Baron Jenney later contributed to the plan. The cemetery’s grounds became both a place of burial and a record of how Chicago imagined itself.

That record is written in stone by people who shaped the city. Architects Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan, John Root, and Mies van der Rohe are buried here, alongside business leaders including Potter Palmer and George Pullman. Their monuments were designed by celebrated architects and sculptors, turning the cemetery into an outdoor gallery of changing styles. Yet the site’s history is wider than its famous names: every family plot reflects decisions about memory, status, and who could afford a lasting marker.