here.
Often, people who photograph the cemetery capture strange balls of light or inexplicable fogs in their photographs. People who enter feel an intangible energy within the cemetery grounds. They report that the atmosphere within the cemetery simply feels different from the atmosphere outside of the cemetery. Some people feel uncomfortable. Others feel like they are being watched or feel overcome with despair and hopelessness.
Apparitions are often seen in the cemetery. These apparitions take the form of escaped slaves. People commonly see emaciated and frightened African Americans within the cemetery who simply disappear, leaving witnesses wondering if they had even seen the figures in the first place.
visiting
Although there are no hours posted at the cemetery, the staff at the Faith Fellowship Church advise that the cemetery is only open from sunrise until sunset. The cemetery is not visible from the street after dark, so you will have to approach the cemetery during daylight hours. However, the apparitions in the cemetery are not often seen in the bright daylight hours. Your best chance of seeing them without trespassing is to go to the cemetery right at sunrise or sunset, or during a dreary, rainy day.
GRACELAND CEMETERY
4001 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois 60613
directions
From the center of Chicago, take US-41 North for about 4 miles to the Irving Park Road exit. Turn left onto Irving Park Road and follow it for about 1 mile. Turn right onto North Clark Street. The entrance to Graceland Cemetery will be on your right, at the corner.
history
From its inception in 1860, the cemetery has always been a private one. Its creator, Thomas Bryan, wanted it to stand apart from many local cemeteries of the time in order to gain business. He wanted it to look like the most beautiful and peaceful place in the city. He hired landscape architects to design the grounds. Famous area sculptors created many of the tombstones. Bryan succeeded in making Graceland one of the most attractive spaces in the city.
Throughout the many years that the cemetery has been in operation, many of the area’s most famous people have been buried here. The first white settler of Chicago, John Kinzie, is buried here. Assassinated Chicago mayor Carter Harrison is buried here. Department store magnate Marshall Field, private eye Allan Pinkerton, and Charles Dickens’s brother are all also buried here.
One of the most famous markers at the cemetery is for a girl named Inez Clarke. Many verifiable historic documents regarding this girl have been lost to history. In fact, cemetery records state that no one named Inez Clarke is buried at the cemetery. Inez is more likely a girl named Inez Briggs, daughter of Mary Clarke from a previous marriage. According to many local legends, though, Inez Clarke (1873-1880 on her marker) was at a family picnic when she was struck by lightning and killed. Distraught, her family had a likeness of her built and placed in a glass box aboveground to mark where she was buried.
ghost story
Throughout the cemetery, people sometimes detect unexplainable drops in temperature. Perhaps this is caused by one of the departed residents walking past. These temperature fluctuations would be the most widespread hauntings in the cemetery, if not for two eerie monuments.
The first is called Eternal Silence, and it is the family stone for the Graves family. The marker is an admittedly creepy statue of a robed figure with a hood. Legend says that if you look into the face of the statue, you will catch a glimpse of your own death. Further, it is said that the statue is impossible to clearly photograph and that cameras will malfunction when aimed at the statue. Plenty of photographs exist of the statue, so apparently cameras do not malfunction all the time, but people do still report malfunctioning cameras from time to time when they attempt to photograph the statue.
The second monument is the statue of Inez Clarke. Strange sounds are often heard near the marker. People hear footsteps and whispers in this vicinity. They also hear crying. However, many of the more famous stories about the marker involve the statue itself. There are several accounts of the statue completely vanishing without a trace. A girl who resembles the statue has been seen wandering through the cemetery and then vanishing. This happens most often during thunderstorms, perhaps in reference to the supposed cause of the girl’s death by lightning strike. Sometimes, people see the glass box, but it is completely empty. A particularly famous story of this phenomenon occurred in the late 1800s, when the night watchman at the cemetery experienced exactly that and fled the cemetery, never to return.
visiting
The cemetery is open daily, 8 a.m.–4:30 p.m. You may not enter the cemetery at any other times. Your best bets for experiencing something paranormal here would be to go to one of the two haunted monuments in the cemetery. You should try to take pictures of Eternal Silence to see if anything strange occurs and maybe approach the Inez Clarke marker during a thunderstorm.
HOLY SEPULCHER CEMETERY
6001 West 111th Street, Aslip, Illinois 60803
directions
From the center of Chicago, take I-55 South for more than 6 miles to Exit 286, Cicero Avenue. Turn left onto Cicero Avenue and follow it for almost 7 miles before turning right onto West 95th Street. Follow West 95th Street for 2 miles and then turn left onto Ridgeland Avenue. After 2 miles, turn left onto West 111th Street. The cemetery will be on your right.
history
After World War I, this cemetery was one of the forerunners of the modern cemetery. Upkeep of plots was, for the first time, guaranteed indefinitely. This cemetery was also the first in the area to offer headstones that did not stand, but were instead laid flat across the ground. Famous people from the area, such as Mayor Richard Daley and baseball umpire Stephen Cusack, are buried in this cemetery.
In the early 1930s, a local girl began to garner a reputation as a miracle healer. She was very religious, and people around the area would come to her hoping for some sort of miracle cure for their sickness. Tragically, the girl, named Mary Alice Quinn, died in 1935 at the age of 14. Knowing her reputation throughout the area and knowing that people seeking her help would flock to her grave and perhaps desecrate it looking for souvenirs or relics, her parents buried her in secret, in an unmarked grave within the family plot in section 7 at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery.
The plan did not work. People flocked from all over the world to the unmarked plot, digging up the ground to have dirt from her gravesite or leaving prayer books and rosaries. Still more people from around the world reported having visions of the girl and, as a result, went on pilgrimages to the cemetery to see her grave. Eventually, she was given her own stone.
Many people attribute miraculous healings to having visited the grave of Mary Alice Quinn.
