Fort Gadsden Historic Site

Fort Gadsden, also known as the Negro Fort, was built by the British during the War of 1812. In 1818 the U.S. government took over and rebuilt the fort, naming it after the lieutenant who supervised the construction.

In 1814 ...

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 ...

Charles Hitchcock Hall

The Charles Hitchcock Hall was designed by Dwight H. Perkins in 1901-1902 as a four-story dormitory for the University of Chicago.

Significant in its contribution to the Prairie School movement, the medieval style building exhibits ornamentation detailing local flowers and ...

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 ...

San Felasco Hammock State Preserve

A 17th century Spanish mission, San Francisco de Potano, was located in the southeastern corner of the preserve. San Felasco is a mispronunciation of San Francisco by Seminoles and white settlers of the area in the late 1700s and early ...

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 ...

Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building

Louis Sullivan is regarded highly by historians and architects as a pioneer in American commercial architecture. As an exemplary model of his work, the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building showcases his philosophy of form following function. Built in 1899 ...