Historic Sites in Chicago
4 historic sites to discover with Bad Historian in Chicago.
St. Valentine's Day Massacre Site
Where seven men were executed on Valentine's Day 1929—the crime that shocked America.
The Site of the Lexington Hotel
Al Capone's infamous headquarters—the most dangerous address in 1920s America.
The Palmer House Hotel
Where corrupt politicians collected bribes while gangsters ran the city.
The Site of the Metropole Hotel
Capone's first headquarters—where the empire began before it all fell apart.
Chicago Audio Experiences
Visit these historic sites and more on a self-guided audio experience.
Bootleggers, Bullets & Baloney
Walk through Prohibition-era Chicago, when this city was run by gangsters, corrupt politicians, and men with surprisingly good taste in suits. Everything I tell you will sound absolutely true. Some of it is. Some of it... I made up. Your job? Try to figure it out.
Museum Campus: Landfill of Dreams
The story of three world-class museums built on fifty-seven acres of garbage, one controversial stadium, and a midnight bulldozer raid.
Steel, Stone, and Ego
After the Great Fire, Chicago handed the keys to a bunch of ambitious architects and said — fix this. What followed was a century of skyscrapers, scandals, and egos the size of the buildings themselves. You'll meet the man who invented "form follows function" and died broke, a political dynasty that turned one building into a fifty-times fortune, and an artist who REALLY wishes you'd stop calling his sculpture "the bean."
The Best Free Day in Chicago
One of America's oldest free zoos. A Victorian glass house. A hidden garden designed by a man who cashed in his life insurance for flowers. And roughly twelve thousand unmarked graves. All free.
The Postcard Tour
Chicago's greatest hits — and the stories behind them. A river that flows backward, buildings covered in stolen rocks, towers that look like corn cobs, and a giant bean made by a man who wishes you'd stop calling it a bean.
Hear the stories behind these places
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