Actors portraying Downers Grove's earliest settlers will greet visitors at Main Street Cemetery on Saturday, Oct. 24, when the Downers Grove Historical Society hosts its annual Living Cemetery walk.
The free event runs from 10 a.m. to noon at the cemetery, 5158 Main St. No registration is required.
Both adult performers and local drama students will stand among the headstones and deliver first-person accounts of life in the village's early days, according to Shaw Local. The village's events listing calls it an annual collaboration that pairs young actors with adults to bring the cemetery's residents back to life for a morning.
The cemetery itself is part of the draw. Samuel Curtiss donated a piece of his sheep pasture for the burial ground in 1856, according to the Historical Society. He was later paid $15 by individuals who formed a cemetery association in 1864.
Nearly 100 members of the village's founding families are buried there, including Isrel Blackburn, a freedman, and members of the Blanchard, Curtiss and Wells families. Emma Foster Miller was the last person interred, in 1938. The site is one of the few American cemeteries located in a main business district.
The Historical Society, led by president Marty Acks, works with the Village of Downers Grove to care for the cemetery's grounds and monuments. The group adds new headstones each year as researchers identify previously undocumented burials, and supplements aging grave markers with fresh plaques when inscriptions fade.
The Living Cemetery is free and open to all ages. Details are available at DGHistory.org/Events.
Upcoming Downers Grove events:
- Saturday, Oct. 24 — Living Cemetery, 10 a.m. to noon, Main Street Cemetery, 5158 Main St. Free.
- Thursday, Nov. 12 — History on Tap, the Historical Society's seventh annual trivia pub crawl fundraiser, downtown Downers Grove.
