Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago

Rosehill Cemetery (founded 1859) is a historic rural cemetery on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois in the United States. At , it is the largest cemetery in the city of Chicago and its first private cemetery. The Entrance Gate and Administration Building, designed by William W. Boyington in the castellated Gothic style was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Rosehill Mausoleum, also known as the Community Mausoleum, was built in 1914. It is the largest mausoleum in Chicago and features several stained glass windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The Horatio N. May Chapel, completed in 1899, was designed in the English Gothic style by architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee. Rosehill is the final resting place of many notable individuals, including 16 Union Civil War generals, Chicago politicians, business leaders, artists, athletes, and a Vice President of the United States. Well-known names such as Oscar Mayer, Montgomery Ward and Richard Sears are interred at the cemetery. Notable monuments include several Civil War memorials and the Volunteer Firefighters' Monument. As of 2021, the cemetery has over 190,000 interments.

Description

Rosehill Cemetery, located at 5800 N. Ravenswood Avenue in Chicago, is a 350-acre landscaped cemetery, bordered by Western Avenue, Peterson Avenue, Ravenswood Avenue and Bryn Mawr/ Damen/ Bowmanville Avenues. Situated at the city's highest elevation, it is the largest cemetery within the city limits of Chicago. It is located in the north east section of the Lincoln Square community area. As of 2021, more than 190,000 individuals have been interred at Rosehill Cemetery.

History

Rosehill Cemetery Company

Chicago's first private cemetery, the Rosehill Cemetery Corporation, was founded by landowner, Francis H. Benson and Chicago physician, Dr. James Van Zandt Blaney on February 11, 1859. Other founders included railroad executive, William B. Ogden and businessman John H. Kinzie. The 350-acre property, originally owned by Benson was located seven miles north of Chicago in the town of Chittenden. Sitting at the highest elevation in Chicago it was an ideal site for a cemetery and was easily accessible from Chicago by train. Dr. Blaney was appointed the first president of Rosehill Cemetery. The first interment was Dr. J.W. Ludlam on July 11, 1859. Rosehill Cemetery was dedicated in a public ceremony on July 27, 1859.

Two different stories offer the origin of Rosehill Cemetery’s name. One legend claims the area was originally called “Roe’s Hill” after pioneer settler Hiram Roe, but a clerical error by the Chicago City Clerk changed it to “Rosehill.” A 1913 Rosehill Cemetery Company marketing pamphlet offered a different explanation, suggesting the name came from the wild white roses that once grew on the hill of the original property. Rosehill was designed by landscape architect William Saunders (1822–1900). The garden-style layout, popular in the Victorian era, featured winding roads and paths, large trees, ponds, and expansive lawns. Several natural woodland areas, part of the original design, still exist today at Rosehill. A Gothic Revival style Entrance Gate and Administration Building, designed by architect William W. Boyington, was built in 1864 on Ravenswood Avenue.

During the late 1850s, Chicago city officials decided to close the old City cemetery for health reasons and relocate burials and monuments to suburban cemeteries. The first relocations of interments from the City Cemetery began when Rosehill started selling plots in 1859. Exhumed bodies were transported by wagon to other cemeteries, including Graceland, Oak Woods, and Rosehill cemeteries.

Rose Hill train station

A train station located at Rosehill Drive and Ravenswood Avenue opened in 1855 as a stop on the Chicago and Milwaukee Railway. The station was originally named Chittenden after the surrounding town. When Rosehill cemetery opened in 1859, the railway had become the Chicago and North Western Railway and the station's name was changed to Rose Hill. A custom-built train with a casket compartment traveled daily from Chicago Northwestern Station, transporting funeral parties, cemetery visitors and the deceased directly to the Rose hill station.
When the line was elevated in 1896, a new station was constructed in limestone to match the material and castellated Gothic style of Rosehill's Entrance Gate and Administration building.
A new casket elevator was installed, making it easier to lower coffins from the train platform down to the cemetery grounds for burial. The train station closed in 1958. What currently remains of the old train station is the stairway and castellated Gothic style elevator building.

Entrance Gate

The Entrance Gate (or East Gatehouse) and Administration Building, designed by architect William W. Boyington (1818–1898) was built in 1864. It is an excellent example of Castellated Gothic architecture, which is rare in the Midwest. The architectural style, modeled after medieval castles was popular in the Victorian era. The gatehouse was constructed in
Lemont limestone, a locally quarried yellow limestone. Boyington also designed the Chicago Water Tower in 1869, using the same castellated Gothic style and matching limestone. The Rosehill Cemetery Administration Building and Entry Gate was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1975. It was also granted Chicago Landmark status in 1980.

Community Mausoleum

Built in 1914, the mausoleum was designed by architect Sidney Lovell (1867–1938). It is the largest mausoleum in Chicago and features an elaborate Greek Revival entrance. Visitors now enter through the modern expansion. The building has two levels, the lower level being partially underground. The Mausoleum’s interior is filled with French and Italian marble crypts with floors made of Roman Travertine. Several of the individual crypts have sculptured bronze and brass doors. The mausoleum has undergone eight expansions since it opened. It contains 13,000 crypts and two chapels. There are many family-owned crypts with decorative bronze gates, featuring over 30 stained glass windows, several designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Notable interments include Aaron Montgomery Ward, Richard Warren Sears, Milton Florsheim, and John G. Shedd, president of Marshall Field & Company and principal donor of Chicago's Shedd Aquarium in the early 1920's. The John G. Shedd Memorial Chapel consists of the Shedd family crypt and a memorial chapel. The chapel is decorated with a stained glass skylight, marble floors, marble walls and marble benches with leather cushions. The family crypt sits behind decorative bronze doors flanked by tall marble pillars topped with brightly lit urns. According to Matt Hucke, author of ''Graveyards of Chicago'', "the philanthropist commissioned a one-of-a-kind stained glass window from Tiffany that would bathe his crypt in blue light at sunset. The underwater theme of the family room is echoed in the skylight anteroom; even its chairs are adorned with the fanciful oceanic motifs of seahorses and shells."

Horatio N. May Chapel

Built in 1899 at a cost of $30,000, the Horatio N. May Chapel was designed by architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee. The chapel is a blend of Gothic and Romanesque styles, with an exterior of light-colored granite. The carriage porch with heavy gothic arches spans the entire width of the chapel’s front façade. The chapel interior features stained glass, mosaic floors and an oak roof with "hammer-beam trusses and curved brackets." The chapel's vault was used in the past to store caskets during winter months when the ground was frozen.

Monuments and memorials

Civil War memorials

At the beginning of the Civil War, the Rosehill cemetery company donated military plots for the burial of U.S. soldiers. Many of these graves are located near the Entrance Gate. The original sandstone headstones became unreadable with age and have been replaced over time. There are approximately 350 Union soldiers and sailors buried at Rosehill. These burials include sixteen Union generals, a few Confederate soldiers and 15 unknown Civil War soldiers . It is the final resting place for several members of the 8th Illinois Cavalry, the unit that fired the first shots in the Battle of Gettysburg. Rosehill Cemetery is known for being the largest private burial ground of Union veterans in the state of Illinois.

Soldiers and Sailors monument

The Soldier and Sailors monument, also called "Our Heroes", was originally named the General Military Monument when it was dedicated May 31, 1870 in memory of the deceased soldiers of Cook County, Illinois. Designed by sculptor, Leonard Volk (1828–1895), the monument is built of solid granite, with the statue made of Italian marble. It is approximately 40 feet in height. The base and pedestal support a tall column on which stands a statue representing a Color Sergeant dressed in regulation uniform, holding a loosely draped flag, his right hand resting on his sword hilt. The pedestal is engraved with four sculpted panels in standard bronze, representing the four principal branches of the military service – the infantry, cavalry, artillery, and marine. The words, “Our Heroes,” are engraved in raised letters on the pedestal cap-stone. The statute and the bas-reliefs for the pedestal are the work of Volk, who is famous for creating one of the only life masks and hand casts of President Abraham Lincoln.

Chicago light artillery monument

Erected to the memory of "Company A", Chicago Light Artillery, the Chicago Light artillery monument was dedicated on May 31, 1874. It was created by sculptor, Leonard Volk, and was constructed of solid sandstone and consists of a draped field gun on a solid hexagonal base, bearing the names of the members of "A" company. The militry unit, formed by Captain James Smith, was the first in Chicago to take part in the Civil War, mustering on April 21, 1861. In Smith's will, he made a $2000 bequest for the purpose of building and installing the monument at Rosehill cemetery.

Bridges' Battery monument

The monument was built by the Cook County and the Board of Trade of Chicago in memory the deceased soldiers of the Bridges' Battery Illinois Light Artillery. The artillery unit was mustered into service in January, 1863, and served in Tennessee and Georgia. Installed in 1869-1870, the monument cost $3,000 and stands approximately twenty feet tall. It designates the burial site of twenty-five or more members of Bridges' Battery Illinois Light Artillery. A joint dedication for the Bridges' Battery monument and the General Military Monument ("Our Heroes" monument) was celebrated at Rosehill cemetery on May 31, 1870.

Chicago Volunteer Firefighters Memorial

A monument "To Honor All the Courageous Volunteer Firefighters of Chicago" was donated by the Firemen’s Benevolent Association in 1858 in memory of the volunteer firemen who in 1857 had lost their lives in the line of duty.
This tragedy led the city of Chicago to create a professional fire department. It also marks the grave of 15 firefighters. The monument was created by sculptor Leonard Volk and was erected at Rosehill in 1864. It features a fireman with a fire hose standing on a tall column and includes sculpted panels at the base.
The monument was restored and updated in 1979. A new granite marker was added with a list of the firefighters' names.

West Ridge Nature Preserve

In 2015, the Chicago Park District Park No. 568 – West Ridge Nature Preserve was established along the north western edge of Rosehill Cemetery. Before its conversion to parkland, the 21-acre wooded site remained undeveloped and had never been used for burials. Improvements to the preserve include a 1.1 mile loop trail, the planting of 500 native trees and shrubs, overlooks and designated fishing areas.

Notable burials

Gallery

File:Leonard_Wells_Volk_burial_monument_Rosehill_(cropped).jpg, Leonard Volk monument
File:Darius_Miller_Mausoleum_Rosehill_Cemetery_Chicago_2019-9447.jpg, Darius Miller mausoleum
File:Grave_of_George_S._Bangs_(1826%E2%80%931877)_at_Rosehill_Cemetery,_Chicago_2.jpg, George S. Bangs grave

File:Frances_Pearce_monument_May_2025.jpg, Frances Pearce monument
File:Frances_Pearce_Stone_Rosehill_Cemetery_Chicago_2019-9780.jpg, Frances Pearce and infant
File:Thomas_E_G_Ransom_Rosehill_Cemetery_Chicago_2019-0284.jpg, Thomas E. Ransom monument
File:Rose_Hill_station_elevator_(cropped).jpg, Casket elevator

See also

* Graceland Cemetery
* List of burial places of presidents and vice presidents of the United States
* Rural cemetery

References

{{Chicago Landmark memorials and monuments

Cemeteries in Chicago
National Register of Historic Places in Chicago
1864 establishments in Illinois
Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois
Rural cemeteries
Chicago Landmarks
Cemeteries established in the 1850s