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. […]
Learn About the Public Spaces of Chicago Women’s History
During the 1800s Chicago women participated in few social activities outside of the home. Most activities required women to be escorted at all times as they were not to be left alone in public. On our Loop Interior Architecture Walking Tour, we go into the former Marshall Field’s department store and discuss how the store […]
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 […]
Beer + Poetry + History = Grand Success
Last Saturday night, Chicago Detours brought together a fabulous combination: writers and drinking at the historic Berghoff Bar. AWP award winners joined local artists and novelists to read a selection of Chicago Drinking poems that we at Chicago Detours dug up from library archives and old anthologies. Readers shouted out the poems amid clinking glasses […]
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 […]
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, […]
Group Urban Excursions (aka Private Tours)
2022 Update: We no longer offer public tours and have kept this post as a historical record of our role in innovating in travel and tourism. Lately we’ve been bombarded by interest in our private tours of Chicago, and it probably comes along with the surge in interest in unique experiences these days. (FYI, we […]
Part Zwei (2) of Christkindlmarket: Tips for a Visit
We’d like to share a few tips to make the most out of your visit for shopping, food, and drinks at the Christkindlmarket. While the size of the Christkindlmarket is by no means intimidating, it’s easy to overlook some of the market’s most authentic offerings. Of course, you can let us lead you through Christkindlmarket […]
Answers About the Pedway
We get a lot of questions about the Chicago Pedway system our private tours of downtown. So here are some more in-depth responses. We research stories from Chicago history, architecture and culture like this while developing our live virtual tours, in-person private tours, and custom content for corporate events. You can join us to experience Chicago’s stories in-person […]