1 Yankeedom – Route 66

Illinois – Illinois Old Route 66

1.0 Yankeedom – Second City

Historic Route 66 Begin Sign
Historic Route 66 Begin Sign, Chicago

1.1.0 Chicago Route 66

Flag of Chicago – stars (*) represent Fort Dearborn (1803), Great Chicago Fire (1871), World’s Columbian Exposition (1893), and Century of Progress Exposition (1933)

1.T.0 Chicago Timeline

The Second City, The Windy City, City in a Garden, City of Neighborhoods

    • Population: 2.6 million
    • Metro population: 9.4 million
Marquette Statue, Marquette Park, Mackinac Island, Michigan
1.T.1 Chicago Origins
    1. French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet pass by (1673)
    2. French explorer Claude Allouez arrived to try to convert local tribes to Christianity (1677)
    3. French explorer René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle passes by (1682)
    4. British victory in the French and Indian War changes area’s control (1763) and the Parliament of Great Britain approves the Quebec Act organizing the Great Lakes area as part of the Province of Quebec (1774)
    5. United States declares independence (1776) and  the Treaty of Paris ends the American Revolution and officially recognizing the United States as an independent nation (1783)
    6. French Haitian Jean Baptiste Point du Sable establishes Chicago’s first non-native permanent settlement (1780)
    7. Northwest Ordinance approved under Articles of Confederation created the Northwest Territory (1787)
    8. U.S. Constitution ratified (1788)
Grant Park, Chicago
Grant Park, Chicago
1.T.2 First Star: Fort Dearborn Era
    1. U.S. Army builds Fort Dearborn (1803)*
    2. Congress passes the Indian Removal Act (1830) – about 800 Potawatomi men removed from Chicago (population about 350 non-natives) to west of the Mississippi River (1835) and then the remaining 450 Potawatomi left Chicago (1837)
    3. Chicago incorporated as a city (1837) (one year after New Buffalo, Michigan) and Grant Park (Lake Park: 1844)
    4. Illinois and Michigan Canal opens, Chicago Board of Trade opens, and Galena and Chicago Union Railroad starts (1848)
    5. Northwestern University is founded as Chicago’s first institution of higher education (now #6 in nation) (1851)
    6. Raising of Chicago – buildings and sidewalks were physically raised on jackscrews (1850s-1860s)
    7. Abraham Lincoln nominated for U.S. President at the Wigwam in Chicago (1860); Union Stock Yard established as the meatpacking district (1865); Ulysses S. Grant nominated for U.S. President at Crosby’s Opera House in Chicago (1868)
    8. Transcontinental railroad finished; Riverside, first planned suburb in the U.S., drafted by Frederick Law Olmstead; Chicago Water Tower built (1869)
Chicago "L"
Chicago “L”
1.T.3 Second Star: Second City
    1. Great Chicago Fire (1871)* (New Buffalo, Michigan)
    2. Montgomery Ward in business (1872) and Pullman National Historical Park (1880)
    3. Chicago becomes the second largest city in the United States (1890)
    4. University of Chicago founded by John D. Rockefeller (#11 in nation) (1890)
    5. Chicago “L” (1892) and Early Chicago Skyscrapers (World Heritage Tentative List) (1884-1900-ish) – First Chicago School
    6. Haymarket riot (1886)
    7. Sears, Roebuck and Company started (1888)
    8. Hull House founded by Jane Addams (1889)
1909 Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago
1909 Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago
1.T.4 Third Star: The City Beautiful
    1. World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago World’s Fair – The White City) (1893)* – Jackson Park and Midway Plaisance (Niles, Michigan Central Railroad Depot) – City Beautiful movement
    2. Art Institute of Chicago (current building: 1893)
    3. Iroquois Theater Fire led to widespread fire safety reforms (1903)
    4. Theodore Roosevelt nominated for U.S. President at the Chicago Coliseum (1904)
    5. Burnham’s Plan of Chicago presented (1909) – “Paris on the Prairie”
    6. Montgomery Ward wins court battle to keep lakefront free and clear of buildings (1909)
    7. Frank Lloyd Wright Architecture (World Heritage Site) – Robie House (1910)
    8. Chicago Lakefront – Navy Pier (1916) – Chicago Architecture Boat Tour
Field Museum, Chicago
Field Museum, Chicago
1.T.5 Early Roaring Twenties
    1. Great Migration – approximately six million Black people moved from the American South to the North (1910s-1970s)
    2. Chicago race riot (1919)
    3. Al Capone moves to Chicago from Brooklyn (1919 – approximate year)
    4. Prohibition begins (1920)
    5. Field Museum (current building: 1921)
    6. More meat processed in Chicago than in any other place in the world (1924)
    7. Chicago Union Station completed (1925)
    8. Chicago becomes known as the “City of Neighborhoods” (1920s)
Buckingham Fountain
Buckingham Fountain
1.T.6 Route 66 Established
    1. Historic Route 66 (1926) begins and Berghoff Restaurant (1898)
    2. Buckingham Fountain (1927) & Abraham Lincoln: The Head of State (1908)
    3. St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1929)
    4. Merchandise Mart was built for Marshall Field & Co. (1930) (today: ART on THE MART)
    5. Al Capone sentenced to prison (1931)
    6. Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated for U.S. President at the Chicago Stadium (1932)
    7. Prohibition repealed (1933)
    8. John Dillinger shot by the FBI in an alley next to the Biograph Theater (1934)
Chicago deep dish pizza
1.T.7 Fourth Star: Renaissance
    1. Century of Progress Exposition (1933)* (Indiana Dunes National Park)
    2. Enrico Fermi produces the first self-sustained nuclear reaction in his lab under Stagg Field on the University of Chicago campus (1942)
    3. Chicago Black Renaissance: jazz – Louis Armstrong, blues – Muddy Waters, and gospel, Richard Wright, Chicago Defender,  and Archibald Motley’s art (1930s-1940s)
    4. Emmitt Till, 14 years old, is lynched and brutally murdered in Mississippi (1955)
    5. Anti-Vietnam War protests at the Democratic National Convention at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago (1968)
    6. Chicago Skyline (Second Chicago School) – Standard Oil Building (Aon Center) completed (1973)
    7. Sears Tower completed (1974) – it’s the tallest building in the world up to 1998
    8. Taste of Chicago (1980-present)
      • Al’s Italian Beef Sandwich (1938)
      • Deep-Dish Pizza (1943)
      • Portillo’s Chicago-Style Hot Dog (1963)
Cloud Gate ("The Bean"), Millennium Park
Cloud Gate (“The Bean”), Millennium Park, Chicago
1.T.8 Modern Chicago
    1. Silicon Prairie established in Chicago (1994)
    2. Green roof policy began with the installation of a green roof on Chicago City Hall (2000)
    3. Millennium Park – Cloud Gate “The Bean” (2004)
    4. Barack Obama Election Night victory speech at Grant Park (2008)
    5. Aqua Tower – tallest building in the world designed by a woman architect (2009)
    6. Thompson Center is being redeveloped into Googleplex Chicago (2022)
    7. Chicago designated hub for quantum technologies by President Joe Biden (2023)
    8. Kamala Harris nominated for U.S. President at the United Center in Chicago (2024)
Buckingham Fountain
Buckingham Fountain, Grant Park, with Chicago skyline

