About this Event
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 include that of a pop songwriter who became a very big name in politics, an actor who became mayor, the wife of an 1880s serial killer, a man rumored to be the origin of the term "okay," a woman who was there when Lincoln was shot, the worst newspaper editor in town, an itinerant inventor/anti-corset advocate who hired a young upstart named Frank Lloyd Wright to design his house, a crooked cop killed by the Jesse James gang, or a woman Orson Welles called "the most fascinating person I ever met."
Tour guide Adam Selzer of Mysterious Chicago Tours is the author of several published books on Chicago history, Including Mysterious Chicago, the Amazon Best-Selling HH Holmes: The True History of the White City Devil, Ghosts of Chicago, Graceland Cemetery: Chicago Stories Symbols and Secrets, and a new book about serial killer Johann Hoch. His research has been featured in Rolling Stone, The New York Times, the Washington Post, and more. He's a regular on the History and Travel channels, appearing on such shows as American Ripper, Haunted History, How To Become a Mob Boss, Chicago Mysteries, Mysteries at the Museum, I Was There, and many others. In fall 2025, he has a new podcast: Tomb Snoopers
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.
In the old days Rosehill had its own train stop, complete with an elevator for lowering coffins (which still stands). The Peterson/Ridge Metra station has now opened right on the corner!
WHAT TO KNOW:
- Meet just inside the gates off 5800 N. Ravenswood a bit before 11am (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.
- You won't need a paper ticket, just the name on your eventbrite order.
-The 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 some "off road" walking to get to some of the featured graves. If it's hot, we try to stay in the shade!
- There is no bathroom mid tour. Cemeteries don't generally have facilities set up throughout! You can use the one in the office before and after, though.
- There is a good deal parking available right inside the gates (pull in and turn right), or tons of free street parking nearby on Ravenswood. The brand new Peterson/Ridge Metra station will be open by the time of the tour, only steps from the cemetery entrance!
- Tour runs rain or shine. The cemetery has a "no dogs or bikes" sign that we can't overrule. (Hey, back in 1892 a guy got so mad when his brother borrowed his bike and rode it through Rosehill that they had a fight that ended with one of them dead. Let's not start anything!)
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
5800 N Ravenswood Ave, 5800 North Ravenswood Avenue, Chicago, United States
USD 25.31
