A Suburban Detour: Museums at Lisle Station Park
I have lived in Lisle my whole life and so I have grown up knowing the suburbs better than Chicago. But I did not know about the museums at Lisle Station Park until a neighbor invited me. I liked it so much that I decided to become a museum volunteer. This was six years ago. […]
A Tour of the Inside of Tribune Tower
Whenever I come downtown and walk up Michigan Avenue the Tribune Tower is rising above. Walking past the building, I would look into the showcase studio for WGN radio. Then, I’d admire the countless stones placed on the facade from around the world. This past Saturday, I got the very cool opportunity to go inside […]
Middle Eastern Explorations in Albany Park
Sometimes I need a break from going downtown just about every day. Our office is in the Loop and many of our tours, too. In order to build a tour business, and not just a tour hobby, one has to start where the visitors are – both from afar and from the suburbs. Chicago Detours […]
The Chicago Picasso: Beginnings of Public Art in Chicago
It hard to walk past Daley Plaza and not catch a glimpse of Chicago Picasso. The colossal three dimension sculpture towers 50 feet into the sky above plaza. Some say it is a woman, a horse, or even a baboon. To locals of Chicago however, this sculpture is just the Picasso. (By the way, you […]
Rambling Around Rogers Park
Take a straight shot to the north edge of chicago to find Rogers Park, which has the eclectic mix of people you’d expect of a border town — except it’s a border neighborhood. Hop off the CTA red line at Morse and you are in Rogers Park; The Glenwood Avenue Arts District, to be exact. […]
Lost Chicago Drinking Poems
We lose things for all kinds of reasons – we’re absent minded, we drop them, or we just plain forget about them. One could make many cases for why drinking poems might get lost over time: 1. People were drunk when they wrote them, so they aren’t worth being remembered. 2. People got drunk after […]
A Historic Home in an Ocean of Brutalism
Among the 1950s and 1960s buildings of the University of Illinois at Chicago campus, one place just does not look like the others! The original Jane Addams Hull House, now a museum, has Italianate cornices and a columned porch. In addition to Jane Addams fame as the “Mother of Social Work,” here you can gain […]
Exploring the Chicago Archives
Tips For Finding Fascinating Documents and Objects in the Chicago Archives Tip #1 Don’t be Afraid to Ask Questions I like to browse. I browse the paper, browse menus, and browse my way through museums. In bookstores, I will go to the fiction section and thumb through a few interesting-looking novels before choosing one to […]
Archival Research in Chicago
Have you ever been to the Harold Washington Public Library? It’s that giant building on the corner of State and Van Buren. Like most Chicagoans, I have been to this particular library to see an author or to read, and when I was young I checked out books there with my father. Beyond that, though, […]
Architecture at Decorators Supply
The title is just a joke. I had the rare opportunity to go on a private tour visit of the plaster-filled factory of Decorators Supply, a manufacturer of classical architectural details and significant figure in Chicago architectural history. They craft columns, pilasters, capitals, and a seemingly infinite list of ornaments out of plaster, wood, and […]