David Kennison's monument, viewed from the west. The Lincoln Park Zoo
is in the background.
Statue of Benjamin Franklin (who is not buried in Chicago)
The effort to remove bodies from City Cemetery and convert it to a public space was not entirely successful. Many burial sites were overlooked, through poor documentation, or fraud on the part of the contractors who were paid to remove them. Well into the twentieth century, in Lincoln Park and in the heavily-populated areas adjacent to it, construction projects would occasionally unearth human remains and the remnants of flimsy wooden coffins.
Although for most people it is merely a park, so long as human bodies remain, Lincoln Park will always be a graveyard.
15 February 2008
