Self-guided Sightseeing Tour #10 in Chicago, United States

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Tour Facts

Number of sights 20 sights
Distance 8.6 km
Ascend 440 m
Descend 422 m

Experience Chicago in United States in a whole new way with our self-guided sightseeing tour. This site not only offers you practical information and insider tips, but also a rich variety of activities and sights you shouldn't miss. Whether you love art and culture, want to explore historical sites or simply want to experience the vibrant atmosphere of a lively city - you'll find everything you need for your personal adventure here.

Activities in ChicagoIndividual Sights in Chicago

Sight 1: Jane Addams Park

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Addams Park is a public park in Chicago named after Jane Addams. It is located in Little Italy in the Near West Side Community Area.

Wikipedia: Addams Park (EN), Website

1563 meters / 19 minutes

Sight 2: Maxwell Street

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Maxwell Street Cushman, Charles Weever, 1896-1972 / CC BY 2.0

Maxwell Street is an east–west street in Chicago, Illinois, that intersects with Halsted Street just south of Roosevelt Road. It runs at 1330 South in the numbering system running from 500 West to 1126 West. The Maxwell Street neighborhood is considered part of the Near West Side and is one of the city's oldest residential districts. It is notable as the location of the celebrated Maxwell Street Market and the birthplace of Chicago blues and the "Maxwell Street Polish", a sausage sandwich. A large portion of the area is now part of the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and a private housing development sponsored by the university.

Wikipedia: Maxwell Street (EN)

327 meters / 4 minutes

Sight 3: UIC Skyspace

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The UIC Skyspace, officially titled Hard Scrabble Sky, is an art installation by James Turrell on the South Campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago, located there since 2005. Hard Scrabble Sky is a Skyspace, part of a series of site-specific installations by Turrell that present a constrained view of the sky.

Wikipedia: UIC Skyspace (EN)

673 meters / 8 minutes

Sight 4: Pillar of Fire

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Pillar of Fire

The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly 3.3 square miles (9 km2) of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 100,000 residents homeless. The fire began in a neighborhood southwest of the city center. A long period of hot, dry, windy conditions, and the wooden construction prevalent in the city, led to the conflagration. The fire leapt the south branch of the Chicago River and destroyed much of central Chicago and then leapt the main stem of the river, consuming the Near North Side.

Wikipedia: Great Chicago Fire (EN)

1519 meters / 18 minutes

Sight 5: Hotel Roosevelt

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The Somerset Hotel is a historic hotel building located at 1152-1154 S. Wabash Ave. in downtown Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1892–93, the hotel was originally owned by physician Frank Stringfield. Architect Jules De Horvath designed the hotel in the Romanesque Revival style. De Horvath's design bore similarities to many other Chicago buildings, most notably the 1888 Virginia Hotel at Ohio and Rush Streets. The Somerset Hotel was a significant part of a hotel and commercial district which formed between the 12th Street station on the South Side Elevated Railroad and Central Station. The hotel changed its name to the Mayer Hotel in 1910; in the 1920s, it again changed its name to the Hotel Roosevelt, which it was called until the 1990s.

Wikipedia: Somerset Hotel (EN)

219 meters / 3 minutes

Sight 6: Ludington Building

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The Ludington Building in Chicago, Illinois is a steel-frame building that is the oldest surviving structure of its kind in the city. It is located in the Chicago Loop community area. It was designed by William Le Baron Jenney and was named a Chicago Landmark on June 10, 1996. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 8, 1980. The Ludington Building "was commissioned by Mary Ludington Barnes for the American Book Company"; presently it is one of twenty buildings that comprise the campus of Columbia College Chicago.

