Weird [and awesome] Chicago

Last night, nine friends and I went on a Weird Chicago tour as a continuation of my birthday. We were supposed to go the weekend of my birthday, but the tour sold out too quickly and not everyone who wanted to go got tickets. So we moved it back. The tour was the Devil in the White City tour, and let me just take a minute right now to tell you that if you have not read this book, you MUST READ IT. It is absolutely fantastic and pulls you in like you wouldn't believe. The book tells the dual stories of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, an enormous world's fair for which the city practically built a smaller city within itself (our tour guide said that if we get the Olympics in 2016, even that will be nothing next to what the city did to host the fair in 1893), along with H.H. Holmes who was one of the country's first serial killers and lured fair-goers into his "Murder Castle" by telling them it was a hotel conviently located close to the fairgrounds. I'd been wanting to go on a Devil in the White City tour for some time, so I was thrilled when I saw this one as part of the Weird Chicago tour repetoir. We had a great time, saw some awesome sights, learned much interesting and disturbing information (i.e. nearly half the population of the entire country came to Chicago in 1893 to attend the fair...and estimates run as high as 200 as to the number of people Holmes may have killed at the Murder Castle), and even got a bonus ghost tour at the Congress hotel. You know me, I'm down with anything involving ghosts (Brooke may have even gotten a picture of one!). This is one of the many things I love about Chicago--there is so much history and so many interesting places that make up this city. It's amazing to think about what many of these buildings have seen over their lifetimes. Here are some pics from the evening.

Our group (minus Ruta and Rachel), getting ready to board the bus outside the Hard Rock Cafe.

Everyone's excited!!

Ann and Becky get ready for the ride.

The Museum of Science and Industry, which was the Palace of Fine Arts at the World's Columbian Exposition, is the only building from the fair that is still left in Chicago. In 1893, fair-goers took gondolas to the front entrance (this view is what they would have seen--now the front entrance is on the other side).

Frederick Olmsted's Wooded Island, created for the fair, is still alive and well. It resides behind the Museum of Science and Industry, and it is absolutely gorgeous.

Brooke poses for a picture on the Wooded Island.

One of the original lampposts from the fair is still standing outside the Wooded Island.

This statue is a replica of the 65-foot-high Republic by Daniel Chester French, one of the fair's main emblems (French's best known-work is the statue of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial). The statue of the Republic that was at the World's Columbian Exposition was gilded in gold and dwarfed all other statues and sculptures at the fair. The original Republic succumbed to fire in 1896, but in 1918, French was commissioned to make a smaller model to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fair. This statue was only 24-feet-high and gilded in bronze. It was restored in 1992, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the fair. I can tell you that 24-feet-high still seems enormous when you're standing next to it. I can't imagine it being nearly three times that size. There is a plaque in front of it that reads:

THE REPUBLIC - JACKSON PARK
Gilded bronze sculpture by Daniel Chester French
Base by Henry Bacon
Originally dedicated 1918
To Commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition
This permanent reproduction by the artist marks
The site of the World's Fair Administration Building
Restored 1992
Chicago Park District
B.F. Ferguson Fund, Art Institute of Chicago
Rededicated by Mayor Richard M. Daley
To initiate a Celebration
Of the 100th Anniversary of the Chicago World's Fair