It's a 4 star if you are into this type of thing...it's not really my thing, which is why it's a 3…read more This is Chicago's oldest house, according to the literature. Pros: The guides are extremely knowledgeable. Our guide was a history major & she knew every little thing about the house & and its history. She also grew up in the neighborhood. One guide was a biology teacher & when we were outside, she told us all about cicadas, more than the generic info you read about in the news. It's really pretty & the interior was filled with old wedding dresses & it's history. Interesting fact I observed... wedding dresses don't seem to go out of style. The wedding dresses were numbered & correspond to a phamlet detailing its history. It's a recommendation of $5-$10, affordable & you do your part on old building restoration. Cons: It's a very small house.

Check out some old Chicago history. If looking for the oldest place in the city then come here for…read morea look. The Noble-Seymour-Crippen House is the oldest structure. Even though it wasn't a part of the city for a long time, it is now and it's older than anything else. Pretty much this is used for banquets and stuff mostly even though it's also a museum but you can make an appointment to visit. Before coming here it should be known this isn't like a museum that a lot of people know about. It's used mostly for events. Things like weddings and that. It has pretty limited hours if just coming to look around. This is open only Saturdays. It's the oldest known structure in the city. The oldest part was built in 1833, and the addition was built in 1868 or so. Among the artifacts are a collection of things found in the ground collected in an archeological dig. There's objects like buttons, guns, toys, and more. Other exhibits show the history of Norwood Park and what it was like. This place is also the home of the Norwood Park Historical Society and is where they have meetings. Good place to check out if you can make the limited hours. It's a must if wanting to learn more about the local history and what it was like back then. This is also pretty popular for those looking to have some big event like a wedding or whatever.

The Trailside Museum of Natural History is one of the museums of the Forest Preserve Cook County…read moresystem. This nature museum is fanciest of them all, as it was once a mansion. It's also in a nice area of River Forest. It was established in 1932, in a mansion that dates to 1876. The building itself has an interesting history; after being a residence, it was the site of not one but two different schools before it became the nature museum. The building was acquired by the Forest Preserves in 1919 and was for a time the headquarters of the FPCC. There's a parking lot here and I've also found parking along Thatcher Road on that side of the museum; there is an entrance on both sides. There's a pond near the parking lot for fishing. There are just under 5 miles of trails, and they have a variety of programming here as well. One of their programs is a hybrid program in cooperation with educators, which I think is pretty cool. The first time I was here, it was as a stop on the West Cook Wild Ones native garden tour. I didn't know it--or any of the nature museums of the FPCC--existed before that time. I got some great information from the master naturalist there and now aspire to have a pollinator garden of my own someday. I saw my first hummingbird moth here, many butterflies, and so many birds. And I saw a real live chipmunk for the very first time that was NOT a cartoon! Today I was here for a program called Busy Beavers, and it was really good. There were nearly 20 people that attended. One of them was wearing a Beaver Believer t-shirt, which is a reference to Oregon State University. Funnily, she has no connection to Oregon or OSU; she just likes beaver. I happened to be reppin' my hometown and was wearing my University of Oregon Ducks t-shirt, so I had to get a photo. #goducks #beatthebeavs I learned a lot from the guide, and it was really fun program. I think the hike was probably about a mile to our destination and back. There's another program here called Summer Blossoms which I'm looking forward to attending, and I will be keeping an eye out on the events here so that I can fill up my calendar.

This place is as charming on the inside as it is outside. It's small for a museum, but we easily…read morespent about an hour and a half there with two young kiddos. The inside has some nature-inspired toys and exhibits, but the outside is the main attraction, in my opinion. On one side, there are a few birds on display (are they being rehabilitated?), and over a dozen hand-painted birdhouses. What we most enjoyed was an awesome outdoor playing area for kids on the other side of the house. My kids loved the jumping stones and the water play area. We'll be back, in warm or cold weather. When it's too icy to play outside, we'll just spend more time playing inside.