Wikipedia: Ludington Building (EN)

204 meters / 2 minutes

Sight 7: Fairbanks Morse Building

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The Fairbanks, Morse and Company Building is a historic commercial building located at 900 S. Wabash Ave. in the South Loop, Chicago, Illinois. The building served as the national headquarters of Fairbanks, Morse and Company from 1907 to 1937. The company sold a variety of agricultural equipment; while it was originally known for its scales, by 1907 it was best known for producing internal combustion engines. At its peak, the company was one of the largest engine makers in the world, and it was particularly dominant in the diesel engine market. The headquarters building is a seven-story Chicago school building designed by Christian Eckstorm. While the company moved to a larger headquarters at 606 S. Michigan Ave. in 1937, the Wabash Avenue building is the best-preserved remnant of its historic significance and still bears the company's name above the second floor.

Wikipedia: Fairbanks, Morse and Company Building (EN)

403 meters / 5 minutes

Sight 8: 8th Street Fountain

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The 8th Street Fountain was erected in 1927 and was created by architects Bennett, Parsons, and Frost. It is located in Chicago's Grant Park in the U.S. state of Illinois.

Wikipedia: 8th Street Fountain (EN)

267 meters / 3 minutes

Sight 9: Spirit of Music (Theodore Thomas Memorial)

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Spirit of Music (Theodore Thomas Memorial)

The Spirit of Music also known as the Theodore Thomas Memorial, is an outdoor 1923 sculpture and monument commemorating Theodore Thomas by Czech-American artist and educator Albin Polasek, installed in Chicago's Grant Park, in the U.S. state of Illinois.

Wikipedia: Spirit of Music (sculpture) (EN)

181 meters / 2 minutes

Sight 10: Merle Reskin Theatre

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The Merle Reskin Theatre is a performing arts venue located in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. Originally named the Blackstone Theatre it was built in 1910. Renamed the Merle Reskin Theatre in 1992, it is now part of DePaul University, and is also used for events and performances of other groups. It serves as the home of the Chicago Playworks for Families and Young Audiences series produced by The Theatre School of DePaul.

Wikipedia: Merle Reskin Theatre (EN)

362 meters / 4 minutes

Sight 11: Magdalene

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Magdalene is an outdoor 2005 sculpture by Dessa Kirk, designed specifically for the triangular garden in Congress Plaza, east of S. Michigan Avenue at East Ida B. Wells Drive, in Chicago's Grant Park, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The statue is part of the Chicago Public Art Program.

Wikipedia: Magdalene (sculpture) (EN)

90 meters / 1 minutes

Sight 12: Equestrian Indians (The Bowman)

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Equestrian Indians (The Bowman)

The Bowman and The Spearman, also known collectively as Equestrian Indians, or simply Indians, are two bronze equestrian sculptures standing as gatekeepers in Congress Plaza, at the intersection of Ida B. Wells Drive and Michigan Avenue in Chicago's Grant Park, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The sculptures were made in Zagreb by Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović and installed at the entrance of the parkway in 1928. Funding was provided by the Benjamin Ferguson Fund.

Wikipedia: The Bowman and The Spearman (EN)

496 meters / 6 minutes

Sight 13: Grant Park

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Grant Park is a large urban park in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. Located within the city's central business district, the 319-acre (1.29 km2) park's features include Millennium Park, Buckingham Fountain, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum Campus.

Wikipedia: Grant Park (Chicago) (EN), Website

123 meters / 1 minutes

Sight 14: Clarence Buckingham Memorial Fountain

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Clarence Buckingham Memorial FountainH. Michael Miley from Schaumburg, USA / CC BY-SA 2.0

Buckingham Fountain is a Chicago Landmark in the center of Grant Park, between Queen's Landing and the end of Ida B. Wells Drive. Dedicated in 1927 and donated to the city by philanthropist Kate S. Buckingham, it is one of the largest fountains in the world. Built in a rococo wedding cake style and inspired by the Latona Fountain at the Palace of Versailles, its design allegorically represents nearby Lake Michigan. The fountain operates generally from mid-April to mid-October, with regular water-jet displays and evening colored-light shows. During the winter, the fountain is decorated with festival lights.

