Chicago
Prolific Pilsen muralist Hector Duarte covered his home/studio with this enormous painting. It shows a giant, outstretched Mexican immigrant as Gulliver…
Must-see attractions in Chicago
Chicago
Hyde Park Art Center shows contemporary works by Chicagoans – many of them students (current or graduated) of the center's classes. There's usually a…
National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture
Chicago
The museum fills the old horse stables in Humboldt Park. It's worth a stroll inside to see what free art and cultural exhibits are showing. These might…
Chicago
Located in theMart amid all the home design showrooms, this gallery specializes in colorful impressionist, modernist and historical Chicago-focused works…
Chicago
Frank Gehry designed this snaking pedestrian bridge that spans Columbus Dr. The luminous sheet-metal walkway connects Millennium Park (from the back of…
Chicago
This pop-art gallery is pure fun, from the colorful, cartoony prints and paintings to the building's offbeat history (it was an egg factory and then a…
Chicago
Unless you're an acrophobe, no visit to Navy Pier is complete without taking in the views as you ride the 196ft-tall Ferris wheel. The spin lasts about 15…
Chicago
Set inside the historic Water Tower, this small gallery showcases Chicago-themed works by local photographers and artists.
Chicago
The Great Lawn is the grassy area in front of Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, where everyone sits and picnics during concerts.
Chicago
The sexual revolution partied hearty for 15 years in the basement ‘grotto’ of this 1899 mansion. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner bought it in 1959 and hung a…
Chicago
The Paseo Boricua, aka Puerto Rican Promenade, is a half-mile-long stretch of Division St where many Puerto Rican shops and restaurants do business. It’s…
Chicago
Al Capone is now buried in this cemetery in Hillside, west of Chicago. He and his relatives were moved here in 1950. Al’s simple gray gravestone, which…
Chicago
Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Standing Lincoln (1887), considered one of the best statues of the 16th US president, shows him deep in contemplation…
Wicker Park, Bucktown & Ukrainian Village
If you don’t know Pulaski from a pierogi, this is the place to get the scoop on Polish culture. Founded in 1935, it’s one of the oldest ethnic museums in…
Wicker Park, Bucktown & Ukrainian Village
Across from one of the Ukrainian Village's larger churches, this small museum packs in a massive amount of information about the history, culture and…
Chicago
The castle-like gate was once the main entrance to the vast stockyards where millions of cows and hogs met their ends each year. During the 1893 World’s…
Chicago
In 1934 the ‘lady in red’ betrayed notorious bank robber John Dillinger (aka Public Enemy Number One) at this theater, which used to show movies. FBI…
Chicago
A Chicago fire survivor, this 1852 church is one of the city’s oldest. Old St Pat’s is best known for its World’s Largest Block Party, a weekend bash in…
Chicago
Back before the talkies made silent film obsolete, Chicago reigned supreme as the number-one producer of movie magic in the USA. Essanay churned out…
Chicago
The Henry B Clarke House is the oldest structure in the city. When Caroline and Henry Clarke built the imposing Greek Revival home in 1836, log cabins…
Chicago
Gospel music got its start at Pilgrim Baptist Church, originally built as a synagogue by famed architects Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan in 1890…
Chicago
This 50-ton mausoleum – designed in 1858 by John Van Osdel, Chicago's first professional architect, for Ira Couch, a successful hotelier – is the sole…
Chicago
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…
Chicago
The synagogue is a domed masterpiece in the Byzantine style with acoustics that are said to be perfect. Staff provide tours by appointment on weekdays;…
Chicago
Centennial Fountain shoots a massive arc of water across the Chicago River. It spurts for five minutes straight every hour on the hour, from 10am to…
Wicker Park, Bucktown & Ukrainian Village
The neighborhood's favorite green space is home to softball fields, a children's water playground, a winter ice rink, an active dog park, and indoor and…
Chicago
Art Works is a nonprofit organization that uses the arts to educate about human rights issues. The group's small office does double duty as a makeshift…
Chicago
The neighborhood's stroller-pushing families and dog-walking hipsters get their exercise in Mary Bartelme Park. Five off-kilter stainless-steel arches…
Chicago
One of scores of Romanesque houses that date from the 1880s, the Ida B Wells House is named for its 1920s resident. Wells was a civil rights advocate who…
Chicago
At Muddy Waters’ house, impromptu jam sessions with pals like Howlin’ Wolf and Chuck Berry erupted in the front yard. Waters, of course, was Chicago’s…
Chicago
The University of Chicago's famed archaeologists – Indiana Jones supposedly was based on one – cram their headquarters with antiquities they've unearthed…
Chicago
Homes here were built in the early 1900s and represent some of the best examples of Prairie School architecture in Chicago. Many residences – including…
Chicago
This 1912 factory building displays the history of printing on its tiled facade – above the door is a large mural showing a medieval printer's shop at…
Museum of Broadcast Communications
Chicago
This museum of radio and TV nostalgia is pretty sparsely populated. But if you have a hankering to see old Bozo the Clown clips, or the camera that taped…
Chicago
Built in 1869, the Pumping Station and Water Tower, its companion building across the street, were constructed in Gothic style with yellow limestone. It's…
Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Cathedral
Wicker Park, Bucktown & Ukrainian Village
This church looks like it was scooped straight out of the Russian countryside and deposited here. But famed Chicago architect Louis Sullivan actually…
Chicago
The odd bronze statue of guys on a wagon marks the spot where the world’s labor movement began. So the next time you take a lunch break or go home after…
Chicago
Built in 1928 and originally known as the On Leong Building, this grand structure is a fantasy of Chinese architecture that makes good use of glazed terra…
Wicker Park, Bucktown & Ukrainian Village
One of Chicago's tastemakers, Monique Meloche has an eye for emerging artists, such as Amy Sherald, who painted Michelle Obama's official portrait. Her…