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Beth Jacob Cemetery, Morton Grove/Niles
Posted by:
craig16
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Date: June 08, 2008 07:21PM
Anyone know the legal status of the old, abandoned Jewish cemetery near the intersection of Waukegan and Shermer?
Growing up in Niles in the '70s, my friends and I used to play in the "old cemetery." There were overturned headstones among the overgrown weeds and empty beer cans. The inscriptions were mostly in Hebrew, but some of the death dates were pre-1900 if I recall. Many tombstones were broken and a few had swastikas scrawled on them (nice to see, especially for us Jewish kids). I know the area had been cleaned up and the headstones re-erected within the newly-named "Shermer Park" in the '90s, but now the entire area, while mowed and maintained, is fenced off with a big locked gate on the Niles side and no point of entry on the Morton Grove side. A way to at least view the cemetery is from the parking lot of Lavitt Animal Hospital at 8450 Waukegan Rd., Morton Grove. The thing is, there might be bodies still buried there. Not much on the web about it, except this entry from jewishgen.org in 1998:
* Beth Jacob: also called Keheleth Jacob Anshe Drohiczen. {10835} Names were listed on web 5/98 as they wish to remove the bodies and build something on the grounds. Local children (?) wrecked the cemetery. Some of the headstones have since been moved to a newly constructed fenced-in area for protection. The bodies are still out in an empty field. At the current time, a developer picked up the property on a tax sale (On the death of the president of the cemetery association, nobody filed for a tax exemption so it went back on the tax role). Source: Jewel Fishkin; e-mail: xjewelx@webtv.net
Since discovering historicaerials.com, I compared the empty field north of the current 8450 Waukegan Rd. entry with the 1938 view. The cemetery (which appears to be the only thing around these parts back then) seems to have been subsequently built over by houses and apartments while the entry path off Waukegan Rd. is where the headstones must have been displaced (bulldozed?) and where the empty field now stands. If the bodies were never reinterred, they must be under these residences, no?
Growing up in Niles in the '70s, my friends and I used to play in the "old cemetery." There were overturned headstones among the overgrown weeds and empty beer cans. The inscriptions were mostly in Hebrew, but some of the death dates were pre-1900 if I recall. Many tombstones were broken and a few had swastikas scrawled on them (nice to see, especially for us Jewish kids). I know the area had been cleaned up and the headstones re-erected within the newly-named "Shermer Park" in the '90s, but now the entire area, while mowed and maintained, is fenced off with a big locked gate on the Niles side and no point of entry on the Morton Grove side. A way to at least view the cemetery is from the parking lot of Lavitt Animal Hospital at 8450 Waukegan Rd., Morton Grove. The thing is, there might be bodies still buried there. Not much on the web about it, except this entry from jewishgen.org in 1998:
* Beth Jacob: also called Keheleth Jacob Anshe Drohiczen. {10835} Names were listed on web 5/98 as they wish to remove the bodies and build something on the grounds. Local children (?) wrecked the cemetery. Some of the headstones have since been moved to a newly constructed fenced-in area for protection. The bodies are still out in an empty field. At the current time, a developer picked up the property on a tax sale (On the death of the president of the cemetery association, nobody filed for a tax exemption so it went back on the tax role). Source: Jewel Fishkin; e-mail: xjewelx@webtv.net
Since discovering historicaerials.com, I compared the empty field north of the current 8450 Waukegan Rd. entry with the 1938 view. The cemetery (which appears to be the only thing around these parts back then) seems to have been subsequently built over by houses and apartments while the entry path off Waukegan Rd. is where the headstones must have been displaced (bulldozed?) and where the empty field now stands. If the bodies were never reinterred, they must be under these residences, no?
Re: Beth Jacob Cemetery, Morton Grove/Niles
Posted by:
MIKETOUHY
(---.dsl.chcgil.sbcglobal.net)
Date: June 09, 2008 07:27PM
I think we need to clarify where exactly on Waukegan this cemetery was.
Bewtween Dempster and Oakton there are 2 streets at 2 different places.
Shermer at Waukegan which is on the west side of thew street has a park and the east side of Waikegan is still Niles.
The other street just north just before Dempster is Caldwell which is wher Morton Grove come in.
So which is which?
Bewtween Dempster and Oakton there are 2 streets at 2 different places.
Shermer at Waukegan which is on the west side of thew street has a park and the east side of Waikegan is still Niles.
The other street just north just before Dempster is Caldwell which is wher Morton Grove come in.
So which is which?
Re: Beth Jacob Cemetery, Morton Grove/Niles
Posted by:
craig16
(---.dsl.emhril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: June 10, 2008 02:36AM
The fenced-off area is a strip of land running west-east between Shermer and Waukegan south of Dempster and just north of Main Street. (In landmark terms, south of Classic Bowl, north of Lavitt Animal Hospital (which both have Morton Grove addresses) and west of that nursing home on the peninsula where Caldwell meets Waukegan.) The original entrance was on the Waukegan side.
Here's the exact spot: http://illinois.hometownlocator.com/maps/feature-map,ftc,2,fid,404238,n,Beth%20Jacob%20Cemetery.cfm
If I'm looking at the historicaerials.com photo correctly, it appears that the apartments just south of the Classic Bowl parking lot and other homes are standing where the headstones used to reside, (unless in the 1938 shot, those orderly shapes are hay bales and not headstones) . For some reason, historicaerials wasn't landing on the 8450 Waukengan address, so I had to pan north from the Oakton/Waukegan intersection that it put me at.
