Self-guided Sightseeing Tour #4 in Chicago, United States

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Churches & Art
Nature
Water & Wind
Historical
Heritage & Space
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Paid Tours & Activities

Tour Facts

Number of sights 23 sights
Distance 5.8 km
Ascend 438 m
Descend 437 m

Experience Chicago in United States in a whole new way with our free 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: Church of the Ascension

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The Church of the Ascension is an Anglo-Catholic parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago. Founded in 1857 as a mission of St. James Church, it is now located on North La Salle Drive on Chicago's Near North Side. The church became a part of the Anglo-Catholic movement in 1869. The principal service on Sunday is the Solemn High Mass celebrated at 11 a.m., according to Rite II in the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer (1979). This Mass is celebrated at the High Altar, and includes three sacred ministers, many acolytes, incense, and music provided by a professional choir. The mass includes processions and other devotions on certain feasts and holy days.

Wikipedia: Church of the Ascension, Chicago (EN)

275 meters / 3 minutes

Sight 2: Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral

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The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral is a Greek Orthodox cathedral located in Chicago, Illinois. It is the mother church of the Metropolis of Chicago. The current membership includes some 400 families.

Wikipedia: Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral (Chicago) (EN)

276 meters / 3 minutes

Sight 3: Palette and Chisel

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The William Waller House is a historic house located at 1012 N. Dearborn St. in the Near North Side neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The home was built in 1875–76, shortly after the Great Chicago Fire, during the development of Chicago's prosperous Gold Coast district. The house's Italianate design features a stone exterior, a double bay front, a bracketed and ornamented cornice, arched windows, and decorative keystones. Though Italianate rowhouses are still common in the Near North Side, freestanding Italianate homes are relatively rare, and the Waller House is one of the best-preserved examples of these homes.

Wikipedia: William Waller House (EN)

232 meters / 3 minutes

Sight 4: Washington Square

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Washington Square, also known as Washington Square Park, is a park in Chicago, Illinois. A registered historic landmark that is better known by its nickname Bughouse Square, it was the most celebrated open air free-speech center in the country as well as a popular Chicago tourist attraction. It is located across Walton Street from Newberry Library at 901 N. Clark Street in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is Chicago's oldest existing small park. It is one of four Chicago Park District parks named after persons surnamed Washington. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 20, 1991.

Wikipedia: Washington Square Park (Chicago) (EN), Website

170 meters / 2 minutes

Sight 5: Chicago Sinai Congregation

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Chicago Sinai Congregation is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue located at 15 West Delaware Place, in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. Founded in 1861, the current synagogue building was designed by Dirk Lohan and completed in 1996, inclusive of stained-glass windows by British artist Brian Clarke.

Wikipedia: Chicago Sinai Congregation (EN)

368 meters / 4 minutes

Sight 6: Mariano Park

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Mariano Park is a small public park in Chicago at the intersection of Rush Street and State Street in Gold Coast. It has an official address of 1031 North State Street. The land was initially acquired by the city in 1848 but was not transferred to the Chicago Park District until 1959. Mariano Park was renamed for Louis Mariano, a reporter and editor for the Chicago Daily News, in 1970. Mariano was an editor for World Book Encyclopedia and an associate editor for Science Year, the World Book Science Annual, as well as the assistant managing editor of the World Book Yearbook from 1963 through 1970. His column, "North Looping with Lou Mariano" featured happenings and local celebrities from the vantage point of his office, a table at O'Connell's Sandwich Shop on the corner of Bellevue and Rush Streets. It has a structure designed by Birch Burdette Long, who was a Frank Lloyd Wright protege. The area is colloquially known as "Viagra Triangle" for the many older gentlemen taking young ladies on dates at bars and restaurants.

Wikipedia: Mariano Park (EN), Website

317 meters / 4 minutes

Sight 7: Fortnightly of Chicago

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Fortnightly of Chicago

The Lathrop House, also known as the Bryan Lathrop House, is a Georgian style house at 120 E Bellevue Place in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The house was built in 1892 by McKim, Mead & White for Bryan Lathrop. In 1922 the house was sold to the Fortnightly Club. The club still occupies the building. It was designated a Chicago Landmark on May 9, 1973, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Wikipedia: Lathrop House (EN)

401 meters / 5 minutes

Sight 8: Allow Me

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Allow Me

Allow Me is a bronze sculpture by John Seward Johnson II. Casts of Allow Me are displayed as public art in Bath, New York; Chicago; in front of the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia; on Embassy Row in Washington DC; and in Portland, Oregon. Three additional casts exist in private collections in Hamilton, Ohio, Los Angeles and Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Wikipedia: Allow Me (EN)

206 meters / 2 minutes

Sight 9: 360 Chicago

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360 ChicagoJames Willamor from Raleigh, NC, USA / CC BY-SA 2.0

The John Hancock Center is a 100-story, 1,128-foot supertall skyscraper located in Chicago, Illinois. Located in the Magnificent Mile district, the building was officially renamed 875 North Michigan Avenue in 2018.

Wikipedia: John Hancock Center (EN), Website

208 meters / 2 minutes

Sight 10: Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place

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Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place is operated by Broadway In Chicago, a Nederlander subsidiary. Located at Water Tower Place in Chicago, Illinois, it was formerly known as Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place. It was reopened in 2004 and seats 549.

Wikipedia: Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place (EN)

66 meters / 1 minutes

Sight 11: Chicago Sports Museum

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The Chicago Sports Museum is a 23,000-square-foot museum located along the Magnificent Mile at the Water Tower Place mall in Chicago. The museum, which was opened on April 1, 2014—by Harry Caray's Restaurant Group and CEO Grant DePorter—features interactive skill challenges, unique sports memorabilia, and a collection of game-used artifacts well known to fans of Chicago sports.

