Cemetery tours bring history to life
Next weekend, Naperville resident Eve Hushek plans on channeling the dead. And no, she isn't conducting a seance or dusting off a Ouija board.
Hushek has been cast as Hannah Ditzler, a late Naperville resident featured in Naper Settlement's Saturday, Oct. 15, walking tour “The Living Cemetery: An Interpretive Visit to Naperville Cemetery.” It's one of many cemetery walks and tours that are available around Chicago and the suburbs this fall.
Some cemetery walks just feature guides sharing historical facts and figures about important people and architecturally interesting tombs or monuments, while others get much more theatrical with volunteers in period costumes speaking as if the dead had risen to chat about their lives and the eras they lived in.
“Hannah Ditzler was an interesting gal for her time,” Hushek said.
Ditzler, a schoolteacher and librarian who was born in 1848, kept detailed diaries about what was going on in Naperville, including a fabric diary on the outfits she sewed. During the Civil War, she regularly corresponded with her brother and another soldier serving in the Union Army (the latter may or may not have been a love interest). Ditzler also visited the famed 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago more than 30 times.
“We have access to many of her journals and so we use those to write her script,” said Plainfield resident and Naper Settlement lead museum educator Cindy Lackore. “This year we wrote a few new scripts so people will get a chance to visit with people they haven't previously visited before.”
Portraying a historical character is a unique situation for Hushek.
“Sometimes your audience goes with you and they imagine themselves right in that time period,” Hushek said, though she dreads the occasional anachronistic questions from guests that seem like they are thrown out from left field.
“You really have to stay in your first-person character to be credible,” she said.
Naper Settlement's tour also features some generic historical personages, ranging from a widow in mourning (to spotlight the complex attire that 19th-century society expected of those who were grieving) to a mortician (to explain how formaldehyde helped to revolutionize embalming in the funeral industry).
Why fall?
The scheduling of cemetery tours in October has raised eyebrows by some people worrying that the timing is disrespectfully close to Halloween. To avoid this in part, other communities hold cemetery tours at other times of the year. (Elgin and Plainfield hold cemetery walks in September, while Palatine has one in May and Northbrook has one in June.)
“There's really good history here and it's not a ‘Halloween time' cemetery walk,” said Frank Lipo, executive director of The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest. “We're not encouraging anyone to jump out from behind gravestones.”
Lipo oversees the “Tale of the Tombstones” 20th anniversary tour at Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park on Sunday, Oct. 16.
Lipo says there's a lot to be learned by visiting cemeteries, and that costumed characters help bring the stories of those who came before us to life.
“Here's the names of people who are on the city streets, whose names are on parks and people who have really influenced our community,” Lipo said. “People who have done things for the good and sometimes for the ill, but it's such a great opportunity to stand next to their last resting spot.”
Lipo expects an uptick this year for the tour since it's the 125th anniversary of the Chicago Haymarket Riot and Forest Home Cemetery is home to the Haymarket Martyrs Monument. But Lipo also says the seasonal weather is a major attraction.
“Our real joy in doing this every third Sunday in October has been the gorgeous weather this time of year,” Lipo said. “The leaves are just turning in the cemetery, and it's a very beautiful time to walk through it.”
Off the beaten path
The fall weather is a major consideration for the timing of the little-known Greve Cemetery Tour in Hoffman Estates, which is only in its third year.
“(Greve Cemetery) is sited in a spot that in the middle of summer is very hot and the mosquitoes can be a problem,” said Hoffman Estates Historical Sites Commission member Nancy Lyons, explaining the April and October dates for tours.
While there are no costumed characters, the Greve Cemetery tour does offer an exclusive look at this gated mid-1800s pioneer cemetery of four interrelated German families with the surnames of Meyer, Greve, Ottman and Sunderlage. Otherwise the cemetery, now owned by the Village of Hoffman Estates, is closed off to the general public.
In contrast, Graceland Cemetery is perhaps Chicago's most famous parklike burial grounds, thanks to the number of world-famous Chicagoans buried there. Architects like Louis Sullivan, Daniel Burnham and Mies van der Rohe and entrepreneurs like Marshall Field, Potter Palmer and George Pullman have all helped make Graceland a pilgrimage site for history buffs.
But even a well-known cemetery like Graceland has lesser-known historical figures who have stories worth sharing.
Wheaton resident and Chicago Architecture Foundation docent Laurie Russell teamed up with Chicago resident Mary Joe Hoag to create the Graceland “Women of Influence” tour after they discovered that famed female architect Marion Mahony Griffin (1871-1961) was interred at Graceland. Their research uncovered even more remarkable women buried there, so the two devised a tour in 2008 to highlight them.
“We thought this would be a unique addition to the standard tours of the white men who helped build the city of Chicago,” Russell said, adding that the wives and widows of famed Chicago builders also found ways to wield their influence behind the scenes.
Tour figures include Mary Wilmarth (1837-1919) who was a leading patron of Jane Addams' Hull House and Mary Richardson Jones (1819-1910) who was a founder of Provident Hospital and key to the Underground Railroad network for escaping slaves from the South.
Russell admits that some of the sites on her tour aren't as architecturally significant as those featured on the Chicago Architectural Foundation's two other Graceland tours.
