Blackwater River State Park

A favorite destination for canoeists and kayakers, Blackwater River State Park offers opportunities for a variety of outdoor activities. The river is one of the purest sand-bottom rivers in the nation, making this park a popular place for swimming, fishing, ...

Frederick C. Robie House

In its May 1957 issue, House and Home magazine declared that "no house in America during the past hundred years matches the importance of Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House."

Built in 1909, the Frederick C. Robie House stands as one ...

Wabash Avenue YMCA

The Wabash Avenue YMCA was a major social and educational center in the Black Metropolis, the center of Chicago's African American culture in the early 1900s. Funds for its construction came from Julius Rosenwald, chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Company, ...

Chicago Bee Building

Confident in the vitality of the Black Metropolis of Chicago, entrepreneur Anthony Overton commissioned his second building in this commercial district for the offices of the Chicago Bee, an African American newspaper he founded in 1926.

Ironically enough, soon after ...

Overton Hygienic Building

The Overton Hygienic Building is one of the most important elements of the African American community known as the Black Metropolis.

Established by the beginning of the 20th century, this commercial district developed in response to the restrictions and exploitation ...

The Manhattan Building

The Manhattan Building is the oldest surviving commercial office building by William LeBaron Jenney, the noted architect who brought the techniques of skyscraper skeletal construction to maturity. Some Chicago School architects who worked in Jenney's office included D. H. Burnham, ...

The Old Colony Building

The Old Colony Building was designed and constructed between 1893 and 1894 by the architectural firm of Holabird and Roche. As Chicago School architects, they sought to reveal the character of the steel skeletal structure while cladding their buildings with ...

Monadnock Building

The word "monadnock" is defined as a mountain or rocky mass that stands isolated in a level area. Rising 16 stories high, the Monadnock Block in 1891 stood as one of the tallest buildings constructed of solid masonry in the ...

Marquette Building

In the late 19th century, steel framing as a new building material demanded a new form of architecture. The architectural firm of Holabird and Roche designed the Marquette Building in 1894 as one introduction to this form, which became known ...

The Rookery Building

Built in 1888, the Rookery Building was named in honor of the former temporary City Hall where many of the city's birds made their nests.

The 11-story office building, designed by the architectural firm of Burnham and Root, features cast-iron ...