Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
206
and registration is recommended but not required. Tours depart from the CHS museum
at Clark Street and N orth Avenue, and light r efreshments are served afterward. In the
summer and fall, the museum also offers a fe w half-day and daylong bus tours called
“Exploring Chicago,”
which cover unique themes or aspects of the metr opolitan area's
history. Led by historians and scholars, they take place in the city and surr ounding areas
($40). Tours depart from the Chicago History Museum at Clark Street and North Ave-
nue. Call
&
312/642-4600,
or visit the museum's website (www.chicagohistory.org) for
schedules.
Groups can arrange tours of Chicago 's
“Black M etropolis,”
the name giv en to a
South Side area of Bronzeville, where African Americans cr eated a flourishing business-
and-artistic community after World War II. Contact
Tour Black Chicago
(
&
773/684-
9034;
www.tourblackchicago.com) for more information.
GANGSTER TOURS
Untouchable Tours,
or so-called “gangster tours” (
&
773/881-
1195;
www.gangstertour.com), is the only bus tour that takes y ou to all of the city's old
hoodlum hangouts from the Prohibition era. The focus is definitely mor e on entertain-
ment (guides with names like “Al Dente” and “Ice Pick” appear in costume and role-play
their way through the tour) than a seriously historical take on the era. B ut the bus trip
gives you a pr etty thorough overview of the city , in addition to the gangster hot spots.
You'll see the site of O'Bannion's flower shop, the site of the St. Valentine's Day massacre,
and much more. The tour is pretty tame, but if you have impressionable young ones, use
your discretion; kids over age 8 should be fine. The cost is $25 for adults, $19 for chil-
dren. Tours, which depar t fr om the southeast corner of Clar k and O hio str eets, r un
Monday to Wednesday at 10am; Thursday at 10am and 1pm; F riday at 10am, 1, and
7:30pm; Saturday at 10am, 1, and 5pm; and S unday at 10am and 1pm.
GHOST TOURS
Another offbeat way to experience the r eal “spirit” of Chicago is to
take a narrated
supernatural bus tour
of cemeteries, murder sites, Indian burial grounds,
haunted pubs, and other spooky places. Richar d Crowe, who bills himself as a “ profes-
sional ghost hunter,” spins out ghost stories, legends, and lor e on the 4-hour trip , held
both day and night (afraid of the dark?). I'd take only teens on these tours due to touchy
subject matter and the rather expensiv e price; use y our discretion. Tickets are $39 per
person and tours depar t from the Clybourn P lace shopping mall, 1800 N. Clybourn.
Two-hour
supernatural boat ex cursions
are av ailable for $25 per person in J uly and
August through Labor Day weekend, and board at 9:30pm from the Mercury boat dock,
at M ichigan A venue and Wacker D rive. R eservations ar e r equired for each tour; call
&
708/499-0300
or visit www.ghosttours.com. Tours are offered once or twice a month
Friday and Saturday nights; call for exact schedule. As you might imagine, Crowe's tours
get especially popular ar ound Halloween, so you'll definitely want to r eserve well ahead
of time if that's when you want to go.
CEMETERY TOURS
Don't be scared away by the creepy connotations. Some of Chi-
cago's cemeteries are as pretty as parks, and they offer a variety of intriguing monuments
that offer insight into the city's history.
One of the best area cemeteries is
Graceland,
which stretches along Clark Street in the
Swedish neighborhood of Andersonville. The land between Irving Park Road and Mon-
trose Avenue, r unning for about a mile along Clar k Street, is occupied ex clusively b y
cemeteries—primarily G raceland. H ere y ou can vie w the tombs and monuments of
many Chicago notables. When Graceland was laid out in 1860, public parks as such did
not exist. The elaborate burial gr ounds that w ere constructed in many large American
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