Remember growing up, there was that one graveyard you just didn’t go into? You weren’t sure why, but something about the place just gave you the creeps at any time of day. Chicagoist recalls wistfully (maybe not wistfully; more like hysterically) one dare-fuelled drive into Barrington's famed White Cemetery, where two of our friends wouldn’t even breathe the open air, opting instead to cover their mouths with their shirts. And when the car became mysteriously stuck in the boneyard’s driveway … well, it wasn’t a feel-good situation. (Later reflection points to the winter weather rather than impish ghosties.)
That creepy feeling might soon extend to whomever snaps up land next to Oak Forest Hospital on the Southwest Side. Cook County, in the midst of its many budget crises, is considering selling the land as an attempt to garner some quick cash. What’s the catch? For several decades, that land was used as a “potter’s field” to house the bodies of the poor and the homeless. You know the county budget’s bad when the government’s trying to sell off corpses. Despite being situated next to a hospital, we’re not sure if any patients or specimens were buried there as a rule.
Not all of the land was plotted for cemetery use, but the boundaries are ill-formed and unmarked graves are likely scattered all over. Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley, champion of the dead, wants to be sure no grave land is sold to unscrupulous developers. That may be tough, for visitors to Graveyards of Chicago describe the acrage as having “no signs, no stones … just a large grassy area with a few deer roaming.” Quigley’s hoping the CC Forest Preserve District will step up to the plate, but wouldn’t that be like money passing from one county department to the other? If the burial-pocked land does get dug up, it wouldn’t be the first time in Chicagoland. In Elgin in 1998, ground broken for an addition to Channing Memorial Elementary School revealed a plethora of bones and gravesites. The school’s location? A former city cemetery, from which it was believed all the bodies had been moved. Channing is now reputed to be haunted. Coincedence? We think not. Good luck with those desecrated spirits, guys!
Image via Cook County Bureau of Health Services.
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My friend's mother bought a condo on the Northwest Side that was built on top of a potter's field that was used by an old insane asylum. We never told her though--she's very superstitious and we didn't want her to suddenly "see" the ghosts of the insane.
has she so far? if they start coming around, you might have some 'splainin to do. where at on the NW side?
My Mom grew up in Oak Forest. She told a long time ago of ditches being dug near the hospital and pine boxes stacked up and covered only when the ditch was full. My Aunt used to run around in the tunnel system there. That place has quite a history and I'm sure the way the county operates, there are bodies buried all over that property with no records.
Damn! Poltergeist was THE movie back in the day.
Wow, every time Oak Forest gets in the news its always bad, lol. Not like Cicero, but bad. Funny thing is I live within steps of this place.
I used to visit (trespass) here as a kid and go on adventures on the property. It is soo huge and mysterious. It really makes you wonder what the true need was for all that land.Ah the good old days of building our fort over the hidden lake.
I hope the "Toddler" does the right thing, but we all know what he is capable of, lol!
Shit if they scrap the whole hospital, it would make a great college campus, or fairgrounds. The place is another city within Oak Forest.
the article mentioned only selling the land next to the hospital, not the hospital itself. but who knows? at the rate they're going, the county board might decide we don't need any hospitals and can fend for ourselves.
Shannon, it's some condos at Narragansatt and Irving. Apparently the builders knew about the cemetary and just didn't tell anyone, but it came out after they sold the new condos. My friend's mother sold hers and moved to Mexico w/o any supernatural visitations I know of.
There is a specific, named cemetery - St. Gabriel -just south of the hospital on Cicero that is clearly marked as a cemetery for those without families or financial means for proper burial. It's a peaceful, serene place with few markers (if any) and some trees. Worth a visit if you're into cemeteries. I trust this isn't a parcel that would be up for sale?
Saint Gabriel Cemetery entrance:
http://www.graveyards.com/bin/grave?id=153
guest 7: holy crap! i went looking for that cemetery one time, only to be greeted by a strip mall. no signs or plaques where it might have been.
guest 8/9: i'll put it on my radar. i'm a sucker for cemeteries. :) as far as i know, that one's not for sale.. i wonder if jewish graceland in north lakeview can say the same.. neighbors had a flap with that some time ago.
wouldn’t that be like money passing from one county department to the other?
No, because the forest preserve is its own freestanding unit of government, even though it shares the same president and board as Cook County. There has been talk in the past of entirely separating the two governments and giving the forest preserve district its own board and president (something Dupage County actually implemented not that long ago), but I'm not sure if there is any active consideration of the idea right now.