Graceland Cemetery: A Design History

Afterword

189 Afterword I n 1991 the chairman of the Graceland Cemetery Trustees’ Buildings and Grounds Committee, Robert Isham Jr., embarked on a lengthy inquiry into the archives—including lot cards, correspondence , drawings, blueprints, and photographs—and the resulting comparison of the historical record and the cemetery’s present condition made it clear that the historic landscape had been largely lost. In fact, it had been missing for so long that it was likely no one living had seen it in its days of glory. Isham discussed the situation with the architect Robert D. Douglass, and a preliminary professional review of the archival materials ensued. Conducted by the firm Douglass worked for, Eifler & Associates, this initial review led to an in-depth investigation to develop recommendations for restoration and improvement. The resulting historical report reviewed site plans, landscape plans, and photos; developed a chronology noting significant events and periods; and informed the trustees in detail about Graceland’s earlier appearance, its international esteem, and the elements, especially landscape, that were missing or had been seriously compromised . The report also specified monuments, buildings, and sculptures that were deteriorating. The trustees’ review of this history led to important decisions about long-term goals for improvement. These included restoring as far as possible O. C. Simonds’s landscape plan as it had existed in the 1920s, repairing monuments, restoring buildings, and improving the efficiency and quality of operations overall. Other goals included developing long-term landscape maintenance programs, identifying and restoring historically important monuments, and determining future building needs and potential uses for unused land. In response, Eifler & Associates made a set of specific recommendations , which was submitted for review in September 1991. Rather than pursue a master-plan approach to restoration, the trustees chose to hire a landscape architecture firm, Wolff Associates , to first develop a limited “prototype landscape restoration,” after which decisions would be made about larger-scale restoration. The plot chosen was four acres in size, surrounding the intersection of Main, Broad, and Woodlawn avenues. The area had historical landscape plans to serve as a guide, and it was representative of the whole in that it included roadways, a mixture of family monuments , raised and flat headstones, and a sample of large, medium, and small plots. In addition, archival planting plans indicated not only layouts but species of plants used. The work of restoring this small landscape included sod removal, development of new planting beds, filling and seeding of beds (around monuments as well), planting of shrubs and perennials to re-create the “outdoor rooms” that Simonds had designed, planting along roads, tree planting in lawn areas and planting beds, and extension and modernization of the irrigation line. In late 1995, after perennials and groundcovers had filled in and shrubs and trees had attained some significant growth, the trustees, recognizing the skills of cemetery staff, agreed that the new landscaping was affordable, maintainable, and attractive, and that it provided a window on a historical landscape that had not existed since the 1920s. Thus the trustees authorized the restoration of a much larger area, the Ridgeland and “O” sections. Substantial documentation existed for these sections: extensive planting plans and numerous photos, as well as an overall plan for about 80 percent of the Ridgeland section. But there were impediments to doing a strict restoration. Where Simonds had provided open-area design using sun-loving plants, for instance, that area was now shaded by large, mature trees, so plant species had to be changed to shade-tolerant plants. Other characteristics, such as bed lines and plant masses, were maintained as close to the original as feasible. Landscape installation was completed in the summer of 1996, and today visitors can see again the enclosures and outdoor 190 Afterword rooms that provide the quiet and privacy appropriate to the plots, as Simonds had intended. Lake Willowmere provided the next opportunity for significant landscape restoration, beginning in 2000. There, the major problem was that the intentionally blurred line between the banks and the water surface had been greatly altered by removal of shrubs, by erosion, and by the addition of a rubble retaining wall that created a bright, reflective, and highly visible line between water and land. Over several years the rubble wall was removed, the banks regraded, and plantings added to soften this sharp disjunction. This process went forward section by section, beginning at the southeast portion of the lake and eventually including...