There was a time the United States allowed slavery, or at least parts of it did. We're here in…read moreIllinois which was not a slave state. And this marker points to the history where a number of slaves from the south came on their journey to freedom. Slaves fleeing the South before the Civil War followed the Des Plaines River north to Maywood, where abolitionists aided them. The journey was called the "Underground Railroad" and it is believed this was one of those stops. According to historians, the Underground Railroad consisted of "stations," or stopping points, where slaves escaping to free states or Canada hid and rested before returning to the treacherous route. Taking over a small corner of this McDonald's parking lot, you would otherwise miss it. There is a plaque, some benches and a small piece of railroad though no, the railroad is a metaphor for the escaping slaves who would not have traveled on such a mainstream route. [Review 20626 overall - 173 in Illinois - 1607 of 2023.]

This was a lovely experience -- a smaller museum but lots to digest and well worth the price.read more

Ah memories! This is a fantastic exhibit located in the Elmhurst Museum of History…read more You will discover the evolution of the retail industry and brick and mortar stores going back to the 1800s with artifacts,images and memorabilia . Relive the days when people would get dressed up in their Sundays Best for lunch at the Walnut Room located in Marshall Fields. Look at the Sears or Montgomery Wards Holiday catalogs See a re-creation of a Holiday Window from Marshall Fields. The exhibit is open thru Jan 28,2024. Admission is free.

Stopped in to get some residential parking permits, and came at apparently the perfect time. I'd…read moredriven by the day before and there was a line halfway down the ramp, which didn't just didn't have time to wait through. Happily when I came the following day there were only 3-4 people in front of me and I was here for five minutes total from the time I parked my car until the time I got back in. Yes, they may close a window even if there are people here... but are employees not entitled to breaks, and should a business not comply with the law that requires employees to have specific rest periods? I'm not mad about that. Parking around the area may or may not be metered; I've only been to the Masonic Temple for meetings or this once to the clerk's office. There's parking on the west side of the building and the surrounding streets.

Long line but very helpful staff. If you just need city stickers go to a currency exchange. There…read moreis very little parking for this building. The spots are well marked along the street in front of it but only a few places. The first right turn past the building is a cul-de-sac but you can use it to make a u-turn and whip into one of the open spots. The building gets crowded quickly and the line will run out the door. Get there early if you can. There is usually an expediter standing at the door helping people make sure they're in the right place and have what they need to get their task done that day.

Open on Thursdays from 11-4. As of April 2024, they accept a modest entrance of $2 or canned food…read morefor the food pantry per person.

I visited Chicago this past weekend with some family and friends, and it turned out to be a very…read morearchitecture-heavy trip. We decided to stop by Pleasant Home since we were in Oak Park for a tour of (you guessed it) the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio. Pleasant Home was a bit of a disappointment for us, but it was probably partly our fault. I was dragging our group around to look at historic buildings all weekend, and I was a bit worried the two people less interested in architecture were beginning to get bored. When we arrived at Pleasant Home, I saw they offered guided and self-guided tours. Because I was worried a long tour might be the breaking point for two of our group, we opted for the self-guided to keep it a bit shorter. What I didn't realize is that if you do the self-guided tour, you are limited to the bottom floor of the home. You are given a single laminated sheet of paper with the floor plan and some very basic information about the house. On top of that, the bottom floor of the house has no furniture in it (with a couple of exceptions - two tables maybe?). So, while the price for the self-guided tour was reasonable (only $5 per person), you basically have access to five or so rooms with no furniture in them. We were in and out in about 15 minutes. The house is beautiful (although the lighting seemed very low, making the house appear very dark), but I cannot recommend a self-guided tour. If you're interested in the house, pay the extra $5 and arrive on the hour for a guided tour. You'll get to go upstairs and learn more about the house than what is on the laminated floor plan guide. It might be a wonderful guided tour, I can only say that the self-guided tour option is not worth doing.

