Chicago's most popular residential neighborhood is home to two major museums and one of the nation's oldest zoos. The area also contains many of Chicago's most popular nightclubs, restaurants, retail stores, and off-Loop theaters, including the nationally acclaimed Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum
1300 South Lake Shore Drive
312-922-STAR (7827)
The first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere, Adler has hands-on and historical exhibits as well as sky shows.

Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture
6500 South Pulaski Road
582-6500
Dedicated to the preservation of Lithuanian art, history, customs, and traditions, Balzekas also has a Children's Museum of Immigrant History.

Chicago Children's Museum
700 East Grand Avenue
312-527-1000
Located on Navy Pier.

The exhibits encourage children to look, touch, and explore.

Clarke House Museum
Address: 1827 South Indiana Avenue
Phone: 312-326-1480
Chicago's oldest surviving building, and the only place to see how an early Chicago family lived.

Preston Bradley Hall, on the third floor has the world's largest Tiffany stained-glass dome. Another magnificent stained-glass dome is on the second floor in the GAR rotunda. The structure was constructed in 1897 to serve a dual purpose. The Randolph Street and Washington Street sides are different for this reason One was the entrance to the city's central library, and the other to the Grand Army of the Republic museum. The Cultural Center houses public spaces, with free concerts and performances of all kinds, including live music every weekday at 1 in the Randolph Café.

Picasso."DuSable Museum of African-American History
740 East 56th Place
947-0600
The DuSable Museum is dedicated to the collection, preservation, and interpretation of the history and culture of Africans and Americans of African descent. The museum sponsors a film series, jazz and blues concerts, and film and theater events geared to children.

The Field Museum
1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago
312-922-9410
Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
Admission charged.

The Field is Chicago's crowning museum of natural history, with exhibits on everything from dinosaurs to African culture to gems and minerals. Visitors can observe as geologists work on a million-year-old fossilized dinosaur, painstakingly removing its bones from the rock and assembling them for display. The "Life Over Time" display documents the changing weather patterns that contributed to the formation of the earth's environment, and other exhibits explore the various cultures of the world's population.

Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust

931 Chicago Avenue, Oak Park 60302

708-848-1976

The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust operates two historic house museums: The Robie House in Hyde Park and the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park. The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio was the architectural laboratory for the architect. The Preservation Trust offers guided architectural tours of these buildings daily, along with special educational programs for youth and adults.

Glessner House Museum

1800 S. Prairie Avenue, Chicago 60616

312-326-1480

Glessner House Museum is a National Historic Landmark, designed by Henry Hobson Richardson and built in 1887. Guided tours of Glessner House and the neighboring Clarke House Museum are available, Wednesday-Sunday at noon, 1 and 2pm. Museum programming examines the architecture, art, history and culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through lectures, discussions, performance events and exhibits.

Grant Park, Chicago

Dedicated in 1844, this park covers 319 acres along Lake Michigan and is home to the Shedd Aquarium, the Adler Planetarium, the Field Museum and the Art Institute.

Attraction type: Park

Hull House Museum
800 S. Halsted Street, Chicago
312-413-5353
Cost: Free
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday; 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday
Honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, Jane Addams did what no one before her had thought to do. She moved into one of Chicago's tenement neighborhoods and opened a "settlement house" to help meet the economic and social needs of her neighbors and to encourage their involvement in improving their own community. During the height of its activity, Hull House included a library, gymnasium, theater and an art gallery. The museum, snuggled in the heart of the University of Illinois-Chicago, consists of two of the original 13 buildings, one an Arts and Crafts-style dining hall built in 1905.

Kohl Children's Museum
165 Green Bay Road
Wilmette
847-512-1300
Admission charged.
Children ages 1—8 can touch and explore the exhibits and participate in planned daily activities.

Mexican Fine Arts Center
1852 West 19th Street
312-738-1503
Exhibits on traditional and contemporary Mexican art range in medium from prints and drawings to papier-mâché and from ceramics to historically significant photographs. Every autumn the museum hosts the city's most visited Day of the Dead exhibit.

Museum of Broadcast Communications,

Michigan Avenue at Washington Street
(in the Chicago Cultural Center)
312-629-6000
Free admission
Building tours are offered Tuesday-Saturday at 1:15 PM.

Open Mon.-Wed. 10-7, Thurs. 10-9, Fri. 10-6, Sat. 10-5, Sun. 11-5.

The MBC examines popular culture and contem-porary American history through the sights and sounds of television and radio. Featured are hands-on exhibits, broadcasting memorabilia, and a public archives collection of more than 60,000 radio and television programs and commercials.

Museum of Contemporary Art
220 East Chicago Avenue
312-280-2660
The MCA exhibits painting, sculpture, photography, video and film, and performance created since 1945. It includes a terraced sculpture garden and has a great view of Lake Michigan.

Museum of Contemporary Photography
Columbia College
600 South Michigan Avenue
312-663-5554
Free admission, The permanent collection focuses on American photography produced since 1959.

Museum of Science and Industry
57th Street and Lake Shore Drive
684-1414
More than 800 exhibits and 2,000 interactive units include a display exploring the inner workings of the brain, an exhibit of a captured German U-boat, and a trip down a replica coal mine. There is also an Omnimax movie dome.

Museum of Surgical Science
1524 North Lake Shore Drive
312-642-6502
Admission charged. free Tuesdays
With its collection of 7,000 surgery-related objects, manuscripts, and artworks, this museum shows the discoveries and failures that have shaped modern surgery.

National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum
1801 South Indiana Avenue
312-326-0270
Art of 115 men and women who served in Vietnam.

Spertus Museum (Institute of Jewish Studies)
618 South Michigan Avenue
312-322-1747
Admission charged.
Spertus Museum welcomes students from all backgrounds to its galleries, using its collections to introduce basic themes in Jewish religion and culture.

Swedish American Museum Center

5211 N. Clark Street

Chicago, IL 60640

Phone: (773) 728-8111

Fax. (773) 728-8870

This museum aims to preserve the Midwest's rich Swedish heritage by collecting, interpreting, and displaying materials related to Swedish-American history.

Terra Museum of American Art
664 North Michigan Avenue
312-664-3939
Free for students with valid ID

Ukrainian National Museum

721 N. Oakley Boulevard

Chicago, IL 60612

Phone: (312) 421-8020

Fax: (773) 693-7479

University of Chicago

5801 South Ellis Avenue

773-702-1234

The public attractions include museums (Oriental Institute and Smart Museum of Art), galleries, and a Frank Lloyd Wright home (Robie House). It also is the site of the magnificent limestone edifice, Regenstein Library, which features over 7 million volumes in addition to priceless archives. The Rockefeller Memorial Chapel is a mini cathedral with memorable stained glass windows, a 92-bell carillon and a 10,000 pipe organ.