Free Walking Sightseeing Tour #9 in Chicago, United States

Legend

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

Tour Facts

Number of sights 19 sights
Distance 10 km
Ascend 830 m
Descend 824 m

Explore Chicago in United States with this free self-guided walking tour. The map shows the route of the tour. Below is a list of attractions, including their details.

Individual Sights in Chicago

Sight 1: Chicago Shakespeare Theater

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Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) is a non-profit, professional theater company located at Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois. Its more than six hundred annual performances performed 48 weeks of the year include its critically acclaimed Shakespeare series, its World's Stage touring productions, and youth education and family oriented programming. The theater had garnered 77 Joseph Jefferson awards and three Laurence Olivier Awards. In 2008, it was the winner of the Regional Theatre Tony Award.

Wikipedia: Chicago Shakespeare Theater (EN), Website

286 meters / 3 minutes

Sight 2: Chicago Children's Museum

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The Chicago Children's Museum is located at Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 1982 by The Junior League of Chicago who were responding to programming cutbacks in the Chicago Public Schools. Originally housed in two hallways of the Chicago Public Library, it soon began to offer trunk shows and traveling exhibits in response to capacity crowds on-site.

Wikipedia: Chicago Children's Museum (EN), Website

103 meters / 1 minutes

Sight 3: Captain on the Helm

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Captain on the Helm, also known as Captain at the Helm, is an outdoor bronze sculpture by Michael Martino, installed at Chicago's Navy Pier, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The statue was donated by the Chicago Lodge of Shipmasters International and dedicated on May 19, 2000. A plaque reads, "To those courageous mariners who guided their ships through perilous waters, carrying cargo and people. Their contributions have been so much a part of our history. May they never be forgotten."

Wikipedia: Captain on the Helm (EN)

1008 meters / 12 minutes

Sight 4: Nicholas J. Melas Centennial Fountain

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Nicholas J Melas Centennial Fountain is located on the north bank of the Chicago River at McClurg Court in Near North Side, Chicago. It was dedicated in 1989, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, perhaps best known for its major achievement in reversing the flow of the Chicago River in 1900; and in 1999, this system was named a "Civil Engineering Monument of the Millennium" by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

Wikipedia: Centennial Fountain (EN)

430 meters / 5 minutes

Sight 5: Chicago Rising from the Lake

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Chicago Rising from the Lake

Chicago Rising from the Lake (1954) is a bronze sculpture by Milton Horn. The sculpture shows a woman, rising from waters of Lake Michigan, with flames, animals and wheat. It represents Chicago's rebirth after the Great Chicago Fire, and subsequent rise to become a leader in transportation, stockyards and commodities.

Wikipedia: Chicago Rising from the Lake (EN)

439 meters / 5 minutes

Sight 6: Jack Brickhouse

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An outdoor sculpture of Jack Brickhouse is installed along Michigan Avenue, near the Chicago River bridge, in Chicago, Illinois. The bust was originally dedicated in 2000, and renovated in 2009.

Wikipedia: Bust of Jack Brickhouse (EN)

430 meters / 5 minutes

Sight 7: Chicago Architecture Center

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The Chicago Architecture Center (CAC), formerly the Chicago Architecture Foundation, is a nonprofit cultural organization based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, whose mission is to inspire people to discover why design matters. Founded in 1966, its programs include public tours and programs, most notably the docent-led architecture cruise on the Chicago River, and other tours in the Chicago area. The river cruise is ranked in the top ten tours in the U.S. by TripAdvisor users. CAC includes conference and exhibition space, including a scale model of downtown Chicago.

Wikipedia: Chicago Architecture Center (EN), Website, Url

269 meters / 3 minutes

Sight 8: Chicago Riverwalk

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The Chicago Riverwalk is a multi-use public space located on the south bank of the main branch of the Chicago River in Chicago, extending from Lake Michigan and Lake Shore Drive westward to Lake Street. The Chicago Riverwalk contains restaurants, bars, cafes, small parks, boat and kayak rentals, a Vietnam War memorial, and other amenities.

Wikipedia: Chicago Riverwalk (EN)

418 meters / 5 minutes

Sight 9: Chicago Theatre

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The Chicago Theatre, originally known as the Balaban and Katz Chicago Theatre, is a landmark theater located on North State Street in the Loop area of Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1921, the Chicago Theatre was the flagship for the Balaban and Katz (B&K) group of theaters run by A. J. Balaban, his brother Barney Balaban and partner Sam Katz. Along with the other B&K theaters, from 1925 to 1945 the Chicago Theatre was a dominant movie theater enterprise. Currently, Madison Square Garden, Inc. owns and operates the Chicago Theatre as a 3600 seat performing arts venue for stage plays, magic shows, comedy, speeches, sporting events and popular music concerts.