This was a WONDERFUL historic tour. We purchased our tickets in advance, but I got the sense that…read moretours could sell out if not purchased in advance. We were also told that they close early if they don't sell tickets to the last tour of the day (4:00pm). Even though Ernest Hemingway only lived in this home for the first six years of his life, the tour guide (Sue) was SO informative about the Hemingway family history and life in the house that we felt as if we knew so much about the author by the time the tour was over. Sue was extremely knowledgeable about the house, local history, and what life was like during Hemingway's lifetime. She could answer most of our questions as well. Most of the furnishings in the home are from the time period rather than actual belongings of the Hemingways but there are a few items donated by family members of obtained by the organization and these were pointed out during the tour. One of the nice things about this tour is that there are places to sit during most of the tour and there is an elevator for those who cannot climb stairs. This is unusual for a historic home and makes the tour accessible for all. The tour is just under an hour and I highly recommend it for those who love Hemingway, or history.

The Ernest Hemingway Birth Home is in a beautiful area within the Chicago suburb of Oak Park. We…read morevisited here recently and took a very interesting tour. On the tour we learned quite a bit about both "Papa" Hemingway and his family. Tip: Legend has it that when Ernest Hemingway was in his late 20s, he started telling people to call him "Papa" because he hated his given name; it's not clear why he chose that particular moniker. Our very capable and personable tour guide shared many facts and answered numberous questions, including "is the house haunted?" The organization that runs this place has done a wonderful job of restoring Papa's home to it's original glory and putting many interesting artifacts on display within. We bought our tickets for the tour online, and even managed to reschedule the starting time that way with no muss or fuss; we received an email confirming the new start time. Traffic on the day of the our tour was so horrendous that we were a few minutes late, but we called from the car and they were kind enough to wait for us before they started the tour :-)

Unity Temple is another Frank Lloyd Wright design. It is walking distance from (only a few blocks…read moreaway) his house and studio. Make a day trip and see both of them. The Temple was part of a group of buildings added UNESCO World Heritage site recently.

Since I had a coupon from Groupon for the Unity Temple, I decided to take the hike out to Oak Park…read more It is defiantly a day trip. I took the Green Line train to Oak Park. From the train, you can walk to the Unity Temple, just follow the street signs to the Unity Temple. In the lobby, you will be given a pamphlet and a brief history about the temple. From there, you have the opportunity to take your time to walk around the temple. You certainly can tell, this masterpiece is from Frank Lloyd Wright. Granted, the temple is going under renovations, I would highly recommend taking a tour of this building.

During Parents' Weekend at the University of Chicago, the university offered tours of the…read moreneighborhood through Chicago Detours. My wife did this tour a couple years ago and highly recommended it, but I wasn't especially interested because I had also gone to school here and figured I knew enough about Hyde Park already. However, she insisted that it would be worth our while and so I agreed to climb on the bus. And it was the absolutely right decision, because the tour was excellent. In fact, it wasn't just a tour of Hyde Park. It included the surrounding neighborhoods of Washington Park, Kenwood, Jackson Park, and Woodlawn. Since this was a UChicago sponsored event much of the information related to the University's investment and involvement in the area. Our tour guide and founder of Chicago Detours, Amanda, is herself a graduate of UChicago and thus she had some additional insight into the relationship with the community. Though the 75-minute tour felt a little slow-going at times, there was much to learn about the vibrant but sometimes troubled history of the area. Amanda has tremendous knowledge and the excursion was both fascinating and entertaining. I can imagine that Chicago Detours would have equally interesting tours of other neighborhoods in this diverse city.

Virtual tours are such a cool thing to do right now. I attended a Yelp Elite event that was a…read morevirtual food tour of Chicago. It was incredibly informative and a good balance of history and current trends. Looking forward to attending more virtual tours, like the World's Fair and the Cruise From Your Couch Boat Tour. I loved seeing the pictures of the in-person tours and can't wait to attend some of those too.