About this Event
Usually we have to make a lot of choices in our cemetery tours. This road or that one? This story or that one? Well, for this special tour, we're going to just say "why not both?" While our usual tours run 75-90 min, this one will go twice as long.
Rosehill is full of fascinating heroes, innovators, and pure eccentrics - as well as some of the city's most stunning artwork. A few names are known to any Chicago history buff, but many of the best stories are hidden deep behind ordinary headstones, or even in unmarked graves. There are strange eccentrics, pioneers, actors, statesmen, artists, and even a few regular villains. So many that we can't fit it all in one route! Stories may inlcude that of a pop song writer who became a big name in politics, an actor who became mayor, a man rumored to be the origin of the term "okay," a woman who was there when Lincoln was shot, a worst newspaper editor in town, a crooked cop killed by the Jesse James gang, or a woman Orson Welles called "the most fascinating person I ever met." If you came on one of our tours before, come again for new stories!
Tour guide Adam Selzer is the author of , , and a new book about serial killer Johann Hoch, who is also the subject of his new podcast, Tomb Snoopers. He is often seen on the History Channel, the Travel Channel, PBS, and Netflix. His virtual tours continue to log thousands of viewers every week.
His Rosehill cemetery tours are incredibly informative, surprisingly hilarious, and endlessly fascinating. Believing that "a great story is more interesting than a familiar name," his tours often focus on figures who somehow slipped through the cracks of history, but have better stories than many people with a name you might recognize from some foundation or organization. Drawing on years of deep research, Selzer tells the stories, including information that has only recently been discovered, and shows how the Rosehill residents' lives intersected with each other and with history.
WHAT TO KNOW:
- Meet just inside the gates off 5800 N. Ravenswood a bit before noon (NOT the gates at Western and Bryn Mawr - the big stone ones on the other side). Adam will be checking people in. Look for the guy with the headset mic.
- Come see the 2025 version of the tour! We're always updating and changing the route around to add new stories.
- Traffic on Western, Peterson, and Ridge may be tricky due to construction. Plan accordingly!
- You won't need a paper ticket, just the name on your eventbrite order.
- We normally run at 11, but moved this one back so you can have lunch first. Get your energy up!
-The usual tour runs roughly 75-90 minutes, sticking mainly to the older part of the cemetery on the Eastern side. Much of the tour is on the paved portions, but the route does require a great deal of "off road" walking to get to some of the featured graves. This, as advertised, will run about 2.5 hours.
- There is no bathroom mid tour. Cemeteries don't generally have facilities set up throughout! We'll try to arrange to be back around the office around the mid-point in the tour for this one.
- There is some parking available right inside the gates, or tons of free street parking nearby on Ravenswood. Take a right upon entering the cemetery.
- Tour runs rain or shine. The cemetery has a "no dogs or bikes" sign that we can't overrule.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
5800 N Ravenswood Ave, 5800 North Ravenswood Avenue, Chicago, United States
USD 48.80