Wikipedia: Buckingham Fountain (EN), Website

661 meters / 8 minutes

Sight 15: Hector Guimard Metro entrance

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Between 1900 and 1913, Hector Guimard was responsible for the first generation of entrances to the underground stations of the Paris Métro. His Art Nouveau designs in cast iron and glass dating mostly to 1900, and the associated lettering that he also designed, created what became known as the Métro style and popularized Art Nouveau. However, arbiters of style were scandalized and the public was also less enamored of his more elaborate entrances. In 1904 his design for the Opéra station at Place de l'Opéra was rejected and his association with the Métro ended; many of his station entrances have been demolished, including all three of the pavilion type. Those that remain are now all protected historical monuments, one has been reconstituted, and some originals and replicas also survive outside France.

Wikipedia: Paris Métro entrances by Hector Guimard (EN)

386 meters / 5 minutes

Sight 16: Fine Arts Building

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The ten-story Fine Arts Building, formerly known as the Studebaker Building, is located at 410 S Michigan Avenue across from Grant Park in Chicago in the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan Boulevard District. It was built for the Studebaker company in 1884–1885 by Solon Spencer Beman, and extensively remodeled in 1898, when Beman removed the building's eighth (top) story and added three new stories. Studebaker constructed the building as a carriage sales and service operation with manufacturing on upper floors. The two granite columns at the main entrance, 3 feet 8 inches (1.12 m) in diameter and 12 feet 10 inches (3.91 m) high, were said to be the largest polished monolithic shafts in the country. The interior features Art Nouveau motifs and murals by artists such as Martha Susan Baker, Frederic Clay Bartlett, Oliver Dennett Grover, Frank Xavier Leyendecker, and Bertha Sophia Menzler-Peyton dating from the 1898 renovation. In the early 20th century, the Kalo Shop and Wilro Shop, firms owned by women and specializing in Arts and Crafts items, were established in the Fine Arts Building.

Wikipedia: Fine Arts Building (Chicago) (EN)

235 meters / 3 minutes

Sight 17: Auditorium Theatre

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Auditorium Theatre

The Auditorium Theatre is a music and performance venue located in the Auditorium Building at 50 E. Ida B. Wells Drive in Chicago, Illinois. Inspired by the Richardsonian Romanesque Style of architect Henry Hobson Richardson, the building was designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan and completed in 1889. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed in the theatre until 1904 as well as the Chicago Grand Opera Company and its successors the Chicago Opera Association and Chicago Civic Opera until its relocation to the Civic Opera House in 1929. The theater was home to the Joffrey Ballet from 1998 until 2020. It currently hosts a variety of concerts, musicals, performances, and events. Since the 1940s, it has been owned by Roosevelt University and since the 1960s it has been refurbished and managed by an independent non-profit arts organization.

Wikipedia: Auditorium Theatre (EN)

355 meters / 4 minutes

Sight 18: Manhattan Building

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Manhattan BuildingJ. Crocker / Attribution

The Manhattan Building is a 16-story building at 431 South Dearborn Street in Chicago, Illinois. It was designed by architect William Le Baron Jenney and constructed from 1889 to 1891. It is the oldest surviving skyscraper in the world to use a purely skeletal supporting structure. The building was the first home of the Paymaster Corporation, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1976, and designated a Chicago Landmark on July 7, 1978.

Wikipedia: Manhattan Building (Chicago, Illinois) (EN)

60 meters / 1 minutes

Sight 19: Old Colony Building

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The Arc at Old Colony is a 17-story landmark building in the Chicago Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. Designed by the architectural firm Holabird & Roche in 1893–94, it stands at approximately 215 feet and was the tallest building in Chicago at the time it was built. The building was designated a Chicago Landmark on July 7, 1978. It was the first tall building to use a system of internal portal arches as a means of bracing the structure against high winds.

Wikipedia: The Arc at Old Colony (EN)

439 meters / 5 minutes

Sight 20: San Marco II

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San Marco II is an outdoor 1986 bronze sculpture of a stallion by Italian artist Ludovico de Luigi, installed in Chicago's The Plaza, FOUR40, in the U.S. state of Illinois.

Wikipedia: San Marco II (EN)

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