November 22, 1936 – Ernest Robert Graham dies at his home at 25 Banks
Street at the age of 68, his death attributed to overwork. At the age of 16 Graham went to work for his
father in Lowell, Michigan, as a carpenter and mason. Of this early labor he later said, “Honest
toil never hurt anyone regardless of age.
My work with the trowel stood up with the best of them. These were the days when a bricklayer laid
three thousand bricks a day.” [Architecture and Planning of Graham,
Anderson, Probst and White – 1912-1936.
Chappell, Sally A. Kitt] By
the age of 20 he had earned degrees from Coe College and the University of
Notre Dame. He came to Chicago at age of
20 and entered the employ of Daniel Burnham, drawing plans for the World’s
Columbian Exposition of 1893. When
Daniel Burnham died in 1912, Graham and three other architects took over the
firm, going on to design some of the great second-generation buildings in the
city. They include the Wrigley Building,
the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium, the Merchandise Mart, 135 South La Salle,
Union Station, the Pittsfield Building, and the main post office. Services for the architect take place at the
Fourth Presbyterian Church on November 24, after which he is interred in
Graceland Cemetery.
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