Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(
&
773/702-9739
), located on the first floor of Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E. 59th
St., where you can pick up campus maps and get information on university
events. The center is open Monday through Friday from 10am to 7pm. Free
architecture tours leave from Ida Noyes Hall on Saturdays at 10am (paid tours
can be arranged for other days; call the
Office of Special Events,
&
773/
702-9636
). If you stop by on a weekend when the Visitors Information Desk is
closed, you can get the scoop on campus events at the
Reynolds Clubhouse
stu-
dent center (
&
773/702-8787
).
Start your tour of the campus at the
Henry Moore statue,
Nuclear Energy,
on South Ellis Avenue between 56th and 57th streets. It's next to the Regenstein
Library, which marks the site of the old Stagg Field, where, on December 2,
1942, the world's first sustained nuclear reaction was achieved in a basement lab-
oratory below the field. Then turn left at 57th Street until you reach the grand
stone Hull Gate; walk straight to reach the main quad, or turn left through the
column-lined arcade to reach
Hutchinson Court
(designed by John Olmsted,
son of revered landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted). The Reynolds Club-
house, the university's main student center, is located here; you can take a break
at the C-Shop cafe or settle down at a table at Hutchinson Commons, a dining
room/hangout spot right next to the cafe which will bring to mind the grand
dining halls of Oxford or Cambridge.
Other worthy spots on campus include the charming, intimate
Bond Chapel,
located behind Swift Hall on the main quad, and the blocks-long
Midway Plai-
sance,
a wide stretch of green that was the site of carnival sideshow attractions
during the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 (the term “midway” has been
used ever since to refer to carnivals in general).
The
Seminary Co-op Bookstore,
5757 S. University Ave. (
&
773/752-4381;
www.semcoop.com), is a treasure trove of academic and scholarly books. Its selec-
tion of more than 100,000 titles has won it an international reputation as “the best
bookstore west of Blackwell's in Oxford.” It's open Monday through Friday from
8:30am to 9pm, Saturday from 10am to 6pm, and Sunday from noon to 6pm.
ENJOYING THE OUTDOORS IN HYDE PARK
Hyde Park is not only a haven for book lovers and culture aficionados—the com-
munity also has its open-air attractions. A number of worthy outdoor environ-
ments are located near Lake Michigan, including
Lake Shore Drive
itself, where
many stately apartment houses follow the contour of the shoreline. A very suitable
locale for a quiet stroll during the day is
Promontory Point,
at 55th Street and
Lake Michigan, a bulb of land that juts into the lake and offers a good view of
Chicago to the north and the seasonally active 57th Street beach to the south.
Farther south, just below the Museum of Science and Industry, is
Wooded
Island
in Jackson Park, the site of the Japanese Pavilion during the Columbian
Exposition and today a lovely garden of meandering paths. The
Perennial Garden
in Jackson Park is at 59th Street and Stony Island Avenue, where more than 180
varieties of flowering plants display a palette of colors that changes with the seasons.
KENWOOD HISTORIC DISTRICT
A fun side trip for architecture and history buffs is the Kenwood Historic Dis-
trict, just north of Hyde Park. The area originally developed as a suburb of
Chicago, when local captains of industry (including Sears founder Julius Rosen-
wald) began building lavish mansions here in the mid-1850s. The neighbor-
hood's large lots and eclectic mix of architecture (everything from elaborate
Italianate to Prairie-style homes) make it unique in Chicago, especially compared
