Private Lines and the World’s Fair

The first section of what would eventually become the ‘L’ opened in 1892. It ran above alleyways from Congress Street downtown to 39th Street on the South Side. Some of this original elevated track is still in use by the Green Line today. By the next year, the system was extended all the way down to the World’s Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park. This route became one of the most popular methods for reaching the fairground.

Like the massive transcontinental railroads of the 1800’s, the Southside ‘L’ was a private enterprise. In fact, most of the ‘L’ system was built by private companies. As our guests on the Loop Interior Architecture Walking Tour have learned, constructing the ‘L’ was a very corrupt business. A shady tycoon named Charles Yerkes used graft and bribery to pave the way for his company to construct downtown’s Loop in the 1890’s.

Centralization and Public Takeover

By the 1920’s, the ‘L’ was a staple of the city’s infrastructure. A Tribune article from 1997 describes the early days of the ‘L’ as a system “…in which discounted fares are not grudgingly offered but enthusiastically marketed, conductors are positioned in each car to assist passengers and service is so frequent that stations are empty for only 15 seconds between rush-hour trains.” Customer service was such a priority that funeral trains could be commissioned. Some stations even had lifts for caskets.

The handful of companies that operated the ‘L’ were under financial strain, and ended up being consolidated in 1924. Samuel Insull, an electricity tycoon, bought out the four separate ‘L’ companies. Their lines and operations became part of a centralized corporation called the Chicago Rapid Transit Company. This cut out the cost of competition. It also made transfers and fare purchases easier for customers.

The arrangement limped along until 1947. The city of Chicago and state of Illinois combined the city’s transit systems into a new public agency: the Chicago Transit Authority. That agency remains the operator the ‘L’ to this day. Many route closures, expansions, and realignments have happened since, but the core of the system has remained largely the same since it was built over a century ago.

-Alex Bean, Office Manager and Tour Guide

We research stories from Chicago history, architecture and culture like this while developing our live virtual tours, in-person private tours, and custom content for corporate events. You can join us to experience Chicago’s stories in-person or online. We can also create custom tours and original content about this Chicago topic and countless others.

Lussekatter in Andersonville

Let’s start off with a treat available for a very limited time. Swedish holiday traditions begin with St Lucia Day on December 13, and Chicago’s Swedish neighborhood, Andersonville, celebrates in style. Candle-bearing “Lucia Girls” lead a procession down Clark Street to kick off this wintertime festival of lights. A huge party at the Swedish American Museum invites Chicagoans to learn more about Swedish traditions and to sample Lucia Day treats, like pepparkakor, or ginger snaps.

The star of the Lucia Day celebration is the lussekatter, or saffron bun. For a limited time you can pick some up at Lost Larson, an Andersonville bakery and cafe that features Swedish classics.

Arroz con Gandules y Pasteles in Humboldt Park

This Puerto Rican classic is a combo dish, blending together two favorites into one of the great Chicago holiday foods. Gandules, known in English as pigeon peas, are the key addition to the arroz, or rice. These nutty-flavored legumes ripen just as the holiday season begins in Puerto Rico. The other half of the dish is Puerto Rican pasteles. Somewhat similar to tamales. The masa, made from plantains, is wrapped in plantain leaves and then boiled.

The balance of these two dishes on one plate creates a wonderfully tropical culinary experience in the depths of Chicago’s winter. Humboldt Park is the heart of the Puerto Rican community here in Chicago, with plenty of restaurants to choose from. Arroz con gandules y pasteles is a house specialty at La Plena, on Division Street. Perfect place to grab a bite if you’re sticking around town during the holidays.

Lechon in Ravenswood

Let’s jump to the opposite end of the old Spanish Empire for our next Chicago holiday foods. Lechon is a Filipino favorite, deep fried pork belly. A Filipino gravy or dipping sauce is almost always part of this dish. The most traditional of these is based upon toyomansi, which blends soy sauce with lime. Which, yes. I want to go to there.

Filipinos prepare huge meals during the Nochebuena feast on December 24th. While traditions may differ from family to family on what must be on the table, lechon is a pretty good bet. A distinct Filipino neighborhood never really developed here in Chicago, but there has been a Filipino community in the city for about 100 years. Our Marketing Manager Marie loves Filipino food and recommended this dish to us. Her favorite version is found at Isla Pilipina, out on the Northwest Side.

Feast of the Seven Fishes in River North

Christmas Eve is celebrated in style all over the world. Italian-Americans made it their own with the Fest of the Seven Fishes–another of these tempting Chicago holiday foods. The tradition comes from the Italian Vigilia di Natale, awaiting the beginning of the liturgical feast day on Christmas. The day before church feasts were traditionally fasting days, which meant no meat. So Italian-Americans went all out with a huge variety of seafood dishes on Christmas Eve.

Many Italian restaurants are closed on Christmas Eve, of course. Not all, though! You’ll have to venture beyond Chicago’s Little Italy to try this particular Chicago holiday food. David DiGregorio, the Executive Chef at River North’s Osteria via Stato is holding a Feast of the Seven Fishes. If you feel like taking a day off from slaving away in the kitchen, well, now you know where to make a reservation.

Melomakarona in Greektown

Not all Chicago holiday foods have to be a full meal. Indeed, the holidays are the time of year when I most often indulge my sweet tooth. Greek sweets are an especially unique treat at this time of year. Their bright, Mediterranean flavors are a wonderful contrast to the heavy Germanic chocolates, cakes, and pies which predominate.

Melomakarona, a honeyed cookie with walnuts, is a longtime favorite for Greek families at the holidays. Appropriately enough, these cake-like cookies (flavored with brandy, orange, and honey–YUM!) are a specialty at Artopolis. We visited this Greek bakery, cafe, and agora near the end of our Neighborhoods and Cultural Diversity Bus Tour. They’re a lovely spot to stop in for a bite and carry out some cookies, right on Halsted in the old Greektown.

Gluhwein at Christkindlmarket

It shouldn’t shock too many people if I suggest that alcohol is an essential part of a Chicago holiday experience. Long a part of holiday season traditions in Germany, Glühwein is a warmed, mulled wine. Perfect for cold December nights in the Midwest. Hence, it’s become a must-get for the countless people who visit Christkindlmarket, Chicago’s faux-German Christmas village. Now, what goes into Glühwein?

You know what Don’t worry about what’s in it. Just grab a mug and drink with some Chicago holiday foods.

Happy Holidays!

– Alex Bean and Marie Rowley

ABOUT CHICAGO DETOURS

Chicago Detours is a boutique tour company passionate about connecting people to places and each other through the power of storytelling. We bring curious people to explore, learn and interact with Chicago’s history, architecture and culture through in-person private group tours, content production, and virtual tours.

We research Chicago history and architecture like this while developing our live virtual events and custom corporate events. Join us for our public virtual events or book an exclusive team-building event for your private group. We can also create custom tours and original content creation about this Chicago topic and countless others.

The Lost Statues from the Old Board of Trade Building

One of the most curious artworks in Chicago sits in a plaza just east of the Board of Trade. A pair of 12-foot-tall granite statues stare out at Jackson Boulevard. As we related several years ago, these statues–representing agriculture and industry–originally stood on the facade of the original Board of Trade Building, which was constructed in 1883 and torn down in 1929

After that, the statues disappeared from the Loop. They were assumed lost forever, until the 1970s when they were found in an overgrown corner of the Forest Preserve of DuPage County. The full mysterious tale of the statues’ disappearance and eventual re-discovery can be recounted on our Downtown Bucket List tour for private groups.

Art Deco Architecture of the Chicago Board of Trade Building

Any visit to the Chicago Board of Trade has to include a healthy appreciation for its architecture. The 1930 design by Holabird and Root is a masterpiece of Art Deco design. Indeed, it takes up a sizable chunk of Art Deco Chicago. The pamphlet from the tower’s dedication perfectly captures the spirit of the building:

“Here it stands, completed, the Board of Trade Building, monarch of LaSalle Street, towering head and shoulder above its mighty neighbors, commanding focal point of Chicago’s financial heart.”

Visitors can fully appreciate the architecture from a block or two down LaSalle, let’s say at the intersection with Adams. From there one can fully grasp the overwhelming vertical nature of the design. The Board of Trade inevitably draws the eye upward, tracing a path into the endless Midwestern sky. Some of this is simply a reflection of the Art Deco ethos. The vertical piers, sudden setbacks, and dramatic nighttime lighting are all perfectly in tune with contemporary towers like New York’s Chrysler Building.

Ceres, Roman Goddess of Wheat and Queen of Chicago’s Skyline

One of the most famous elements of the Chicago skyline sits atop the Board of Trade. Up there, 605 feet above the street, Ceres, the Roman goddess of wheat, looks down upon the city. The statue’s sculptor, John Storrs, chose Ceres as a reference to the commodities trade in grain, which is what the Board of Trade grew rich and powerful on. Appropriately, Ceres holds a sheaf of wheat and a bag of corn.

To visit the Chicago Board of Trade’s most famous decorative element, you don’t need to scale the building though. A miniature version of Ceres is on display in the Art Institute of Chicago. Storrs helped support himself through the Great Depression by selling many of these small replicas to private art collectors.

Interestingly, Ceres also loomed above the original trading room on the fourth floor. The artist John W. Norton, who had studied at the Art Institute, painted a three-story mural of Ceres. Depicted bare-breasted, she holds another sheaf of wheat and sprinkles seeds. She now looks down upon the lobby of the Board of Trade’s rear addition.

Visit the Chicago Board of Trade Lobby

Any trip to the Financial District should include a visit to the Chicago Board of Trade lobby. Few other spaces can match its stunning streamlined luster. Gleaming marble piers, gilded bronze detail work, and an enormous wraparound light fixture transport you right back to 1930. Such glamour makes one want to wear a fedora and a snappy suit upon entering.

The symbolism hidden in the lobby is one of the highlights of our custom tours that visit the building , so I don’t want to spoil too much. I simply love that the food court in the basement is named Cellar’s Market. As a connoisseur of dad humor, that name is a  masterpiece.

No More Tours of the Trading Floor

Sadly, one can no longer visit the Trading Floor. The beating heart of Chicago’s commodities trade and financial markets now sits mostly silent. The ‘open outcry‘ method of trading, which once dominated the Trading Room on the fourth floor, has been almost entirely eclipsed by computer trading. While some trading at the CBOT still relies upon open outcry, the trading floor itself moved into an addition constructed in the 1990s. The old trading floor, whose massive 3-floor windows dominate the building’s base, is now quiet office space. Even the famous trading pits have been filled with concrete. You can delve into this vanished history by visiting the neighboring Money Museum.

The Heart of Nature’s Metropolis

The Board of Trade Building is a stunning testament to the businesses which built Chicago. The trade in grains, which evolved into the futures market and commodities trading, placed Chicago in the center of Midwestern commerce. No building better expresses this history.

– Alex Bean, Content Manager and Tour Guide

About Chicago Detours

In business since 2010, Chicago Detours is a passionate team of educators, historians and storytellers. We applied a decade of experience as one of Chicago’s top-rated tour companies to become a virtual event company in 2020. We bring curious people to explore, learn and interact about Chicago’s history, architecture and culture through custom tours, content production, and virtual events.

We research stories from Chicago history, architecture and culture like this while developing our live virtual tours, in-person private tours, and custom content for corporate events. You can join us to experience Chicago’s stories in-person or online. We can also create custom tours and original content about this Chicago topic and countless others.

Outline of Fort Dearborn

Military history in Chicago goes back to the city’s very start. Fort Dearborn stood at what is now the intersection of Michigan and Wacker. Potawatomi warriors destroyed the original fort after the Battle of Fort Dearborn during the War of 1812. A rebuilt fort in the same location fell into disrepair soon after the Black Hawk War in the 1830s. Its moldering remains went up in smoke during the Great Fire of 1871. Bronze plaques in the sidewalk on Michigan Avenue mark Fort Dearborn’s original location.

Oak Woods Cemetery Confederates’ Grave

During the Civil War Camp Douglas was constructed around 31st and Cottage Grove. Camp Douglas became one of the largest, and deadliest, prison camps for Confederate POWs throughout the war. Around 4,000 Confederate soldiers from the camp are buried in Oak Woods Cemetery. That mass grave, the largest in the Western hemisphere, is another of the forgotten sites of military history in Chicago.

The Soldiers’ Home

Just south of Camp Douglas, at 35th and Lake Shore Drive, is the Soldiers’ Home. This grand structure is the oldest extant site of military history with a direct tie to the Civil War. The Soldiers’ Home, built in 1864, served as a convalescence center during the war. Crippled veterans lived there in the years after the war. Built in the Italianate style, it survives to the present day as a facility for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

GAR Memorial Hall and Rotunda

After the Civil War, veterans of the Union Army founded a fraternal organization, the Grand Army of the Republic, to advocate for surviving veterans and memorializing their fallen comrades. The Chicago chapters constructed a Memorial Hall in what is today the Chicago Cultural Center. The room served as a meeting space for the GAR and once housed Civil War artifacts. The room is capped by a 40-foot-diameter stained glass dome.

Soldier Field and Navy Pier

Two of the Chicago lakefront’s biggest landmarks, Soldier Field and Navy Pier, are tributes to World War I military history in Chicago. The city built much of the Burnham Plan in the 1910s and ’20s, just as millions of American doughboys returned from the Great War. Honoring the war dead and valorous veterans became de riegeur for American politicians. So city leaders redubbed Municipal Grant Park Stadium as Solider Field and Municipal Pier became Navy Pier in 1927.

Navy Pier continued to live up to its name during WWII. The U.S. Navy turned the pier into a training facility in 1941, hosting 10,000 sailors and pilots in the safe bosom of the Great Lakes for the duration of the war. Supposedly, wrecked navy planes from failed training exercises litter the bottom of Lake Michigan.

The Eighth Regiment Armory and Bronzeville Victory Monument

There is no neighborhood in Chicago where our military history is more prominent than Bronzeville. The onetime home of Camp Douglas would become the home of the “Fighting Eighth,” the first all-black military regiment in American history. Formed in 1870, just after the Civil War, the Eighth Infantry Regiment of the Illinois National Guard cemented the place of free blacks in Chicago society. Their armory, the first for a black regiment in the United States, was built in the heart of the Black Metropolis in 1914. Lots of firsts among the Fighting Eighth!

A memorial to the soldiers of the Eighth Regiment stands just a few blocks away, at King Drive and 35th. The Victory Monument commemorates the black soldiers from Chicago who fought on the fields of France during WWI. The black doughboy atop the white granite shaft is one of my favorite traces of military history in Chicago.

World War II Factories

Chicago played a key role during WWII not just as a training center for the Navy. The Windy City also switched over its enormous industrial capacity to wartime production during the war.

Among the most significant were the factories which assembled American air superiority. According to Jerome O’Connor’s “The Hidden Places of World War II”, manufacturing facilities near today’s Midway and O’Hare Airports were essential to the Allied victory. An enormous facility at Orchard Field (today’s O’Hare) produced Douglas C-54 Skymasters, while the Dodge-Chicago factory on the Southwest Side produced the engines for the B-29 bomber. Perhaps it’s unsurprising that both airports now pay tribute to WWII. Midway is named for the Battle of Midway, while O’Hare is named after a Navy flying ace.

Military Museums in Chicago

Two small-scale museums honor the country’s military history. The National Veterans Art Museum, which I wrote about a few years back, features artwork and exhibitions by American vets. Their stunning “Above and Beyond” installation, now at the Harold Washington Library, suspends 58,000 dog tags, each representing a fallen American soldier in Vietnam, above the library’s main escalators.

The Pritzker Military Museum and Library, in the Loop’s Monroe Building, was founded by retired Col. Jennifer Pritzker to commemorate the role of citizen-soldiers in the preservation of American democracy. Their permanent collection, rotating exhibits, archive, and events all aim to further understanding of military history in Chicago and beyond.

Finding Military History in Chicago

Despite Chicago’s only battle taking place over two centuries ago, we have many ties to American military history. Of course, this doesn’t even account for the countless Chicagoans who have served their country. Their service is worth remembrance and the sites associated with it deserve preservation.

– Alex Bean and Marie Rowley

ABOUT CHICAGO DETOURS

Chicago Detours is a boutique tour company passionate about connecting people to places and each other through the power of storytelling. We bring curious people to explore, learn and interact with Chicago’s history, architecture and culture through in-person private group tours, content production, and virtual tours.

You can also get travel inspiration from Kayak’s Chicago Travel Guide.

We research stories from Chicago history, architecture and culture like this while developing our live virtual tours, in-person private tours, and custom content for corporate events. You can join us to experience Chicago’s stories in-person or online. We can also create custom tours and original content about this Chicago topic and countless others.

1. Instead of staying in the Loop… book the Neighborhoods and Cultural Diversity Bus Tour.

Downtown Chicago boasts tons of attractions for university trips, including big museums, but the true soul of Chicago lies in its neighborhoods. We have at least 60 neighborhoods to explore, though the exact number is hotly contested. That means the “city of neighborhoods” leaves visitors overwhelmed with choice!

For this reason, one of our most popular tours for university group trips is our custom tours of Chicago neighborhoods. The tour includes visits and historic background on 9 neighborhoods in Chicago. We go through the South Loop, Bronzeville, Hyde Park, Washington Park, Bridgeport, Chinatown, Pilsen, UIC/Little Italy, and Greektown. The tour guide also celebrates the rich social diversity of the people and communities on our South and West Sides. University groups often love incorporating a meal into the experience, either in Pilsen at the celebrated Canton Regio, or Ricobene’s on the outskirts of Chinatown.

2. Instead of going to the Art Institute… experience dynamic public art.

We love the Art Institute. Everyone should visit the Art Institute. However, the Art Institute isn’t the only place downtown to experience quality art.

A newer, but still major, cultural destination downtown is the Wabash Arts Corridor. Launched in 2013 by Columbia College Chicago, WAC runs down Wabash Avenue from Van Buren to Roosevelt, framed to the east by Michigan Avenue and by State Street to the west. This “urban living canvas” currently comprises 19 galleries, 14 performance spaces, five major hotels and more than 40 restaurants. The variety of art immerses students in the creative spirit of the South Loop. The Wabash Arts Corridor’s ultimate goal is the transformation and revitalization of the surrounding urban space into a major resource for art of all kinds in the heart of the city. 

Other slept-on options for art exploration downtown are the Chicago Cultural Center, currently hosting the Chicago Architecture Biennial, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography. Both options are perfect alternatives for the worthy Art Institute.

3. Instead of going to Museum Campus… visit an under-the-radar museum.

This is a piece of advice that we’re big fans of. I’ll go ahead and quote myself:

Chicago has some massively impressive museums. The world-renowned trifecta down on Museum Campus draws huge crowds. History nerds, like myself, also have the Chicago History Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry. Unfortunately, those museums tend to suck up all the attention from visitors and locals alike.

Just to name some of our favorites from that piece, the Oriental Institute in Hyde Park, the Clarke House Museum in the Prairie Avenue District, and the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum in Pullman are excellent. Well worth taking the time to make them one of your college student group activities.

4. Instead of visiting Navy Pier… learn about urban ecology at The Plant.

An afternoon of sight-seeing does a lot to introduce university groups to the city, but college kids may grow tired of just sight-seeing on days two or three. Plus, Navy Pier, for all its recent improvements, is more family and kid-oriented. College students will likely walk to its end and back and be ready to go.

Alternately, you can arrange a visit to The Plant. Located on the ground of the old Union Stock Yards, The Plant is an incubator which develops new, sustainable technologies and strategies. Their website says it best: “Waste is an opportunity – The best natural resource is the one that has already been extracted. Our work begins where others’ consumption ends, where energy would be otherwise lost to landfills or abandoned.” You can arrange a visit for your college student group activities, perhaps right before or after one of our neighborhood tours.

Tons of Unique College Student Group Activities

Ellen’s list is a great starting point, but we’re only scratching the surface. Chicago holds tons of activities, including ones that might scratch some very specific itches. As always, give us a ring if you want to make a private group tour part of that experience.

– Ellen Bushong and Alex Bean

ABOUT CHICAGO DETOURS

Chicago Detours is a boutique tour company passionate about connecting people to places and each other through the power of storytelling. We bring curious people to explore, learn and interact with Chicago’s history, architecture and culture through in-person private group tours, content production, and virtual tours.

On to the questions!

We research stories from Chicago history, architecture and culture like this while developing our live virtual tours, in-person private tours, and custom content for corporate events. You can join us to experience Chicago’s stories in-person or online. We can also create custom tours and original content about this Chicago topic and countless others.

Where does the name Podhalanka come from?

This question arose at the lovably old-fashioned Polish restaurant named Podhalanka which we visit for some home-cooked Polish food on the tour. Our tour guide, Marie, had a moment to ask Greg, one of the family members who runs the joint with the owner Halina, about the name. He said it’s the region of Poland the family is from. He says it’s beautiful and that we should all visit it! While that sounds very nice, searches of that term didn’t bring up any Polish regions–just our local restaurant.

I did a bit more digging and found an answer in Whet Moser’s recent book (one of our beach reading suggestions). Moser clarifies that “Podhalanka” translates as “Girl from Podhale.” Podhale is the name of the region we’re looking for! Turns out this southern highland region, in the Carpathian Mountains, is indeed quite beautiful. Some confusion, but no lies detected! “The girl from Podhale” might therefore be Halina herself. If you haven’t met her and tried her delicious hand-made pierogies, come on our Old Polonia and Wicker Park Walking Tour (or just drop by Podhalanka, tell them we said hello!)

Were Wicker Park mansions, like Beer Baron Row, raised to street level?

This question arose from the below-grade workers’ cottages which tour guests see early on in the tour. Seemingly-sunken homes abound in Noble Square, which was home to working-class immigrants in the 19th century. You can spot the same thing in South Side neighborhoods like Pilsen and Bridgeport, both of which we visit on our Chicago Neighborhoods and Cultural Diversity Tour.

Chicago raised its street grade several feet during sewer construction in the late 1800s. The city built sewers at the existing ground level and then built streets atop the new embankments. The sunken buildings were typically built before the sewer construction and never raised to the new street level. Wealthier families or property owners who could afford to raise their buildings often did so, to sometimes spectacular effect.

All that being said, it does not seem that the mansions of Beer Baron Row were ever raised up. Noble Square and Wicker Park were within Chicago’s city limits all the way back in 1837. It’s a little hard to find definitive answers, but the new sewers almost certainly would have extended there by the early 1870s, when the local population boomed. The mansions were built later – the Raap House is 1879, for example. Considering the timing, and the fact that the bigwigs who built the mansions were not likely to construct them without modern sewage connections, the mansions were more likely built on landfill, not raised up.

Speaking of the Raap House, its builder was murdered?! When Where Was it in this house DOES HE HAUNT THIS HOUSE?!

On our Wicker Park neighborhood tour we visit and admire the Raap House. While there, guides may mention that John Henry Raap, the man who built it, was murdered. Naturally, this leads to the sort of tour questions we see above.

Raap was one of those great immigrant success stories of Chicago’s early days. He arrived here from Germany as a young man and served briefly in the Union Army. Then he became a leading retailer, especially in alcohol. By the middle of the 1870s, he had become a liquor wholesaler, saloonkeeper, and importer of fine wines. Raap was one of the most successful German businessmen in Gilded Age Chicago and held some sway over the local Republican Party.

That all came to an end on April 23, 1897. Raap accused his employee George H. Braunschweig of embezzlement and fraud. The accusation was to the tune of $2300. That’s over $70k in today’s money! In an effort to settle the case, Braunschweig offered Raap undeveloped properties in suburban Park Ridge and Kensington. Raap, perhaps overplaying his hand, insisted on either cash or Braunschweig’s own plush home. Braunschweig responded by going to Raap’s business and asking for a meeting with his accuser. He then shot Raap in the head before turning the revolver on himself. Holy Scheisse!

So we knew about the murder, but the scene of the crime isn’t featured on the tour. That structure, the Raap Block, is long gone. It stood at what’s now 906 North Milwaukee Avenue in the Noble Square neighborhood. Today, that’s the middle of the Milwaukee Avenue bridge over the Kennedy Expressway. The ghost of John Raap is more likely wandering the highway than his Wicker Park mansion.

Only a Few Weeks Left for the Old Polonia and Wicker Park Neighborhood Tour!

Your chances to tour the old Polish Downtown with us in 2019 are getting pretty slim. The final Old Polonia and Wicker Park Tour with Food will be on Halloween, which is Thursday, October 31st. Much of the tour is outdoors as we explore the area around Noble Square and circle Wicker Park (the park itself, that is.) With the winds of winter starting to bite, we wrap up this and our other warm-weather tours by October’s end. So time is of the essence!

Of course, you can always sign up for our three year-round downtown walking tours (Loop Interior Architecture, Historic Chicago Walking Bar, and 1893 World’s Fair Walking Tour). We’re also bringing back our Holiday Tour of Drinks, Daleys, and Dead Guys in November and December. Make sure to think up your best questions for those tours–it’ll lead to more fun posts like this one!

– Alex Bean, Content Manager and Tour Guide

ABOUT CHICAGO DETOURS

Chicago Detours is a boutique tour company passionate about connecting people to places and each other through the power of storytelling. We bring curious people to explore, learn and interact with Chicago’s history, architecture and culture through in-person private group tours, content production, and virtual tours.

We research stories from Chicago history, architecture and culture like this while developing our live virtual tours, in-person private tours, and custom content for corporate events. You can join us to experience Chicago’s stories in-person or online. We can also create custom tours and original content about this Chicago topic and countless others.

Chicago Improv

Our city’s most famous contribution to theatre history revolves around the Second City. The famous comedy club in Old Town has its roots in Hyde Park back in the ’50s. A group of UChicago students started performing commedia dell’arte shows in the Compass Bar on 55th Street. The Compass Players created highly-structured prompts and games which the performers improvised within, which became the touchstone of Chicago’s improv comedy scene. Helped along by some truly incredible talent, not least the world-famous duo of Mike Nichols and Elaine May, these young performers helped start The Second City and shaped 20th-century American comedy.

Tony-Winning Theatre Companies

No slight against our improv impresarios, but comedy clubs are not what people think they see “theatre” spelled with an re. For that sort of high culture, we look to our bevy of Tony-winning companies. The Steppenwolf, Goodman, Victory Gardens, Chicago Shakespeare, and Lookingglass companies represent the biggest concentration of high-profile professional theatre outside Manhattan. No other city comes close to our collection of Regional Theatre Tony Awards.

Many of these companies occupy fascinating historical spaces. The Goodman sits in the beautifully revived Harris and Selwyn Theaters. Victory Gardens performs in the iconic Biograph Theater, where Dillinger met his end. Chicago Shakes, of course, performs in their fabulous Navy Pier venue, and Lookingglass calls the historic Water Works its home. Seeing shows at these fantastic spaces is also a trip into the history of Chicago’s theatre architecture.

Neighborhood Theatres

The Tony-winning heavyweights didn’t start out as Chicago theatre colossi, of course. With the exception of the Goodman, these companies began as storefront neighborhood theatres. “Off-Loop” theater companies sprang up throughout the city in the 1960s and ’70s. Inspired by the Compass Players, spurred to action by political and social unrest, and permitted to operate in small spaces for the first time thanks to relaxed building codes, suddenly small theaters were in every Chicago neighborhood. Non-profit theater companies like The Body Politic paved the way for the vibrant Off-Loop Chicago theatre that still exists.

These tiny theatrical companies, often operating on minimal budgets, are the beating heart of Chicago theatre. Often dedicated to esoteric, avant garde, or socially conscious causes, they offer abundant creative freedom. The 200 or so storefront companies also provide the most common starting point for Chicago’s theatrical talent. Actors, writers, designers and directors can cut their teeth and build their resumes in this thriving scene.

Experimental Theatre

Those tiny storefront theaters also represent another of Chicago’s major contributions to theatre history– experimental theatre. Mind-bending experimentation abounded in the 1960s and ’70s small companies, like when Organic Theatre Company mounted a “DIY sci-fi play” called Warp! in 1971. Chicago’s history with experimental theatre is way older than that though. Around the 1910s, Chicago was a center of the Little Theatre Movement, a rejection of the crass commercialism of more mainstream theatre at the time.

The legacy of the experimental theatre companies is carried on today by  The Neo-Futurists, a wildly successful experimental company in Andersonville. Founded back in 1988 and inspired by the Italian Futurist movement, the Neo-Futurists perform with reckless abandon. They embrace immediacy and energy, creating “[w]ork that embraces those unreached or unmoved by conventional theater – inspiring them to thought, feeling and action.”

Youth Theatre

Children’s theatre has a long history in Chicago too. It can trace its roots to the experimental theatre of the Little Theatre Movement in the Progressive Era. Alice Gerstenberg, a feminist playwright and active member of Chicago’s Little Theatre, established the Junior League Children’s Theater in 1921. Chicago children were treading the boards at Hull House around the same time too, with youth drama classes and performances an integral part of the settlement house’s services for Near West Side children.

Today, drama programs in Chicago schools continue the tradition, and community-based programs like the inimitable Albany Park Theater Project represent some of the best theatre in the city. As we detailed last year, our tour guides proudly donate 50% of their gratuities to support APTP. Their mission, bringing young people of every background together to create luminous and rich theatrical experiences. Their work perfectly dovetails with our own ethos. APTP is between shows right now, but we know that a new production is in the works. Can’t wait to see it and share it with the world.

Black Theatre

Black Chicagoans created a robust theatre scene in the Black Belt in the early twentieth century. The famed Pekin Theatre opened in 1905 as the country’s first black-owned and operated vaudeville theatre in the country. Later, black playwrights and actors used theatre to challenge segregation and inequality. Langston Hughes founded the Skyloft Players ensemble in 1941 as “a theater OF the people FOR the people BY the people.” In the 1970s, Chicago’s legacy of black theater was continued with the creation of the Black Ensemble Theater, located in Uptown. Founded by the inimitable Jackie Taylor, BE’s mission is “to eradicate racism and its damaging effects upon our society through the utilization of theater arts.” The Black Ensemble Theater’s shows are often jukebox musicals celebrating overlooked or under-appreciated black performers. Common consensus is that the shows are so joyful and entertaining that the audience is dancing by curtain call.

Celebrating Chicago Theatre History in 2019

The Year of Chicago Theatre affords a great opportunity to appreciate Chicago Theatre history. Sponsored by City Hall and the League of Chicago Theatres, it’s the first citywide theatre festival of its kind. Events include theatrical performances in all 77 community areas, plus major funding and visibility boosts for the city’s 200+ theaters and companies. Inevitably, these celebrations highlight just how much great theatrical work is done here. From the biggest Broadway in Chicago venues to the smallest indie storefronts, this is a town that puts on a great show. We might not have the Great White Way, but Chicago theatre can go toe-to-toe with any other toddling theatre town.

– Alex Bean and Marie Rowley

ABOUT CHICAGO DETOURS

Chicago Detours is a boutique tour company passionate about connecting people to places and each other through the power of storytelling. We bring curious people to explore, learn and interact with Chicago’s history, architecture and culture through in-person private group tours, content production, and virtual tours.

At Chicago Detours our mission is to share stories and places even locals don’t know through private tours of Chicago’s history, culture and architecture. So The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook’s creative approach to sharing the Chicago’s neighborhood stories was an instant hit with us. The whole book is a delight and I recommend you check it out. Here’s a few selections which provide particular insight into some of the Chicago neighborhoods we visit on those custom private neighborhood tours.

We research stories from Chicago history, architecture and culture like this while developing our live virtual tours, in-person private tours, and custom content for corporate events. You can join us to experience Chicago’s stories in-person or online. We can also create custom tours and original content about this Chicago topic and countless others.

Bridgeport Neighborhood

We lead custom tours in Bridgeport frequently, so I’ll start with Ed Marszewski’s essay, Bridgeport: The Community of the Future. This neighborhood tour uses food and drink to connect with the migrations of different groups into Bridgeport. So Marszewski’s insights into the city’s oldest neighborhood outside downtown felt timely, smart and honest. “Living here has taught me what segregation can do to a city, as Bridgeport’s prejudicial reputation went way beyond the neighborhood boundaries.”

Marszewski describes how the arrival of Asian and Mexican communities and a bubbling hipster presence has dissolved that bigoted reputation. The proprietor of Maria’s Packaged Good and Kimski, Ed has helped this transformation along personally. Ed recommends a bevy of other contemporary Bridgeport institutions, like the Co-prosperity Sphere and Zhou B. Center. We share these harbingers of the “Neighborhood of the Future” on a private in-person tour.

Wicker Park Neighborhood

Another favorite neighborhood of ours gets very unique treatment from the poet Kevin Coval. The artistic director of Young Chicago Authors and a UIC professor, Coval is one of the most notable poets in Chicago these days. It’s basically him and Eve Ewing vying for the title of Chicago’s poet laureate. His contribution to The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook is a poem titled “milwaukee avenue.”

In the poem, Coval skips up and down the thoroughfare of the Northwest Side. Starting at Noble Square, he examines the remnants of the working class Polish and Latino neighborhood that’s disappeared into today’s hipster heaven. It’s much the same transformation we engage with on our private neighborhood tours.

Coval’s vivid imagery captures Wicker Park’s neo-Bohemian days:

“The Avenue was avant-garde and pedestrian, pedestrians
by the hundreds. we’d wait for the clock on the bank
that is now a walgreens on the northwest corner
of the Avenue and Damen to strike ten and then
for ten minutes we’d put on a guerilla variety show”

The South Loop Neighborhood

Several of our tours are based in and around downtown. Happily, The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook covers the city center along with the outlying areas. I was particularly taken with Megan Stielstra’s essay, South Loop: Michigan and Harrison. Much like Marszewski and Coval, her writing focuses on the transformative changes of the past few decades. Stielstra arrived in Chicago in 1995 and attended the creative writing program at Columbia College. Her essay begins right there, in an old greasy spoon diner at Michigan and Harrison. She checks back in on herself and the South Loop neighborhood every five years, in a different establishment each time. Diners give way to dive bars which are replaced by coffee shops and Cuban restaurants.

Along the way, Stielstra notes her own changing status and feelings. Each half-decade reveals a growing unease with the corporatization of the South Loop until her eventual departure in 2015. She captures how much of the city’s somewhat lovable scuzziness has been scrubbed away these past decades. The march of progress must always leave some behind, of course, even highly-educated and reflection writing professors. Hers is not necessarily a tragic story, but it is an emblematic one.

Track Down the Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook!

Obviously, I have only scratched the surface of what The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook has to offer. The full book contains dozens more essays, covering every quadrant of the city. I was particularly impressed by the works tackling Garfield Park, Mount Greenwood, Roseland, Pullman, Bronzeville and the epilogue about Rezkoville. Those works, along with all the others, bring to vivid life the diverse people and wildly divergent experiences that populate Chicago. The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook is a symphony of the city that is unharmonious, often tragic, sometimes ridiculous, and yet always home.

– Alex Bean, Content Manager and Tour Guide

ABOUT CHICAGO DETOURS

Chicago Detours is a boutique tour company passionate about connecting people to places and each other through the power of storytelling. We bring curious people to explore, learn and interact with Chicago’s history, architecture and culture through in-person private group tours, content production, and virtual tours.