1.L.0 Chicago – The Loop

1.L.1 Early Chicago Skyscrapers (World Heritage Tentative List)
    1. Auditorium Theatre Building
    2. Second Leiter Building
    3. Marquette Building
    4. Rookery Building
    5. Monadnock Building
    6. Old Colony Building
    7. Ludington Building
    8. Fisher Building
    9. Schlesinger & Mayer Building (Sullivan Center)
Chicago Skyline at Millennium Park
Chicago skyline at Millennium Park – The Legacy at Millennium Park (right, foreground) and Willis (Sears) Tower (background)
1.L.2 Chicago Skyline
    1. Sears Tower (Willis Tower – The Loop)- 1,451′; 3rd-tallest building in the United States; 26th-tallest building in the world; tallest building in the world: 1974-1998)
    2. St. Regis Chicago (Vista Tower – The Loop) – 1,191′
    3. Aon Center (The Loop) – 1,136′; formerly known as the Standard Oil Building; tallest building in Chicago: 1973-1974
    4. Franklin Center (AT&T Corporate Center – The Loop) – 1,007′
    5. Richard J. Daley Center (The Loop) – 648′; tallest building in Chicago: 1965-1969
    6. Chicago Board of Trade Building (The Loop) – 605′; tallest building in Chicago: 1930-1965
    7. Chicago Temple Building (The Loop) – 568′; tallest building in Chicago: 1924-1930
    8. Six North Michigan Avenue (The Tower Building; Montgomery Ward & Company Building – The Loop) – 282′; tallest building in Chicago: 1899-1922
Abraham Lincoln statue, Grant Park, Chicago
Abraham Lincoln: The Head of State, Grant Park, Chicago – Sculptor: Augustus Saint-Gaudens
1.L.3 Grant Park
    1. President’s Court – Abraham Lincoln: The Head of State (Illinois is the Land of Lincoln), Art on the Farm Urban Agriculture Potager Kitchen Garden, and Artists and Automobiles
    2. Congress Plaza – Sir Georg Solti Garden, Eagle Fountains, Daphne sculpture, The Bowman sculpture, The Spearman sculpture, and Spirit of Music Garden
    3. Buckingham Fountain (the eastern terminus of old Route 66)
    4. Petrillo Music Shell and Butler Field
    5. North and South Rose Gardens
    6. Formal Gardens, Grant Bark Park, and Grant Skate Park
    7. Hutchinson Fields and Statue of Christopher Columbus
    8. Lakefront Park and Queen’s Landing
    9. Monroe Harbor and Chicago Yacht Club
    10. Maggie Daley Park – Rock Climbing, Skating Ribbon, Children Playground, Cancer Survivors’ Garden, Peanuts Park Tennis Courts
Field Museum, Chicago
Field Museum
1.L.4 Field Museum
    • Ancient Americas
      • Ice Age Hunters
      • Innovative Hunters and Gatherers
      • Farming Villagers
      • Powerful Leaders
      • Rulers and Citizens
      • Empire Builders
    • Animal Halls
      • Tsavo Man-Eaters
      • Mfuwe man-eating lion
    • Cultural Halls
      • Africa
      • Cyrus Tang Hall of China
      • Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories
      • Peoples of the Arctic and Pacific Northwest
      • Regenstein Halls of the Pacific
    • Evolving Planet
    • Geology Halls
      • Grainger Hall of Gems
      • Hall of Jades
      • Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies
    • Inside Ancient Egypt
    • Sue, the Tyrannosaurus rex
    • Underground Adventure
Art Institute of Chicago
The Lions of Michigan Avenue at the Art Institute of Chicago – Beaux-Arts architecture
1.L.5 Art Institute of Chicago
    • African Art
      • Coffin and Mummy of Pa-ankh-en-Amun
      • Triptych Icon from Ethiopia
      • Olowe of Ise’s Yoruba Royal Veranda Post (Òpó Ògògá)
    • Amerindian – Native North American, Mesoamerican, and Andean works
      • Cheyenne War Bonnet headdress
      • Coronation Stone of Motecuhzoma II (Stone of the Five Suns) of Tenochtitlan
      • Portrait Vessel of a Ruler of Moche, northern coast of Peru
    • American Art
      • Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks
      • Grant Wood’s American Gothic
      • Georgia O’Keeffe’s Cow’s Skull with Calico Roses
    • Ancient Mediterranean and Byzantium – Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman bronze, coins, glass, jewelry,  mosaics, pottery, and sculpture
      • Greek Hydria (Water Jar)
      • Etruscan Statuette of Herakles
      • Roman Statue of the Aphrodite of Knidos
    • Architecture and Design
      • Dankmar Adler and Louis H. Sullivan’s Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room
      • Daniel Burnham’s Plate 49 from Plan of Chicago 1909
      • Frank Lloyd Wright’s Mr. and Mrs. Herbert A. Jacobs House, Middleton, Wisconsin, Perspective
    • Asian Art – China, Korea, Japan, India, Southeast Asia, and the Near and Middle East
      • Katsushika Hokusai’s Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura) or The Great Wave from “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)”
      • Shiva as Lord of the Dance (Nataraja)
      • Western Zhou Dynasty Bronze Cauldron
    • Contemporary Art
      • Andy Warhol’s Mao
      • Jackson Pollock’s Greyed Rainbow
      • Roy Lichtenstein’s Brushstroke with Spatter
    • European Applied Arts
    • European Paintings (Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, etc.)
      • Claude Monet’s Water Lilies and Haystacks
      • Georges Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte—1884
      • Vincent van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles
    • Modern Art
      • Pablo Picasso’s Old Guitarist
      • Salvador Dalí’s Inventions of the Monsters
      • Marc Chagall’s America Windows
    • Photography
      • Samuel J. Miller’s Frederick Douglass
      • Harry Callahan’s Chicago 1950
    • Prints and Drawings
      • Jacob Lawrence’s Free Clinic
    • Textiles
Shedd Aquarium, Chicago, Illinois
1.L.6 Shedd Aquarium
    • Waters of the World
    • Caribbean Reef
    • Amazon Rising
    • Wild Reef
    • Oceanarium
    • Polar Play Zone
    • Stingray Touch
    • Plankton Revealed
Adler Planetarium, Chicago, Illinois
1.L.7 Adler Planetarium
    • Astronomical Objects
    • Chicago’s Night Sky
    • Doane Observatory
    • Dome Theater Sky Shows
    • Historic Atwood Sphere
    • Mission Moon
    • Other Worlds
    • Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass
Cloud Gate ("The Bean"), Millennium Park
Cloud Gate (“The Bean”), Millennium Park, Chicago, with the Six North Michigan Avenue (The Tower Building/Montgomery Ward & Company Building) on the left
1.L.8 Millennium Park
    1. Millennium Monument and Wrigley Square
    2. Boeing Gallery
    3. Chase Promenade
    4. Harris Theater
    5. McCormick Tribune Plaza (seasonal ice rink)
    6. Cloud Gate “The Bean”
    7. Jay Pritzker Pavilion and Great Lawn
    8. Crown Fountain
    9. Lurie Garden
    10. BP Pedestrian Bridge
Aragon Ballroom – 2011 Weezer Concert

