Chicago’s storied past is on display all throughout the city — all you have to do is look for it. From architecture and design to silent movies, watch the Windy City’s history come alive before your eyes.
One of the few structures that survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, this Gothic Revival beauty is now engulfed by the bevy of luxury stores along North Michigan Avenue’s Magnificent Mile.
Chicago’s dramatic architectural heritage is best viewed from the Chicago River on a 90-minute boat tour led by one of the Chicago Architectural Foundation’s expert volunteers.
The Chicago History Museum offers a fresh take on the city’s past, like an exhibition of “nanny photographer” Vivian Maier’s candid scenes of Chicago, where she lived from 1959 until her death in 2009.
Built in 1908 and today on the University of Chicago campus, the Robie House is a prime example of renowned Chicago-based American architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s homegrown Prairie Style. It’s even the subject of a children’s mystery book, “The Wright 3.”
Chicago, site of the world’s first skyscraper, still harbors the oldest surviving example of this revolutionary era — the 16-story Manhattan Building, built in 1889 — and others along a two-block stretch of South Dearborn Avenue. Fittingly, the city will host the country’s first showcase of architectural innovation, the Chicago Architectural Biennial, beginning on October 3, 2015.
Originally built for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition, the Museum of Science and Industry is the largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere, with 400,000 square feet of interactive exhibits including “Yesterday’s Main Street” recreating a 1910-era Chicago street with period businesses. You can even watch a silent movie!