Wikipedia: Chicago Theatre (EN), Website

448 meters / 5 minutes

Sight 10: Chicago Building

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Chicago BuildingJ. Crocker / Attribution

The Chicago Building or Chicago Savings Bank Building is an early skyscraper, built in 1904–1905. It is located at 7 W. Madison Street in Chicago. Designed by the architecture firm Holabird & Roche, it is an early and highly visible example of the Chicago school of architecture.

Wikipedia: Chicago Building (EN)

115 meters / 1 minutes

Sight 11: CIBC Theatre

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CIBC Theatre is a performing arts theater located at 18 West Monroe Street in the Loop area of downtown Chicago. It is operated by Broadway In Chicago, part of the Nederlander Organization. Opened in 1906 as the Majestic Theatre, it currently seats 1,800 and for many years has presented Broadway shows. In its early years, the theater presented vaudeville celebrity acts.

Wikipedia: CIBC Theatre (EN)

398 meters / 5 minutes

Sight 12: Chicago Picasso

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Chicago Picasso

The Chicago Picasso is an untitled monumental sculpture by Pablo Picasso in Daley Plaza in Chicago, Illinois. The 1967 installation of The Picasso, "precipitated an aesthetic shift in civic and urban planning, broadening the idea of public art beyond the commemorative."

Wikipedia: Chicago Picasso (EN)

365 meters / 4 minutes

Sight 13: Cadillac Palace Theatre

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The Cadillac Palace Theatre is operated by Broadway In Chicago, a Nederlander company. It is located at 151 West Randolph Street in the Chicago Loop area.

Wikipedia: Cadillac Palace Theatre (EN)

1425 meters / 17 minutes

Sight 14: Chicago Union Station

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Chicago Union Station

Chicago Union Station is an intercity and commuter rail terminal located in the West Loop neighborhood of the Near West Side of Chicago. The station is Amtrak's flagship station in the Midwest. While serving long-distance passenger trains, it is also the downtown terminus for six Metra commuter lines. Union Station is just west of the Chicago River between West Adams Street and West Jackson Boulevard, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. Including approach and storage tracks, it covers about nine and a half city blocks.

Wikipedia: Chicago Union Station (EN), Website

1137 meters / 14 minutes

Sight 15: Ceres

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Ceres Óscar Marín Repoller - User:Oscurecido. Original uploader was Cynwolfe at en.wikipedia / CC BY 3.0

In ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. She was originally the central deity in Rome's so-called plebeian or Aventine Triad, then was paired with her daughter Proserpina in what Romans described as "the Greek rites of Ceres". Her seven-day April festival of Cerealia included the popular Ludi Ceriales. She was also honoured in the May lustration (lustratio) of the fields at the Ambarvalia festival: at harvest-time: and during Roman marriages and funeral rites. She is usually depicted as a mature woman.

Wikipedia: Ceres (mythology) (EN)

712 meters / 9 minutes

Sight 16: Chicago L

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Chicago LDR04 / Attribution

The Chicago "L" is the rapid transit system serving the city of Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs in the U.S. state of Illinois. Operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), it is the fourth-largest rapid transit system in the United States in terms of total route length, at 102.8 miles (165.4 km) long as of 2014, and the second-busiest rapid transit system in the United States, after the New York City Subway. In 2016, the "L" had 1,492 rail cars, eight different routes, and 145 train stations. In 2023, the system had 117,447,000 rides, or about 373,800 per weekday in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Wikipedia: Chicago "L" (EN)

817 meters / 10 minutes

Sight 17: Chicago Stock Exchange Arch

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The Chicago Stock Exchange Arch is one of the few surviving fragments from the Chicago Stock Exchange building designed in 1893, installed outside the Art Institute of Chicago, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The arch was sculpted by Dankmar Adler & Louis Sullivan in 1893 and was preserved when the building was demolished in 1972. It was installed outside the Art Institute of Chicago in 1977.

Wikipedia: Chicago Stock Exchange Arch (EN)

555 meters / 7 minutes

Sight 18: Sir Georg Solti Bust

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The bust of Georg Solti is an outdoor bronze sculpture by Elisabeth Frink, installed in Chicago, in the U.S. state of Illinois.

Wikipedia: Bust of Georg Solti (EN)

615 meters / 7 minutes

Sight 19: 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 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 shows and evening colored-light shows. During the winter, the fountain is decorated with festival lights.

Wikipedia: Buckingham Fountain (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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