Welcome to my THE DEEP POCKETS OF GRACELAND CEMETERY tour. On this tour, you will see the tombs and mausoleums of many famous architects like William LeBaron Jenney, John Root, Louis Sullivan, Mies Van der Rohe, and Daniel Burnham, and other rich and famous "deep pockets" like Marshall Field, Palmer Potter, George Pullman, Walter Newberry and more!
Here in the app, I have included several additional photos related to some of the stops. As you open each stop in the app I would suggest you read about the tomb first and then click on the two arrows in the upper right-hand corner of the first photo you see and that will pop out the photos and videos so you can view them full screen.
Graceland Cemetery History from Adam Selzer's Book: Graceland Cemetery, Chicago Stories, Symbols & Secrets (HIGHLY RECOMMEND!)
During Thomas Bryan's time in Chicago, there was hardly a week that he wasn't in the papers for something or another. An 1848 Harvard grad who spoke half a dozen languages, he built railroads, erected concert halls, founded the suburb of Elmhurst, ran for mayor more than once, and rubbed elbows with lots of famous people.
The son of an abolitionist Virginia politician he served as a pallbearer for Abraham Lincoln.
When General Grant made a speech at the World's fair which was his first public speech, Thomas introduced him onstage.
In the 1880s he had an office in William Le Baron Jenney's Home Insurance Building, the first modern "steel frame" skyscraper. In the early 1890s, he was Vice President and Commissioner at Large for the World's Fair and Columbian Exposition, traveling the world and meeting with people such as the Pope to promote the interests of the upcoming Fair.
And in the middle of his Columbian Exposition work, he sold a 51 percent interest in a copier machine company to H. H. Holmes, the murderous "Devil in the White City," who paid him with a $7000 promissory note. Thomas never got a cent in cash, making him one of Holmes' biggest individual swindling victims.
And, in the middle of all these exploits, he somehow made time to found Graceland Cemetery. Enjoy the tour!
I’m Ronnie Frey creator of the popular Instagram account @doorwaysofchicago. I welcome you to follow me there and all my other socials like TikTok and YouTube with the same handle @doorwaysofchicago. I also give in-person tours and private tours and those can all be found on my website doorwaysofchicago.com. If you would like to reach out via email please feel free: ronnie@doorwaysofchicago.com
I have designed a growing number of tours in this eATLAS app that span many different neighborhoods as well as downtown Chicago. I welcome you to check them out! Many of them have promo videos you can watch prior to purchasing.