Wikipedia: Chicago Sports Museum (EN), Website

130 meters / 2 minutes

Sight 12: Museum of Contemporary Art

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The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in the Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary art venues. The museum's collection is composed of thousands of objects of Post-World War II visual art. The museum is run gallery-style, with individually curated exhibitions throughout the year. Each exhibition may be composed of temporary loans, pieces from their permanent collection, or a combination of the two.

Wikipedia: Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (EN), Website

459 meters / 6 minutes

Sight 13: Chicago Avenue Pumping Station

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The Chicago Avenue Pumping Station is a historic district contributing property in the Old Chicago Water Tower District landmark district. It is located on Michigan Avenue along the Magnificent Mile shopping district in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois. It is on the east side of Michigan Avenue opposite the Chicago Water Tower.

Wikipedia: Chicago Avenue Pumping Station (EN)

293 meters / 4 minutes

Sight 14: Chicago Water Tower

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Chicago Water Tower Bernt Rostad / CC BY 2.0

The Chicago Water Tower is a contributing property and landmark in the Old Chicago Water Tower District in Chicago, Illinois, United States, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built to enclose the tall machinery of a powerful water pump in 1869, it became particularly well known when it survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, although the area around it was burnt to the ground.

Wikipedia: Chicago Water Tower (EN)

124 meters / 1 minutes

Sight 15: Loyola University Museum of Art

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Loyola University Museum of Art

The Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA), which opened in the fall of 2005, is unique among Chicago's many museums for mounting exhibits that explore the spiritual in art from all cultures, faiths, and eras. LUMA is located on Loyola University Chicago's Water Tower Campus in downtown Chicago, at 820 North Michigan Ave.

Wikipedia: Loyola University Museum of Art (EN), Website

356 meters / 4 minutes

Sight 16: Holy Name Cathedral

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Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago is the seat of the Archdiocese of Chicago, one of the largest Catholic dioceses in the United States. The church serves as the episcopal seat of the current Archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich.

Wikipedia: Holy Name Cathedral (Chicago) (EN), Website

266 meters / 3 minutes

Sight 17: St. James Episcopal Cathedral

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St. James Cathedral is the mother church of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America Diocese of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. The cathedral stands at the corner of Huron and Wabash streets.

Wikipedia: St. James Cathedral (Chicago) (EN)

81 meters / 1 minutes

Sight 18: Nickerson House

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Nickerson HouseTeemu008 from Palatine, Illinois / CC BY-SA 2.0

The Samuel M. Nickerson House, located at 40 East Erie Street in the Near North Side neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, is a Chicago Landmark. It was designed by Edward J. Burling of the firm of Burling and Whitehouse and built for Samuel and Mathilda Nickerson in 1883. Samuel M. Nickerson was a prominent figure in the rising national banking industry, who was said to have owned at one point more national bank stock than anyone else in the United States.

Wikipedia: Nickerson House (EN)

35 meters / 0 minutes

Sight 19: Richard H. Driehaus Museum

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The Richard H. Driehaus Museum is a museum located at 40 East Erie Street on the Near North Side in Chicago, Illinois, near the Magnificent Mile. The museum is housed within the historic Samuel M. Nickerson House, the 1883 residence of a wealthy Chicago banker. Although the mansion has been restored, the Driehaus Museum does not re-create the Nickerson period but rather broadly interprets and displays the prevailing design, architecture, and decorating tastes of Gilded Age America and the Art Nouveau era in permanent and special exhibitions.

Wikipedia: Driehaus Museum (EN), Website

68 meters / 1 minutes

Sight 20: Ransom R. Cable House

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The Cable House is a Richardsonian Romanesque-style house near Michigan Avenue at 25 E. Erie St. in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The house was built in 1886 by Cobb and Frost for socialite Ransom R. Cable. It was designated a Chicago Landmark on October 2, 1991.

Wikipedia: Cable House (EN)

140 meters / 2 minutes

Sight 21: Former Medinah Temple

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The Medinah Temple is a large Moorish Revival building in Chicago built by Shriners architects Huehl & Schmid in 1912.

Wikipedia: Medinah Temple (EN)

318 meters / 4 minutes

Sight 22: Former Chicago Historical Society Building

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Former Chicago Historical Society Building

The Former Chicago Historical Society Building is a historic landmark located at 632 N. Dearborn Street on the northwest corner of Dearborn and Ontario streets near downtown Chicago. Built in 1892, the granite-clad building is a prime example of Henry Ives Cobb's Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. Henry Cobb designed this home for Walter Loomis Newberry, founder of the Newberry Library in Chicago. The building was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1997. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, under the name, Old Chicago Historical Society Building.

Wikipedia: Former Chicago Historical Society Building (EN)

992 meters / 12 minutes

Sight 23: National Public Housing Museum

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The National Public Housing Museum is a historical institution that will be opening at 1322 W Taylor St. in Chicago, Illinois, and currently is located at 625 N Kingsbury St. in Chicago. The museum is located in the last remaining building of the Jane Addams Homes of ABLA Homes, and will feature an oral history archive, public programming, and an entrepreneurship hub. Exhibitions will include restored apartment of three families who lived in the Jane Addams homes. The building that the museum is contained within opened in 1938 as the first federal government housing project in Chicago. It housed thousands of families over six decades and has been vacant since 2002

Wikipedia: National Public Housing Museum (EN), Website

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Disclaimer Please be aware of your surroundings and do not enter private property. We are not liable for any damages that occur during the tours.

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