1.N.0 Chicago – North Side

1.N.1 Chicago – Rogers Park
    • Lifeline Theatre (2010 Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere)
    • Frank Llyod Wright’s Emil Bach House
Aragon Ballroom – 2011 Weezer Concert
1.N.2 Chicago – Uptown
    • Aragon Ballroom (2011 Weezer Concert)
    • 4015 N Sheridan Rd (1920s Egyptian Revival Architecture)
1.N.3 Chicago – Lake View
    • Wrigley Field – Chicago Cubs
1.N.4 Chicago – Lincoln Park
    • Reebie Storage Warehouse (2325 N Clark St – Egyptian Revival Architecture)
    • 1890 Lincoln Park Conservatory
    • Lincoln Park Zoo
    • Abraham Lincoln The Man – Monument
    • Ulysses S. Grant Monument
    • Chicago History Museum
    • Robert Cavelier de La Salle Monument
    • The Second City – Legendary sketch, improve, and musical comedy
1.N.5 Chicago – Gold Coast
    • Wooden Alley
    • The Deco North Lake Shore
    • Charnley-Persky House Museum (designed by Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright)
    • Ernest Hemingway Apartment
    • The Concrete Beach
    • Oak Street Beach
1.N.6 Chicago – River North
    • Richard H. Driehaus Museum (Gilded Age Mansion)
    • One Chicago Building – 1,011′
    • The Mart – Merchandise Mart
    • Marina City – House of Blues Chicago
    • Trump International Hotel and Tower – 1,388′
1.N.7 Chicago – Magnificent Mile
    • John Hancock Center (875 North Michigan Avenue) – 1,127′; tallest building in Chicago: 1969-1973
    • Tribune East Tower (under construction – 2027)- 1,422′
    • 900 North Michigan Shops (vertical mall)
    • Water Tower Place
    • Historic Water Tower – City Gallery
    • The Wrigley Building – 425′; tallest building in Chicago: 1922-1924
    • Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable Statue
Navy Pier, Chicago
Navy Pier, Chicago
1.N.8 Chicago – Streeterville
    • Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law (TEDx)
    • 400 Lake Shore (Chicago Spire site – construction canceled) – 875′
    • Lake Point Tower – 645′
    • Navy Pier
Museum of Science and Industry
Museum of Science and Industry

