Lake Forest Cemetery

Lake Forest Cemetery occupies about 23 acres on the bluffs above Lake Michigan, on the northern edge of Lake Forest, Illinois. Almerin Hotchkiss chose the site in 1857 for its rolling ground, ravines and lake views. William Le Baron Jenney revised the plat in 1882 and set out the road system still in use. In 1900-1901 Ossian Cole Simonds redesigned the grounds in the Prairie Style of Landscape Gardening, with graded open spaces, sunlit clearings, enclosing plantings and framed views. At least 50 trees from his early plantings remain. The cemetery also holds 17 contributing structures and 131 contributing objects. These include the 1919 Barrell Memorial Gate of gray limestone with wrought iron work, private granite mausoleums built between about 1906 and 1934, a columbarium and a white marble Roman-style funerary temple. The cemetery is still active and keeps the quiet, park-like character that Simonds created.