-
12th Street Beach
A path runs south from the planetarium to 12th St Beach, where you can climb the rocks to the breakwater for good views of the lake and the fisherman likely casting there. Despite its proximity to the Museum Campus and its zillions of visitors, the crescent-shaped sand sliver remains bizarrely (but happily) secluded. Bonus: if you can't get tickets to see your favorite band at Charter One Pavilion, you can sit here and still hear the tunes.
-
Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum
The first planetarium built in the western hemisphere, the Adler has seen visitor numbers soar in recent years. From the entrance, visitors descend below the 1930's building, which has 12 sides, one for each sign of the zodiac. In the newest wing, a digital sky show recreates such cataclysmic phenomena as supernovas. Interactive exhibits allow you to simulate cosmic events such as a meteor hitting the earth (this one is especially cool).
-
Alta Vista Terrace
Chicago's first designated historic district is worthy of the honor. Developer Samuel Eberly Gross re-created a block of London row houses on Alta Vista Tce in 1904. The 20 exquisitely detailed homes on either side of the street mirror each other diagonally, and the owners have worked hard at maintaining the spirit of the block. Individuality isn't dead, however - have a look at the back of the west row
-
Art Institute of Chicago
One of the world's premier museums, the Art Institute of Chicago has the kind of celebrity-heavy collection that routinely draws gasps from patrons. Grant Wood's stern American Gothic ? Check. Edward Hopper's lonely Nighthawks ? Yep. Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on La Grand Jatte ? Here. The museum's collection of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings is second only to those in France.
-
Astor Street
In 1882 Bertha and Potter Palmer were the power couple of Chicago. His web of businesses included the city's best hotel and a huge general merchandise store he later sold to a clerk named Marshall Field. Their relocation north from Prairie Ave to a mansion on N Lake Shore Dr set off a lemming-like rush of Chicago's wealthy to follow. The mansions along Astor St, especially the 1300 to 1500 blocks, reflect the grandeur of that heady age.
-
Batcolumn
Artist Claes Oldenburg - known for his gigantic shuttlecocks in Kansas City and oversized cherry-spoon in Minneapolis - delivered this simple, controversial sculpture to Chicago in 1977. The artist mused that the 96ft bat 'seemed to connect earth and sky the way a tornado does.' Hmm... See it for yourself in front of the Harold Washington Social Security Center.
-
Biograph Theater
In 1934, the 'lady in red' betrayed gangster John Dillinger here when he took new girlfriend Polly Hamilton to a show and her roommate Anna Sage tagged along, wearing a red dress. Dillinger, a notorious bank robber, was the FBI's first 'Public Enemy Number One.' Sage also had troubles with the law and was about to be deported when she agreed to set Dillinger up. FBI agents shot him in the alley beside the theater, which now hosts plays.
-
Boystown
What the Castro is to San Francisco, Boystown is to the Windy City. The mecca of queer Chicago (especially for men), the streets of Boystown are full of rainbow flags and packed with bars, shops and restaurants catering to the residents of the gay neighborhood.
-
Bronzeville Historic Buildings
Once home to Louis Armstrong and other notables, Bronzeville thrived as the city's vibrant center of black life from 1920 to 1950, boasting an economic and cultural strength akin to New York's Harlem. Shifting populations, urban decay and the construction of a wall of public housing led to its. Recently, the area has begun its comeback with resident young urban professionals and South Loop development. Still, it's not a safe place at night.
-
Buckingham Fountain
This is one of the world's largest squirters, with a 1.5 million gallon capacity and a 15-story-high spray. Wealthy widow Kate Sturges Buckingham gave the magnificent structure to the city in 1927 in memory of her brother, Clarence. She also wisely left an endowment to maintain and operate it. The central fountain symbolizes Lake Michigan, with the four water-spouting sea creatures representing the surrounding states.
-
Advertisement
-
Chicago Board Of Trade
The Board of Trade is a 1930 art deco gem. Inside, manic traders swap futures and options. No one really knows what those are, other than it has something to do with corn. Or maybe it's wheat. A small visitors center (312-435-3590; - Mon-Fri) tries to explain it all. Or just stay outside and gaze up at the mondo statue of Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, that tops the building.
-
Chicago Children's Museum
The target audience of this attraction will love the place. Designed to challenge the imaginations of toddlers through to 10-year-olds, the colorful and lively museum near the main entrance to Navy Pier gives its wee visitors enough hands-on exhibits to keep them climbing and creating for hours.
-
Chicago Cultural Center
Think you're just going to swing into the Visitors Center here and grab some free maps? Think again. Exhibitions, beautiful interior design and lunchtime concerts and arts lectures (admission free; Mon-Fri) make the block-long Chicago Cultural Center a worthy destination in its own right. Take a moment as you enter on either Randolph or Washington Sts to find the schedule of events (usually posted just inside the doors).
