Rosehill Mausoleum

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 these private rooms have spectacular stained glass windows by Louis Tiffany and other artists.

One of the subscribers was John G. Shedd, the president of Marshall Field from 1909 to 1926 and the man who donated the wonderful Shedd Aquarium to Chicago. Shedd's family room is one of the most beautiful portions of the building. The chapel outside the room features chairs that are carved in images depicting shells and sea horses and the window inside bathes the room with a blue haze that makes the place appear to be under water. For this window, Shedd commissioned the artisan Louis Comfort Tiffany and made him sign a contract that said he would never create another window like it.

There have been no ghost stories associated with John Shedd, but there are others entombed in the structure who may not have found the peace that Shedd found. Two of them men also laid to rest in the building are Aaron Montgomery Ward and his bitter business rival, Richard Warren Sears. One has to wonder if wither of these men could rest in peace with the other man in the same structure.... but it is the ghost of Sears who has been seen walking through the mausoleum at night.

The business pioneer has been spotted, wearing a top hat and tails, leaving the Sears family room and walking the hallways from his tomb to that of Ward's.

Perhaps the rivalry that plagued his life continues on after death.....

Notable burials:

Richard B. Ogilvie, Governor of Illinois, is entombed near the ceiling in the west part of the Mausoleum.

Governor Green is located on the lower level of the mausoleum. From the northwest corner, locate a corridor leading south; at the very end of that corridor (where there is a locked door to the outside), Green is at ceiling level.

Aaron Montgomery Ward, born Feb. 17, 1844; died Dec. 7, 1913.

In 1872, Aaron Montgomery Ward established the world's first mail-order business.. He had previously worked for Marshall Field as a clerk and later a traveling salesman. As a salesman, he observed and listened to his rural customers, and realized he could offer them better prices by selling to them directly, via mail-order, a revolutionary new concept.

Ward's efforts were very successful. He published a catalog within two years, and, by 1890, moved into a new building at Michigan and Madison in the heart of Chicago's "Loop". In 1899 the "Spirit of Progress", a seventeen-foot statue of a girl, was added to the building. Montgomery Ward and Company was a success, and they continue to operate store in Chicago and beyond to this day.

Ward is equally well-known for his efforts to beautify Chicago's lakefront. Originally, the area east of Michigan Avenue was little more than a dump - piles of debris, squatters' shacks, and railroad tracks. Ward began a movement to clean up the lakefront, and fought for years in the courts. In 1897, he won, and the area became Grant Park as we know it today - an open area, free of all buildings except museums - "Chicago's Front Yard".

Ward and his family occupy a private room in the eastern part of the mausoleum, protected by an ornate bronze gate.

Richard Warren Sears, born December 7, 1863, died Sept. 28 1914, was the founder of Sears, Roebuck and Company , one of the the world's most successful department store chains.

While working as a train station agent in Minnesota, Sears accepted delivery of a shipment of watches that had been refused by the intended recipient. He was able to sell the watches quickly at a very good price, and soon established the R. W. Sears Watch Company in Minneapolis. Taking his business to Chicago in 1887, he soon hired Alvah Roebuck as a watchmaker. By the next year, he had issued a mail-order catalog.

After leaving the business for a short time, Sears returned in 1892, changed the company name to "Sears, Roebuck and Company", and began to sell merchandise other than watches, mainly via mail order. Sears wrote the catalog himself, and it quickly expanded in size. He offered excellent prices and a "send no money" policy. By 1894 the catalog had grown to five hundred pages.

Sears resigned from his company in 1908, leaving it in the hands of Julius Rosenwald, who had replaced Roebuck in 1895. He retired to Waukesha, Wisconsin, where he died in 1914 at the age of fifty.

Richard Warren Sears now resides in one of the larger private rooms in Rosehill Mausoleum, directly behind a normal-sized doorway to the outside in the East wall.

John G. Shedd, born July 20, 1850; died Oct. 22, 1926.

John Graves Shedd was the second president and chairman of Marshall Field and Company.

Shedd arrived in Chicago from New Hampshire in 1871 and began working for Field and Lieter as a stockroom clerk. He quickly became a salesman, then a department head, merchandise manager, partner in 1893 and vice-president in 1901. Upon Marshall Field's death in 1906, Shedd took over the presidency of the company.

Shedd was a millionaire and philanthropist. He donated generously to various worthy causes. Shedd is best known for creating the aquarium that still bears his name. Construction of the Shedd Aquarium began in Grant Park in 1927, after a $3 million gift from Shedd.

The John G. Shedd Memorial Chapel is in the front and center of Rosehill Mausoleum, behind a short corridor that leads to the main entrance. Appropriately for a man who established an aquarium, the designs in this chapel are inspired by marine life, such as these bronze chairs.

The Shedd Chapel consists of a large room ringed with marble benches topped with leather cushions. Near the back wall is a podium, behind which is a set of doors flanked by two urn-topped pedestals. Behind these doors is the burial chamber of Shedd and family, featuring a stained-glass window by Tiffany.

Over the center of this room is a skylight, with an intricate pattern of classical motifs and vine leaves. One panel has been rotated ninety degrees, in keeping with the Middle-Eastern tradition of deliberately introducing a flaw into one's work as an acknowledgement that only God can create perfection. Surely, this timeless chamber of polished marble, bronze and glass is as close to perfection as we can achieve.