OAK PARK AREA Come meet Chicago’s fun next-door neighbors. They’re known for architecture and history, but the longer you visit, the more they reveal. VISITOAKPARK.COM TOP: MAYA DEL SOL FROM LEFT: GO APE, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT BIKE TOUR, BROOKFIELD ZOO ILLINOIS MEET US HERE IRISH TIMES Getting to Oak Park is easy. Deciding what to do first is harder. PUB AND GO APE ADVENTURES, P. 8 RESTAURANT, P. 11 Less than 10 miles from downtown Chicago, Oak Families come for all-ages outdoor adventures. TABLE OF CONTENTS Park is the city’s close western suburb—a quick International travelers seek out world-class 4–5 side trip by car or train for sightseers. But the architecture. Road-tripping couples young and old more you learn about Oak Park and its neighboring bond at galleries, shops and eateries. Nightlife- Architecture + History communities, the more you’ll see the area as a lovers kick back and kick up their heels. Want to 6–7 dynamic destination in its own right (or Wright). spend the night(s)? You’ll find rooms at the inns. Fun for All Ages 190 8 90 Outdoor Adventure International A Airport 9 Arts + Shopping 10–11 METRA LINE HALA KAHIKI TIKI BAR Food + Drinks AND LOUNGE, P. 11 12 Nightlife + Shows B 64 45 KEY C A. iCOMBAT Tactical Laser Tag 294 D F B. Cernan Earth and Space Center E C. Hal Tyrrell Trailside Museum METRA LINE of Natural History CTA GREEN LINE D. Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio E. Unity Temple F. Ernest Hemingway BROOKFIELD ZOO, P. 6 290 Birthplace Museum G. Al Capone’s Grave H CTA BLUE LINE at Mount Carmel Catholic Cemetery FITZGERALD’S, P. 12 G H. Oak Park Conservatory 88 171 43 I. Go Ape Adventures To Midway J. Galloping Ghost Arcade International Airport K. Brookfield Zoo K METRA LINE 50 I 34 J 2 ARCHITECTURE + HISTORY ARCHITECTURE GEMS OAK PARK Oak Park lays its reputation on a RIVER foundation of historic architecture, FOREST CREATIVE GENIUS MUSEUM especially the Prairie School Frank Lloyd Wright started his career designs of Frank Lloyd Wright. in Oak Park, Ernest Hemingway started The cornerstone is his own digs— his life here, and Frederick Law Olmsted the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio—one of many structures and others left their marks on the area. by Wright and others in the Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District. See them on a bike tour, such as Pedal Oak Park or The Wright Ride. A ERNEST must-see list starts with Wright’s HEMINGWAY BIRTHPLACE Unity Temple (the greatest public MUSEUM building of Wright’s Prairie period), George W. Maher’s Pleasant Home (now a museum), and E.E. Roberts’ HISTORY LESSONS Scoville Square, a rare Prairie School commercial building. Extend Story lines of history arc through your Wright itinerary with a drive Oak Park. See where writer Ernest FRANK LLOYD Hemingway was born—a lovely Queen through River Forest and a walk WRIGHT HISTORIC Anne Victorian home that is now the around Riverside, an early planned DISTRICT BIKE TOUR community by America’s greatest Ernest Hemingway Birthplace Museum. landscape architect Frederick Law The Oak Park River Forest Museum, in a renovated 1898 Oak Park firehouse, Olmsted. Take the Frederick Law offers changing exhibits on the region’s Olmsted Society’s Historic Walking history. Swing by the Tours to learn more about the Chicago 16 Inch architecture there, including Wright Softball Hall of Fame Museum in Forest Park for dirt on the Chicago-rooted gems like the famed Coonley Estate. game played with a big mushy ball Just west of Oak Park, Maywood carries its own architectural pedigree, and no gloves. You know Chicago’s with homes on the National Register gangsters played hardball, but did you of Historic Places, including ones know many lived in Oak Park and River Forest? by Wright associates. And Berwyn, There Goes the Neighborhood famous for bungalows, also delights Gangster Tour drives by hoodlums’ with a variety of other home styles— homes, with narration by mob historian Tudor Revivals, Victorians, Georgians, and author John J. Binder. Continue worker cottages and four-squares. your gangster tour at Mount Carmel Catholic Cemetery in Hillside, the final resting place for many mobsters, FRANK LLOYD including Al Capone. The Historical WRIGHT HOME cemetery tours AND STUDIO Society of Forest Park take you to the graves of the famous (like radio legend Paul Harvey) and highlight local history. Historic routes CHICAGO 16 INCH SOFTBALL HALL OF FAME MUSEUM pass through the area, too. A plaque in Maywood marks a stop on the Underground Railroad, and a stretch of Ogden Avenue in Berwyn follows the FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT storied path of historic Route 66. HOME AND STUDIO ESSENTIAL EVENTS WRIGHT PLUS HOUSEWALK MAYWOOD HISTORIC HOMES HOUSEWALK ROUTE 66 CAR SHOW BERWYN’S BUNGALOWS & MORE TOUR HILLSIDE CEMETERY TOUR May | Oak Park + TROLLEY TOUR July 2020 | Maywood August | Berwyn September | Berwyn October | Hillside Go to VisitOakPark.com for The mayor leads the tour; see Take rare interior tours of private Explore homes encompassing several styles, Check out more than 500 vintage and Docents give tours of selected homes dates and more information. homes and public buildings designed custom cars, trucks and motorcycles like and churches constructed in the village’s Al Capone’s grave and get a rare look including many houses designed by Wright in the Bishops’ Mausoleum. by Wright and others. associates, on the biennial tour. those from the Mother Road’s heyday. signature styles. 4 VISITOAKPARK.COM 5 FUN FOR ALL AGES EARTH AND SKY Kids kick off their shoes and put on their creative thinking caps at the Wonder Works children’s museum in Oak Park, loaded with six multisensory, interactive exhibits like Lights, Camera, Action! for darling divas and Build It! for future Frank Lloyd Wrights. Aspiring astronomers and astronauts get all starry-eyed at the Cernan Earth and Space Center in River Grove. They can gaze at Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan’s space suit, replica spacecraft and dazzling planetarium shows. Plants put on a show of their own at the Oak Park Conservatory. Citrus trees, scented geraniums, dreamy tropical palms, and desert cacti and FAMILY TIME succulents take turns in the spotlight. Kids love the chatty parrots. Toddlers, grade schoolers, teens and grown-ups can find their kind of fun at attractions throughout the Oak Park area. ON THE WILD SIDE World-famous Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield provides one-stop suburban safari-ing for adventurers of all ages. Have close encounters of the creature kind by feeding a giraffe, petting a penguin, and watching dolphins leap and dive. Older kids can sign up for Backstage Adventures that put them to work with zookeepers. Little ones flock to the Hamill Family Play Zoo, where CERNAN EARTH AND SPACE CENTER they can touch guinea pigs, rabbits and WONDER WORKS reptiles. At the three-acre Hamill Family Wild Encounters, kids (and parents) might be able to touch or feed goats, FUN AND GAMES parakeets and wallabies, plus see red It’s all-you-can-beat gaming at the pandas, llamas and reindeer. And oh-oh, Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield, those Summer Nights—enjoy evening which lays claim to being the largest concerts in the park with activities for video arcade in the world. Pay $20 at kids and a laser light show finale. the door and play up to 700 classics like Frogger and Mario Kart for free—no quarters or tokens needed. