MeetUp

6 N 347 County Farm Rd, Hanover Park, IL 60133 Written by Gary Bloze, owner. Illinois Pet Cemetery is the oldest pet cemetery. It's a family-run business, started in 1926 by the grandfather of Gary Bloze. He got the idea during the first world war, when he saw one in France. He got killed in a car accident in 1930, two weeks before the father of Gary Bloze was born, while he was out selling a headstone. The steering wheel went through his chest. At the time of his death, he had a pet ambulance service and a pet newspaper, the Pet Lover's Review. He also sold pet insurance. The grandmother of Gary Bloze ran the cemetery from 1930 to 1972, and she made it her life. Her name was Marie C. Bloze. She was a very personable person. She really loved to talk with people. Especially after a death, everybody needs to talk. The cemetery is about six and a half acres surrounded by the forest preserve, Hawk Hollow. They bury just about anything dogs, cats, monkeys, rabbits, turtles, ...

Stephen A. Douglas Tomb 636 E. 35 th Street  A ten-foot statue of the democrat best remembered for defending slavery in a debate with  Abraham Lincoln   stands atop a 46 ft column of white  marble  from his native state,  Vermont . Douglas died from  typhoid fever  on June 3, 1861 in Chicago, where he was buried on the shore of  Lake Michigan .   Some people would like to see this memorial torn down since he stood with the southern views and was the champion and favorite of the institution of slavery.  When Douglas died he was buried in a temporary brick tomb near his Chicago cottage.  His friends soon organized a Douglas monument Association to build him a suitable tomb.  Work on the monument designed by Leonard W. Volk, began in 1866 and two years later his remains were entombed in the base of it.  Lack of funds delayed construction until the State of Illinois appropriated money in 1877 to finish it....

Founded in 1859, Wunder's Cemetery was originally known as First German Lutheran Cemetery. In 1912, it was incorporated as the German Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery Association. The earliest date recorded for a burial is May 1864. In 1912, it was incorporated as the German Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery Association. On October 19, 1919 it was renamed Wunder's Cemetery Association.   Over 15,000 people, with burials at the rate of approximately 24 per year.   The cemetery is named after Heinrich Wunder, pastor of First St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church for 62 years, from 1851 to 1913. Graceland Cemetery was one of the first established in the township. It had more than 20 acres. When Irving Park Road was extended through Graceland's territory, Graceland sold the acreage that's now Wunder's to First St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church. At the time, that acreage was titled German Lutheran Cemetery. Adjacent to German Lutheran were four small Jewish ...

This was called the “Suicide Bridge.” It was a four story bridge over Lincoln Park lagoon south of Fullerton and east of Lincoln Park Zoo. It was simply called the High Bridge, built in either 1892 or 1894 to be tall enough for sailboats to fit underneath (approximately 75 feet over the waters of the lagoon).   It connected Lincoln Park to the lakefront at the time when Lake Shore Drive was a carriage route rather than an expressway. The bridge offered spectacular views of the lake, on a clear day, you could see the stockyards and Jackson park from the bridge.   Unfortunately it also became the choice location for people wishing to end their lives. There are dozens of accounts of people throughout the years leaping over the bridge. Soon, the press was widely calling this the “Suicide Bridge.” In 1898, police officers who patrolled Lincoln Park at night had plenty of stories about running into ghosts while making their rounds. However, it doesn’t seem to have occurred to ...

The Rosehill Cemetery Mausoleum was proposed in 1912, it contains 6000 crypts on two levels, and the cemetery appealed to the elite businessmen of the city for the funds to begin construction. These men were impressed with the idea and enjoyed the thought of entire family rooms in the mausoleum that could be dedicated to their families alone and could be decorated to their style and taste. It was designed by architect Sidney Lovell, who is himself entombed within. It is the grandest mausoleum in Chicago, in terms of size and beauty. The interior is almost entirely of marble, with even the floors composed of Italian Carrera marble.   The mausoleum has two levels, with the lower level partially underground. Each section has an entirely different character. Some parts, particularly in the west wings, consist mainly of large rooms or corridors lined with crypts. In the east, there are many small private rooms, each owned by a particular family, most with heavy bronze gates. Some of...

Rosehill's Joliet-limestone entrance gate was designed by William W. Boyington, the architect of the Chicago Water Tower and the Old University of Chicago, who is buried in Rosehill. Like its sister cemetery Graceland, Rosehill is the burial place of many well-known Chicagoans. The cemetery contains many monuments that are notable for their beauty and eccentricity. Several graves from the old City Cemetery, originally located in what is now Lincoln Park were relocated to Rosehill. Some of the gravestones and monuments were also moved to Rosehill Cemetery and can be seen.   Bodies were supposedly moved from 1868-1880s, but with only 10 men working to disinter the deceased, it’s not physically possible that all plots were evacuated.   Then, when the Chicago Fire swept through, almost all of the markers in the City Cemetery were destroyed.   The only one that was left was the Couch Memorial, which is still in the park.   One researcher estimates that there were ne...

In 1966, Richard Speck committed one of the most horrifying mass murders in American history when he brutalized and killed eight student nurses living on Chicago's South Side. Richard Speck captured the nation's attention during the summer of 1966 after murdering eight female students who lived together on Chicago's South Side. Before then, he had been responsible for other acts of violence against his family and others but had a knack for escaping the police. After his killing spree in 1966, a manhunt ensued and he was captured two days later. He spent the rest of his life in prison until he died of a heart attack in 1991 at age 49. Richard Benjamin Speck was born on December 6, 1941, in Kirkwood, Illinois, into a large, religious family, where he was the seventh of eight children. After the death of his father when Speck was six, his mother remarried, moving the family to Dallas, Texas. The children suffered considerable abuse at the hands of their drunken stepfathe...

Resurrection Mausoleum was dedicated by:Bishop Edward O'Rourke D.D. in 1971. In November of 2008 Bishop Daniel R. Jenky C.S.C. dedicated the Sixth phase of the mausoleum.   Resurrection Mausoleum current capacity is over 5000 entombments.   With the Catholic Cemetery Association's commitment to the Peoria Community Resurrection Mausoleum is slated for 3 more phase additions in the coming years. The Resurrection Mausoleum is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as having the largest stained glass windows of any mausoleum in the world!   The windows measure 22,381 square feet in 2,448 panels. Harley, Ellington, Cowin, & Stirton of Detroit, Michigan, were the architects. The firm, known today as Harley Ellis Devereaux, is still in business with additional offices in Chicago and Los Angeles. The mausoleum was designed in a mid-century classical style known as New Formalism. New Formalism is on the long road of Greek and Roman revivals.   Before World...

Beneath the ground here lies the remains of a wide assortment of souls, many of whom went to the grave without a ceremony or a certificate to document their passing. The unclaimed bodies from the City Cemetery's potter's field were reportedly exhumed and moved to here beginning in September 1872. The County Farm, also known as the County Poor Farm, located in the township of Jefferson (today's Jefferson Park within the Chicago city limits) has a confusing history of its own. The dead who were buried within these grounds, include those who died in the county's "Insane Asylum", unclaimed victims of the Chicago Fire, and others, including "inmates" who lived within the grounds during its various functions. It later became known simply as "Dunning", the family name of the original owners of the town of the same name located within Jefferson Township. Like many poor farms and mental hospitals in Illinois, the Cook County Poor Farm (and the...