The Empty Mausoleum - Chicago, IL - Mausoleums on Waymarking.com

Other than the name engraved at the top "LEHMANN" there is no information here. Nor is there information at the Wikipedia article on this cemetery or on the cemetery's own website. However, this website (visit link) informs us the Mausoleum is known as "The Empty Mausoleum" and that it had contained the family of Ernst J. Lehmann who was the proprietor of The Fair Department Store.
"...in 1849, Lehmann came to America in 1858 and was considered a pioneer in the department store business. Legend has it that Lehmann had been a friend of the Haase family and helped them run the picnic grounds on this land before the cemetery was established. One account indicates that he may have piloted a pleasure boat drawn by geese on the Des Plaines River.

Lehmann eventually suffered a breakdown, attributed to overwork, and he spent the last decade of his life in sanitariums, dying in White Plains, New York, on January 5, 1900. His son, Edward J., ran the store in his absence.

According to an illustration on a 1905 letterhead for German Waldheim Cemetery, "E. J. Lehmann Memorial" was carved along the roofline of the mausoleum. Originally, six bodies were buried in the mausoleum, but in 1920, they were all moved to an even more impressive mausoleum on an island in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago; the crypt has been empty ever since."

History: see above Visiting Hours/Restrictions: 8-4:30 Address: 4001 N. Clark Street Chicago, IL USA 60613 Website: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
Visits to site, post a minimum of at least one picture, Gps not required. Explain experience of visit.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log   06/20/2011 Metro2 visited it