Here's the exact spot: http://illinois.hometownlocator.com/maps/feature-map,ftc,2,fid,404238,n,Beth%20Jacob%20Cemetery.cfm
If I'm looking at the historicaerials.com photo correctly, it appears that the apartments just south of the Classic Bowl parking lot and other homes are standing where the headstones used to reside, (unless in the 1938 shot, those orderly shapes are hay bales and not headstones) . For some reason, historicaerials wasn't landing on the 8450 Waukengan address, so I had to pan north from the Oakton/Waukegan intersection that it put me at.
Re: Beth Jacob Cemetery, Morton Grove/Niles
Posted by:
MIKETOUHY
(---.dsl.chcgil.sbcglobal.net)
Date: June 15, 2008 10:43PM
Also was there another cemetery in that smae area?
I ask because I learned through some videos I used to rent from the Park Ridge Public Library dealing with the towms history.
One was an interview with someone who was in charge of the Town Of Maine Cemetery here in PR and he mentioned years earlier on moving some graves from a location of Waukegan RD in Morton Grove saying that the city at the time wanted to develope the land into industrial park though he didn't give any exact date or give the nearest cross street.
Another person interviewed who's family originally came Skokie mentioned having reletives burried in a cemetery at Waukegan near Dempster St in Morton Grove in a cemetery which is now a foreat preserve.
Only FP that's there is behined the shopping center and former industial area now being developed in to apartments.
I ask because I learned through some videos I used to rent from the Park Ridge Public Library dealing with the towms history.
One was an interview with someone who was in charge of the Town Of Maine Cemetery here in PR and he mentioned years earlier on moving some graves from a location of Waukegan RD in Morton Grove saying that the city at the time wanted to develope the land into industrial park though he didn't give any exact date or give the nearest cross street.
Another person interviewed who's family originally came Skokie mentioned having reletives burried in a cemetery at Waukegan near Dempster St in Morton Grove in a cemetery which is now a foreat preserve.
Only FP that's there is behined the shopping center and former industial area now being developed in to apartments.
Re: Beth Jacob Cemetery, Morton Grove/Niles
Posted by:
craig16
(---.dsl.emhril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: June 17, 2008 04:03AM
There's a small Christian cemetery nearby on the west side of Shermer Rd. almost across the street from the Shermer-side access to the strip of land I'm talking about. It's also old, but still well-maintained.
I'd bet this is the cemetery on Waukegan near Dempster that was referred to in that interview you saw. And maybe most of the descendents had reinterred their loved ones, leaving those without ties (or survivors with the money/energy/interest to do anything) to stay put. If you look on historicaerials.com from 1938, not much else is in the area (though the other cemetery on Shermer is there). And I guess you could technically say it's a forest preserve. It certainly had become a forest when I was a kid.
From what research I had done off and on through the years, the Beth Jacob Congregation had moved from the area (north?) and the cemetery had fallen into disrepair. Sadly, this is not unique in our area.
According to Jewishgen.org, Jewish Graceland Cemetery on Clark St. has been poorly maintained over the years and here's the entry for another:
CEMETERIES BETH-EL and RIDGELAWN CEMETERIES: 5736 N. Pulaski, just north of Montrose. This small and badly neglected section sits in a depression ringed with trees. Most of the stones have toppled. Weeds grow untrimmed. Trash, such as rusted barrels, oilcans, and piles of tree branches, has been dumped near here. Close to an area where construction equipment and groundskeepers' trucks are kept, the stones date from approximately 1895. A fence separates the two main sections. The gate in this fence is too narrow to drive through. Burials range from approximately 1895 to 1999. Most of the older burials are in the rear. All headstones face east. Many use the words "At Rest" to indicate the date of death. Stone benches are a popular choice here. A few pictures at http://www.graveyards.com/IL/Cook/bethel/
I'd bet this is the cemetery on Waukegan near Dempster that was referred to in that interview you saw. And maybe most of the descendents had reinterred their loved ones, leaving those without ties (or survivors with the money/energy/interest to do anything) to stay put. If you look on historicaerials.com from 1938, not much else is in the area (though the other cemetery on Shermer is there). And I guess you could technically say it's a forest preserve. It certainly had become a forest when I was a kid.
From what research I had done off and on through the years, the Beth Jacob Congregation had moved from the area (north?) and the cemetery had fallen into disrepair. Sadly, this is not unique in our area.
According to Jewishgen.org, Jewish Graceland Cemetery on Clark St. has been poorly maintained over the years and here's the entry for another:
CEMETERIES BETH-EL and RIDGELAWN CEMETERIES: 5736 N. Pulaski, just north of Montrose. This small and badly neglected section sits in a depression ringed with trees. Most of the stones have toppled. Weeds grow untrimmed. Trash, such as rusted barrels, oilcans, and piles of tree branches, has been dumped near here. Close to an area where construction equipment and groundskeepers' trucks are kept, the stones date from approximately 1895. A fence separates the two main sections. The gate in this fence is too narrow to drive through. Burials range from approximately 1895 to 1999. Most of the older burials are in the rear. All headstones face east. Many use the words "At Rest" to indicate the date of death. Stone benches are a popular choice here. A few pictures at http://www.graveyards.com/IL/Cook/bethel/
Re: Beth Jacob Cemetery, Morton Grove/Niles
Posted by:
craig16
(208.23.176.---)
Date: June 17, 2008 06:02PM
My earlier source had a typo. The cemetery was associated with Congregation Kehilath Jacob Anshe Drohiczen, not "Keheleth." Apparently, Benny Goodman was a member. Here's a new link, with pic:
http://www.graveyards.com/bin/grave?id=18
Someone said there was an article about it in the Chicago Reader a few months back, but I haven't been able to track it down.
http://www.graveyards.com/bin/grave?id=18
Someone said there was an article about it in the Chicago Reader a few months back, but I haven't been able to track it down.