1.S.0 Chicago – South Side

1.S.1 Chicago – Riverdale
    • John Ton was a Dutch-born American abolitionist active in the Underground Railroad
    • Altgeld Gardens public housing project
1.S.2 Chicago – South Deering
    • Port of Chicago – Lake Calumet
1.S.3 Chicago – Pullman

Pullman National Historical Park

    • Pullman Administration Building
    • North Wing Factory
    • Rear Erecting Shops
    • Hotel Florence
    • Market Hall
    • Stable Building
    • Greenstone United Methodist Church
    • Pullman Fire Station
    • Pullman Wheel Works
    • A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum
Obama Presidential Center
1.S.4 Chicago – Woodlawn
    • Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley House Museum
    • Obama Presidential Center
    • Johnny Twist Blues Museum
Museum of Science and Industry
Museum of Science and Industry
1.S.5 Chicago – Hyde Park
    • World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago World’s Fair – The White City) (1893) – Statue of The Republic
    • Museum of Science and Industry
    • Frank Lloyd Wright’s Frederick C. Robie House
    • Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Museum (Oriental Institute Museum)
    • Obama Kissing Rock at 53rd Street-Dorchester Avenue memorializing where Barack and Michelle Obama shared their first kiss
    • University of Chicago
    • Midway Plaisance Park
    • Powell’s Books Chicago
    • Virtue Restaurant
    • Hyde Park Can’t Believe It’s Not Meat
    • Native Foods Cafe
    • Gorée Cuisine
    • Valois (a favorite of Obama)
    • Cedar’s Mediterranean Kitchen
    • Daisy’s Po’ Boy and Tavern
    • Ascione Bistro
    • Uncle Joe’s Jerk Chicken
1.S.6 Chicago – Washington Park
    • DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center
    • George Washington Park
    • Second most dangerous neighborhood in Chicago
1.S.7 Chicago – Bronzeville

Black Metropolis-Bronzeville Historic District

    • Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument – Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ
    • Richard Wright House
    • Harold Washington Cultural Center
    • Bronzeville Soul
    • Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong Home
    • Shawn Michelle’s Homemade Ice Cream
    • Peach’s Restaurant
    • Chicago’s Home of Chicken & Waffles
    • Surf’s Up Bronzeville
    • Honey 1 BBQ
    • Cleo’s Southern Cuisine
    • Chicago’s Home of Chicken & Waffles
    • Pearl’s Place Restaurant
    • Ida B. Wells-Barnett House
    • Victory Monument
    • Yassa African Restaurant
    • Stephen Douglas Tomb State Historic Site
    • Camp Douglas State Historic Site
    • Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robert Roloson Row
    • Dock’s Fish
    • Monument To The Great Northern Migration
1.S.8 Chicago – Chinatown
    • Chinatown Gate
    • Chinatown Square Plaza
    • Chinese American Museum of Chicago
    • MingHin Cuisine
    • MCCB (Modern Chinese Cook Book)
    • Qing Xiang Yuan Dumplings
    • Dolo Restaurant
    • Golden Bull
    • BBQ King House
    • Cai Café
    • Phoenix Restaurant
    • Hing Kee Restaurant
    • Chiu Quon Bakery
    • Ken Kee Restaurant
    • Joy Yee
    • Lao Sze Chuan
    • Yao Yao
    • Daguan Noodle
    • Xi’an Cuisine
    • Veggie House
    • Imperial Restaurant
    • Slurp Slurp Noodles
    • Saint Anna Bakery & Cafe

