Rosehill Cemetery Self-Guided Tour

Rosehill Cemetery 5K: A Self-Guided Tour

Welcome!
Tonight’s tour takes you through history and hauntings across sacred, hallowed ground. The route is a bit of a mystery, so keep your eyes open for these tombs and spirits. Think of it as a supernatural scavenger hunt.

Stay on the race path… and have fun out there!

The Gates of Rosehill

Lulu Fellows was a talented elocutionist in the 19th century, performing even for Robert Todd Lincoln.

She died tragically at 16, and visitors leave coins, toys, and other tokens at her grave.

Etched in her monument: “Many Hopes Lie Buried Here.”

Even in winter, when no flowers bloom, a delicate floral scent sometimes drifts across her grave—a ghostly reminder of a life too short.

Darius Miller and the Curse of the Mummy

Miller’s mausoleum is a replica of the Temple of Anubis, showing his love for Egypt.

He attended the opening of King Tut’s tomb, making him part of the Pharaoh’s curse. Ancient inscriptions warned:

"All people who enter this tomb… may the crocodile be against them in water, and snakes against them on land. May the hippopotamus be against them in water, the scorpion against them on land."

Strange events followed: Carter, the archaeologist, found a cobra in a birdcage, while his canary lay dead nearby. Others connected to the tomb died mysteriously.

Darius Miller himself died the spring after the tomb’s opening. Locals claim his mausoleum is haunted: every May 1st at dawn, a blue light shines from it—his spirit guarding his tomb for over eighty years.

The Horatio May Chapel & Receiving Vault

Horatio May was a Chicago businessman, fire lieutenant, and civic leader.

After his death in 1898, his wife Anna funded a chapel at Rosehill, designed by Joseph Lyman Silsbee in Gothic-Romanesque style.

• 35 x 70 feet
  
  

• Granite exterior
  
  

• Mosaic tile floors
  
  

• Oak roof with hammer beam trusses
  
  

At the rear: a receiving vault, once used to shelter bodies when the ground was frozen. Though no longer in use, the vault carries a faint, eerie air of lives held in quiet suspension.

Rosehill Mausoleum

Dedicated in 1914, designed by Sidney Lovell, who rests inside.

The interior is all marble, including Italian Carrara floors.

• West wings: long corridors lined with crypts
  
  

• East side: small private rooms with bronze gates
  
  

• Some rooms feature stained glass by Tiffany and other artists
  
  

Notable interments: Mayors Richard Ogilvie & Dwight Green, A. Montgomery Ward, Richard Warren Sears, and John G. Shedd.

Legend says Richard Sears haunts outside Montgomery Ward’s tomb—their spirits still arguing bitterly over old rivalries.

A Mysterious Mist

Frances Pearce’s monument came from the old Chicago City Cemetery.

• Statue of Frances with her daughter Frances Pearce Stone
  
  

• Both entombed in a glass case
  
  

Frances died at 20; her daughter at 10 months. Heartbroken, her husband commissioned the sculpture.

On the anniversary of their deaths, a glowing white mist sometimes fills the case—as if mother and child are calling across time.

Closing

Thank you for joining our self-guided 5K!

We’re also running ghost tours in Andersonville and Lincoln Park all October.

Sign up here: Shadow Carriers
Podcast: Shadow Carriers (available wherever you stream)

Keep your eyes open… you never know what might be watching.