-
Chicago Fire Department Academy
Rarely has a public building been placed in a more appropriate place: the fire department's school stands on the very spot where the 1871 fire began - between Clinton and Jefferson Sts. Although there's no word on whether junk mail still shows up for Mrs O'Leary, the academy trains firefighters so they'll be ready the next time somebody, or some critter, kicks over a lantern.
-
Chicago History Museum
The recently renovated Chicago History Museum is just the place to get an idea of how this great city grew and developed. The museum's permanent exhibition 'Crossroads of America' contains plenty about the Lincolns, Capones, Daleys and other notables, but the 'average Joe' is the real focus, with emphasis on how the city's expansion, successes and crises affected ordinary Chicagoans.
-
Chicago Theatre
Everyone from Duke Ellington to Frank Sinatra to Prince has taken the stage here over the years (and left their signature on the famous backstage walls). The real show-stopper, though, is the opulent French Baroque architecture, including the lobby modeled on the Palace of Versailles. Opened in 1921, the theater originally screened silent movies with a full orchestra and white-gloved ushers leading patrons to their seats.
-
Churches Of Ukrainian Village
The domes of the neighborhood's majestic churches pop out over the treetops in Ukrainian Village. Take a minute to wander by St Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral (773-276-4537; 2238 W Rice St), which is the less traditional of the neighborhood's main churches. Its 13 domes represent Christ and the Apostles. The intricate mosaics - added to the 1915 building in 1988 - owe their inspiration to the Cathedral of St Sophia in Kiev.
-
City Hall
Da Mayor rules Chicago from mighty City Hall. He also tends garden and keeps bees here. To make a point a few years ago about how the city could conserve energy, he planted City Hall's roof with prairie flowers. Then he let loose 200,000 honey bees among them. By all measures, the nature experiment was a success - other 'green' roofs have blossomed throughout the city, and the bees' sweet wares are sold to make money for kids' art programs.
-
David & Alfred Smart Museum Of Art
Named after the founders of Esquire magazine, who contributed the money to get it started, the official fine arts museum of the university opened in 1974 and expanded in 1999. The 8000 items in the collection include some excellent works from ancient China and Japan, and a colorful and detailed Syrian mosaic from about AD 600. The strength of the collection lies in the paintings and sculpture contemporary to the university's existence, including works by Arthur Davies, Jean Arp, Henry Moore and many others.
-
Dusable Museum Of African American History
In a peaceful part of Washington Park, this newly expanded museum features more than 100 works of African American art and permanent exhibits covering African Americans' experiences from slavery through the Civil Rights movement. The museum, housed in a 1910 building, takes its name from Chicago's first permanent settler, Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, a French-Canadian of Haitian descent.
-
Advertisement
-
Essanay Studios
Back before talkies made silent film obsolete, Chicago was the number one producer of movie magic in the US. In those days, Essanay churned out silent films with soon-to-be household names like WC Fields, Charlie Chaplin and Gilbert M Anderson (aka 'Bronco Billy,' the trailblazing star of the brand-new Western genre and co-founder of Essanay). Filming took place at the studio, but it also ventured out into surrounding North Side neighborhoods.
-
Field Museum of Natural History
With over 70 PhD-wielding scientists and 20 million artifacts, you know things are going to be hopping at the Field Museum. The big attraction is the Tyrannosaurus rex named Sue, a 13ft-tall, 41ft-long beast who menaces the grand space with ferocious aplomb. Sue, the most complete T rex ever discovered, takes its name from Sue Hendrickson, the fossil-hunter who found the 90-percent-complete skeleton in South Dakota in 1990.
-
Flat Iron Building
The warren of galleries, studios and workshops in this landmark building has been responsible for a sizable percentage of the artistic zaniness that has long made Wicker Park such a magnet for creative types. Keep an eye on telephone poles around the area for flyers detailing the latest shows and gallery open-houses.
-
Garfield Park Conservatory
With 4.5 acres under glass, the Park District's pride and joy, built in 1907, seemed like a lost cause in 1994. Located far away from the heart of the city, in a neighborhood that tended to scare away visitors, the Conservatory nevertheless began a multimillion-dollar restoration campaign. By 2000 it was completed, and the crowds have been pouring in ever since.
-
Graceland Cemetery
Graceland Cemetery is the final resting place for some of the biggest names in Chicago history. Most of the notable tombs lie around the lake, in the northern half of the 121 acres. Pick up a free map at the entrance to navigate the swirl of paths and streets.