1.W.0 Chicago – West Side

1.W.1 Chicago – West Loop
    • Old Post Office
    • Union Station
    • Chicago French Market
    • Restaurant Row
    • Lou Mitchell’s
    • Old St. Patrick’s Catholic Church
    • Greektown – National Hellenic Museum
    • Hotel Chicago West Loop (former Rosemoor Hotel)
1.W.2 Chicago – West Town – Ukrainian Village
    • Saint Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral
    • Saints Volodymyr & Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church
    • Saint Volodymyr Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral
    • Tryzub Ukrainian Kitchen and Old Lviv Restaurant
    • Ukrainian National Museum
    • Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art
1.W.3 Chicago – Humboldt Park
    • Alexander Von Humboldt Park
    • National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture
    • Paseo Boricua ‘Little Puerto Rico’ (650,000 Puerto Ricans in Chicago)
1.W.4 Chicago – University Village/ Little Italy
    • Al’s #1 Italian Beef
    • Mario’s Italian Lemonade
    • University of Illinois Chicago
    • Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
    • Jane Addams Park
1.W.5 Chicago – United Center Park
    • United Center – Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks – Michael Jordan Statue
    • Malcolm X College
1.W.6 Chicago – Lower West Side – Heart of Chicago & Pilsen
    • National Museum of Mexican Art
    • Awesome Graffiti Wall
    • Zion Evangelical Lutheran Ghost Church Memorial Park
    • Carnitas Urupan, Carnitas Don Pedro, and Sabas Vega
    • Cafe Jumping Bean
1.W.7 Chicago – Lawndale
    • Castle Car Wash (Al Capone Hide Out)
1.W.8 Chicago – Little Village (La Villita)
    • Little Village Arch
    • Marshall Boulevard
    • Dulcelandia Candy Store
    • El Churro Shop
    • Taqueria El Milagro
    • Los Candiles Restaurant (especially for breakfast)
    • Nuevo Leon – “Celebrando Comunidad” Day of the Dead mural

1.M.0 Metro Chicago

1.M.1 Cicero
    • Hawthorne Works Tower
    • Cindy Lyn Motel
    • Henry’s Drive-In
1.M.2 Lyons
    • Chicago Portage National Historic Site
    • Chicagoland Motel
    • Plank Road Inn
    • Presidential Inn
1.M.3 Riverside
    • Riverside Village Hall
    • Riverside Public Library
    • Riverside Train Station
    • Riverside Historical Museum
    • Frank Lloyd Wright’s Coonley House
    • Hofmann Tower State Historic Site
1.M.4 Oak Park
    • Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District
      • Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio
      • Unity Temple
      • Harry S. Adams House
      • William E. Martin House
      • William Fricke House
    • Ernest Hemingway Birthplace Home
    • Ernest Hemingway Boyhood Home
1.M.5 La Grange
    • McCook
      • Skyline Motel
      • Welcome To Fabulous McCook Illinois Sign
      • Steak & Egger
    • Hodgkins
      • Kimball and Cobb Stone Quarry (1888) – Vulcan Materials Company McCook Quarry
    • Countryside
      • Marx Brothers Chicken Farm
    • Indian Head Park
      • Blackhawk Park
      • Sacajawea Park
1.M.6 Burr Ridge
    • One of the wealthiest suburbs of Chicago (limited sidewalks)
1.M.7 Willowbrook
    • Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket
1.M.8 Downers Grove Township
    • Argonne National Laboratory
    • Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve
    • The Mecca Center
    • Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago