Chicago Temple Tour: Architecture, History and a Toast
We are offering an exclusive tour of the Chicago Temple Building. You’ll visit the rooftop patio and learn all about the architecture, history and culture of this iconic building. Exclusive Tour Details For the Exclusive Tour of the Chicago Temple Building, Amanda will share fascinating stories on the church’s history. The church displays an original “kitsch […]
Chicago Blues Festival – Special Tour
This Saturday, June 9th, 10:30am we are having a rare offering of our “Jazz, Blues & Beyond” tour by bus, typically only available for private groups. Featured on WGN evening news, the two-and-a-half-hour special interactive event includes a local musician and visits to both iconic and lesser known highlights of Chicago’s rich music history. The […]
Learn About the Public Spaces of Chicago Women’s History
During the 1800s Chicago women participated in few social activities outside of the home. Most activities required women to be escorted at all times as they were not to be left alone in public. On our Loop Interior Architecture Walking Tour, we go into the former Marshall Field’s department store and discuss how the store […]
The Chicago Picasso: Beginnings of Public Art in Chicago
It hard to walk past Daley Plaza and not catch a glimpse of Chicago Picasso. The colossal three dimension sculpture towers 50 feet into the sky above plaza. Some say it is a woman, a horse, or even a baboon. To locals of Chicago however, this sculpture is just the Picasso. (By the way, you […]
Beer + Poetry + History = Grand Success
Last Saturday night, Chicago Detours brought together a fabulous combination: writers and drinking at the historic Berghoff Bar. AWP award winners joined local artists and novelists to read a selection of Chicago Drinking poems that we at Chicago Detours dug up from library archives and old anthologies. Readers shouted out the poems amid clinking glasses […]
A Historic Home in an Ocean of Brutalism
Among the 1950s and 1960s buildings of the University of Illinois at Chicago campus, one place just does not look like the others! The original Jane Addams Hull House, now a museum, has Italianate cornices and a columned porch. In addition to Jane Addams fame as the “Mother of Social Work,” here you can gain […]
Exploring the Chicago Archives
Tips For Finding Fascinating Documents and Objects in the Chicago Archives Tip #1 Don’t be Afraid to Ask Questions I like to browse. I browse the paper, browse menus, and browse my way through museums. In bookstores, I will go to the fiction section and thumb through a few interesting-looking novels before choosing one to […]
Been to Chicago’s Bronzeville Neighborhood?
Off the beaten path but still close to downtown, Bronzeville is a great place to learn more about our city. The four Chicago Community Areas of Grand Boulevard, Kenwood, Douglas, and Oakland comprise Bronzeville, which is historically known as the “Black Metropolis.” It served as the northern hub for the “Great Migration” of African Americans […]
Tour Questions Answered!
The curious people who come on our interactive, guided tours of history, culture and architecture sometimes have questions. Since Chicago Detours guides don’t make up answers for our architectural tours, we mark them down and then research the answers for them. Said research is done, so consider these tour questions answered! If you’ve come on […]
Success with the 1st One-Off Tour of Chicago Temple!
This past Saturday, August 6, Chicago Detours held it’s first (of many more to come) one-off special event tour with a 2-hour architectural and historical tour of the Chicago Temple building, which houses the First United Methodist Church as well as many law offices. This special event tour was sold-out with 22 guests. Senior Pastor […]