3 September 1856 – 14 April 1924 Sullivan was a massively influential architect whose work was foundational in both the birth of the skyscraper and in the Chicago School of architecture. He was a mentor of Frank Lloyd Wright and inspired many of the architects who would later be known collectively as the Prairie School. […]
As it says over the door, the Balaban Mausoleum was built “In Memoriam to Ida Balaban Katz,” the sister of the founders of Balaban and Katz, the iconic movie palace moguls. The mausoleum was designed by Rapp and Rapp, the same architects who designed the Chicago Theater which still stands as a highly recognizable icon […]
Charles Walter Trogg 17 February 1869 – 24 July 1915 Catherine “Kate” Serowka Trogg 17 July 1884 – 24 Jul 1915 The Eastland, one of five chartered excursion boats meant to ferry employees, their families and friends from Chicago over to the Michigan City shore for the annual Western Electric Company picnic, keeled over into […]
This stunning monument marks the Cummings family plot in the Fairlawn section at Graceland. Patriarch Columbus R. Cummings (1834 – 1897) — another of the Gilded Age tycoons whose monuments dot the cemetery’s landscape — came to Chicago from New York as a young man and went to work for Potter Palmer (whose spectacular monument […]
27 February 1849 – 5 January 1900 Ernst is another one of those Victorian rags-to-riches stories that are inescapable in American folklore. He was born in Germany to poor parents who immigrated to hte US when he was a toddler. They first lived in Wisconsin and then moved to Chicago. His father made baskets and […]
All three generations of Ludwig/Louis* Wolffs are interred at Graceland. Ludwig Sr is entombed in this sunken mausoleum on the far northern side of the cemetery while his son Louis Jr and grandson Louis III are buried together on a family lot near the southeastern corner of the cemetery, memorialized by this unique stone. The […]
31 December 1910 – 4 June 1926 Lucille was the middle daughter of three sisters (as well as having one living older brother and another older sibling who had died in infancy), and her headstone marks her as a deeply loved child whose family took special pains to commemorate. The Katz family plot is pretty […]
Norine Hanna “Nora” Baker Boettcher October 1871 – 30 December 1903 This is the second and final article about victims of the Iroquois Theater Fire buried at Concordia. Please see the previous entry for an overview of the fire and links for more information. Nora was born in Virginia to a Canadian-born father and a […]
Lucius George and Katherine “Kate” Louise (Eddy) Fisher Lucius (1843 – 1916) was a paper company magnate who commissioned (and owned for the rest of his life) the beautiful Fisher Building on Dearborn. Completed in 1896, it is the oldest 20-story building still standing in Chicago. His wife Kate (1849 – 1910) was the daughter […]
Joseph & Adelaide Mazza Galli Joseph (1874 – 1935) was a candymaker in the early decades of 20th Century Chicago. He was from Italy, and Adelaide (1874 – 1939) was born in Chicago to Italian immigrant parents. They married in 1894 and seem to have been partners in business as well as in life. In […]