No tour was available. Looks well maintained. Not worth the trip unless you are in the immediate…read morevicinity.

On December 5th, Walt Disney would have been 115 years old! Crazy to think he died 50 years ago at…read morejust 65. On December 5th, they did a little party type of thing outside the house to celebrate. Walt started his magical journey (ie was born) on the 2nd floor of this home. That's just crazy to think about! Walt's parents actual bought the land, then designed and built the home from the ground up! Walt's family ended up moving to Missouri when he was 4 or 5 years old...but it all started with a man born in Chicago who would make a mouse! As a Disney enthusiast, I wanted to roll by and check the place out. They are currently in the process of restoring the home to it's 1901 state when Walt was born. However it was neglected for years! The current owners are Disney people and on board with the historical significance, planning to do great things! Read more in this great Trib article: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-walt-disney-house-20150807-story.html A few days ago on Walt's birthday, they unveiled the new honorary street sign Disney Family Avenue! I just love it! This home needs to be marked as an official Historical Landmark. Let's do this Chi City!

I was on my way to Tizzy's for ice cream. When I noticed this beautiful scenery of flowing water. I…read morequickly pulled over and got out of my car. I was mesmerized by the water flowing down the dam. There is free parking and benches for you sit down and inhale the scenery. The sight is just so relaxing and peaceful. Such a remarkable historical landmark in Lyons. The river itself is amazing. It's very enjoyable and will relax your mind. I was excited to learn the history about this amazing tower. "Hoffman Tower is the name of a tower in Lyons, Illinois, named after the brewer George Hoffman Jr. " It was built in the year 1908 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 22, 1978." The Tower is reputed as the first building in Lyons to be lighted by electricity."

Stumbled upon this by chance seen it off in the distance and had to stop...so much history in this…read morebuilding

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.

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.

Mills Park is a lovely park that's fairly close to the business district in the city of Oak Park…read more The park's well landscaped, with a nice winding sidewalk, as well as lots of trees and a cast-iron fence all around it. Tip: This park is quite dog friendly :-) In the North East corner of the park stands the Pleasant Home mansion, which is a National Historic Landmark designed in 1897 by architect George W. Maher for John W. Carson. Both the park and mansion are a delight to experience, and the docent-led mansion tour is very interesting. A number of parks in the area have playgrounds for small children, but Mills Park doesn't have one. For me, that's a plus because it makes this place just a bit more peaceful and relaxing. I enjoying visiting to read a book or just to relax. In the evening, this is a nice place to stroll after dining out on Marion Street :-)

Dr. Reid is amazing !…read more Absolutely love this dentist! Dr. Reid is the sweetest and super knowledgeable! Love the hygienist Andrina also! Very thorough and gentle while she cleans your teeth. Highly recommend

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.

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 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 :-)

This place is beautiful and melancholy at the same time. Wonderful way to honor the deceased circus…read moreperformers who have been laid to rest here.

Beautiful historic grounds with a particularly poignant tribute at Showmen's rest. Definitely well…read moreworth visiting.