Oak Woods Cemetery is located at 1035 East 67th Street, straddling both Woodlawn and Greater Grand Crossing neighborhoods on Chicago’s South Side.
The cemetery is just a few blocks southwest of Jackson Park, which was the stage of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
The Illinois Central Railroad (ICRR) had stops right by the cemetery. The older railroad stops and streetcar lines, and now the CTA, had direct stops by the cemetery; even the “L”, or elevated railroad that opened for service on June 6, 1892, has had its closest stop to the cemetery on 69th St which is still some ways away from the cemetery entrance.
The original railroad stops that serviced Oak Woods Cemetery were the 67th St Station and the Brookdale Station, on 70th St, on the East side of the cemetery along the now Metra rail tracks, and the Brookline Station on 71st St along the now Amtrak rail tracks on the West side of the cemetery. The 67th St station was closed with the transition to Metra in 1984 along with the Brookdale stop and the Brookline stop in the 1970s when Amtrak took over.
The streetcar lines of the Chicago City Railway (CCR) were commonly used for funerals at Oak Woods. An article from the 1891 Street Railway Review describes the use of funeral street cars. The street cars unfortunately ended service on June 21, 1958; the last Chicago streetcar was along Vincennes Ave. The specific streetcar that serviced the cemetery was along the Cottage Grove Ave line which was extended to reach 67th St and the cemetery in 1888. The street cars were a highly popular feature of Chicago and the CCR streetcar system was one of the best in the country and certainly a leading street car company. Due to decreasing ridership, in addition to the very complex history involving Chicago and its transportation systems, all the streetcars were shut down and subsequently converted to bus routes in the late 20th century.
Today, the cemetery is accessible through CTA transportation with the following buses: 4, 71, 67, 95, N5. It is also bordered by the three Metra lines on its East side and an Amtrak line about a block away on the West side.