“What sets our tour apart is that we have the double duty of talking about our beautiful setting that is Graceland, but the very remarkable and unheralded stories in that cemetery,” Russell said. “Anybody can go see where Marshall Field is buried, but it's the stories that we think are so interesting and that's what we feel is the highlight of the tour.”
Cemetery tours
<b>Costumed Tours</b>
<b>Tales Tombstones Tell</b>
<b>Presented by: </b>West Chicago City Museum
<b>Location: </b>Oakwood Cemetery, York Street and Oakwood Avenue, West Chicago, <a href="http://www.westchicago.org" target="_blank">westchicago.org</a> or (630) 231-3376
<b>Tour times: </b>Every 10 minutes starting at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7 (tours canceled if weather is inclement)
<b>Tickets: </b>Free, but donations appreciated
<b>The Living Cemetery</b>
<b>Presented by: </b>Naper Settlement at Naperville Cemetery
<b>Location: </b>523 S. Webster St., Naperville, (630) 420-6010 or <a href="http://napersettlement.museum">napersettlement.museum</a>
<b>Tour times: </b>2 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15
<b>Tickets: </b>$12
<b>Tale of the Tombstones</b>
<b>Presented by: </b>The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest
<b>Location: </b>Forest Home Cemetery, 836 Des Plaines Ave., Forest Park, (708) 848-6755 or <a href="http://www.oprfhistory.org/">oprfhistory.org</a>
<b>Tour times: </b>Every 10 minutes between 1 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16
<b>Tickets:</b> $15
<b>Guided tours</b>
<b>Graceland Cemetery</b>
<b>Presented by: </b>Chicago Architecture Foundation
<b>Location:</b> Irving Park Road at Clark Street, Chicago, (312) 922-3432 or <a href="http://architecture.org">architecture.org</a>
<b>Tour times: </b>2 p.m. Sundays, Oct. 9, 16, 23, 30
<b>Tickets:</b> $15; $10 seniors/students
<b>Graceland: Women of Influence</b>
<b>Presented by: </b>Chicago Architecture Foundation
<b>Location: </b>Graceland Cemetery, Irving Park Road at Clark Street, Chicago, (312) 922-3432 or <a href="http://architecture.org">architecture.org</a>
<b>Tour times: </b>10 a.m. to noon Saturdays, Oct. 15 and 22
<b>Tickets: </b>$15; $10 seniors/students
<b>Graceland: A Second Look</b>
<b>Presented by: </b>Chicago Architecture Foundation
<b>Location: </b>Graceland Cemetery, Irving Park Road at Clark Street, Chicago, (312) 922-3432 or <a href="http://architecture.org">architecture.org</a>
<b>Tour times: </b>1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23
<b>Tickets: </b>$15; $10 seniors/students
<b>Touring Graceland</b>
<b>Presented by: </b>Chicago History Museum
<b>Location: </b>Graceland Cemetery, Irving Park Road at Clark Street, Chicago, (312) 642-4600 or <a href="http://chicagohistory.org">chicagohistory.org</a>
<b>Tour times: </b>10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 29 and 30, and 1 to 3 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31
<b>Tickets:</b> $45
<b>Calvary: Catholics in Chicago</b>
<b>Presented by:</b> Chicago Architecture Foundation
<b>Location: </b>Calvary Cemetery, 301 Chicago Ave., Evanston, (312) 922-3432 or <a href="http://architecture.org">architecture.org</a>
<b>Tour times: </b>1 to 3 p.m. Saturdays, Oct. 8 and 29
<b>Tickets:</b> $15; $10 seniors/students
<b>Rosehill Cemetery</b>
<b>Presented by:</b> Chicago Architecture Foundation
<b>Location:</b> 5800 N. Ravenswood Ave., Chicago, (312) 922-3432 or <a href="http://architecture.org">architecture.org</a>
<b>Tour times:</b> 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23
<b>Tickets:</b> $15; $10 seniors/students
<b>Lake Forest Cemetery</b>
<b>Presented by:</b> Chicago Architecture Foundation guides
<b>Location:</b> 220 E. Deerpath Road, Lake Forest, (312) 922-3432 or <a href="http://architecture.org">architecture.org</a>
<b>Tour times: </b>11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15
<b>Tickets: </b>$15; $10 seniors/students
<b>Greve Cemetery</b>
<b>Presented by:</b> Village of Hoffman Estates Historical Sites Commission
<b>Location:</b> Off Abbey Wood Drive near Queensbury Circle, Hoffman Estates, (847) 781-2606
<b>Tour times:</b> 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 22 and 23
<b>Tickets:</b> Free, but reservations requested
<b>Previous tours: </b>Costumed cemetery walks sponsored by the Elgin Area Historical Society at Bluff City Cemetery and by the Plainfield Historical Society at Plainfield Township Cemetery were both previously presented on Sunday, Sept. 25. Respectively check with both organizations at <a href="http://www.elginhistory.org" target="_blank">elginhistory.org</a> or <a href="http://www.plainfieldhistoricalsociety.blogspot.com" target="_blank">plainfieldhistoricalsociety.blogspot.com</a> for information on next year's cemetery walks.