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By Jeff Mercer, Class of 1992

Graceland Cemetery is the final resting place of Chicago’s merchant princes, architects, and pioneers. It’s interesting to contemplate the shared histories of those interred: paths crossed, partnerships made or dissolved, divergent paths taken, accomplishments jointly achieved.

Of course, some couples spend a happy lifetime together and end their lives in the same resting place.  Potter Palmer first met Bertha when Bertha was just 13 years old, but did not court her until she was of proper age.  They married in 1870, about the time of construction of the Palmer House hotel, a wedding gift of sorts for Bertha.  Together, they changed Chicago.  Potter re-invented the department store and moved the locus of Chicago’s commercial activity to State Street, while Bertha moved the center of Chicago’s social world from Prairie Avenue to Lake Shore Drive on Chicago’s north side.  Along the way, they amassed a forward-looking art collection that included works by Renoir, Monet, and Degas, many of which are now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

When Potter, 23 years Bertha’s senior, died in 1902, it was left to Bertha to commission an appropriate memorial.  She hired the New York firm of McKim, Mead & White; the firm had considerable influence on the design of Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, popularizing the neo-Classical Beaux Arts style. That style is evident in the classically-inspired Greek Temple that sits above their graves, situated on a mound overlooking the beautiful (and aptly named) Lake Willowmere.  They have a first-rate address in death, as they did in life.

Maybe the best partnerships are the professional ones.  In the late 19th century, Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root formed one of the most creative and successful architecture firms in Chicago.  We still think of Root, whose untimely death cut his career short at the age of 41, as the design genius and Burnham as the rainmaker.  Together, they had a fruitful business partnership.  Root’s grave is marked by a large Celtic cross designed by a member of his firm and incorporating his design for the entrance to a building.  Burnham had plots adjoining Root’s, but when he died, the manmade island in Lake Willowmere was made available to the family, and his cremated remains are scattered there.

In the 20th century, engineer Fazlur Kahn and architect Bruce Graham, at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, combined to create the iconic Willis Tower (nee Sears Tower) and the John Hancock building.  Both featured Kahn’s bravura engineering solutions, bundled tubes in the Willis and dramatic cross-bracing in the Hancock.  Both approaches enabled the buildings to soar while reducing the amount of material – and hence the cost – needed to reach their soaring heights.

Their memorials are side by side, at the same level and on the same axis.  Bruce Graham designed the simple granite stone for Kahn’s monument, while Craig Hartman designed Graham’s monument that incorporates a shallow basin of Absolute Black granite with Bruce Graham’s name in crisp, modern Helvetica font that appears to float above the water of the basin when it is filled by rain.

Perhaps the most poignant coupling of individuals in Graceland is the dynamic between two men who never knew each other in life – Louis Sullivan and Richard Nickel.  Nickel was an architectural photographer and preservationist who spent his adult life documenting – and opposing the demolition of – Louis Sullivan’s buildings.  He died tragically when the Chicago Stock Exchange Building collapsed, burying him in debris. His body was not recovered for 26 days.

His monument was designed by architect John Vinci, a lifelong colleague and friend of Nickel.  During the winter, when the leaves are off the trees, one can stand at Nickel’s grave and see the large granite boulder that marks Sullivan’s.

These are a few of the couples and partnerships that come to my mind when I walk through the cemetery.  There are many more.  Join us on a nice summer day or on a fall day when the leaves are crunchy underfoot, and discover some for yourself!