Peter Schoenhofen Monument

Peter Schoenhofen Monument, 1893

Richard E. Schmidt

Graceland Cemetery
Along Main Avenue south of the lake

4001 North Clark Street

            Peter Schoenhofen (1827-1893) was born in Prussia and emigrated to the United States at age 24. He co-founded a brewery in 1860 that would later become Schoenhofen Brewing Company, located at 18^th and Canalport. Also known as National Brewing Company, one of its most popular brews was the “Edelweiss” brand. A victim of Prohibition, the brewery closed in 1924 but reopen in 1933 as the Schoenhofen-Edelweiss Company and in the late 1940s it was taken over by Dewery’s Ltd. of South Bend, Indiana. The Chicago operations are long closed but some of the structures, most likely built by Schmidt, Garden & Martin, are still standing.

            This monument is a steep-sided granite mausoleum in the Egyptian Revival style. The stepped entrance features two guardian figures: a sphinx inspired by the Egyptian half-man, half-feline form and a Victorian-style winged angel, who seems out of place in this context. Nonetheless, the monument is one of the most photographed of all the works in Graceland Cemetery.