The cemetery covers 72 acres (29 ha) and roughly 46,000 people are buried there.

Westlawn was the site of gravestone desecration in January 2008.

Using white and blue spray paint, the vandal drew swastikas and slurs on tombstones in a western section of the cemetery.

A 21-year-old Polish immigrant male was charged with the crime in February 2008.

He has been directly linked by police to a neo-Nazi organization in the Chicago area and he was a member of the National Socialist Movement.