Graceland Cemetery: A Design History

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GR ACELAND CEMETERY A Design History CHRISTOPHER VERNON An exemplar of the rural cemetery type, Graceland was conceived as Chicago’s answer to its eastern counterparts, Mount Auburn in Cambridge and Laurel Hill in Philadelphia. initially laid out by William Saunders and Swain nelson in 1860, the cemetery was further developed by a succession of high-profile landscape designers, including H. W. S. Cleveland, William Le baron Jenney, and o. C. Simonds. in recent years, renewed interest in native plants and ecological principles in planting design has led to a focus on Simonds’s contributions in particular. by the early twentieth century, Graceland was considered one of the most perfect expressions of the so-called prairie style of landscape design, hailed by critics as the most modern cemetery in existence and “the admiration of the world.” in this richly illustrated book, Christopher Vernon unravels the history of this important site— known as the “Cemetery of Architects” because so many important ones are buried there—illuminating the work of the many practitioners who helped shape Graceland’s influential layout. “Vernon places this important work of landscape architecture within the context of Chicago’s growth as a commercial epicenter, gracefully untangling the threads of Graceland’s evolving design which, by the turn of the nineteenth century , had become the impetus for the Midwest’s first regional movement in landscape architecture : the Prairie School.” —William H. Tishler, editor, Midwestern Landscape Design Gr aceland cemetery ...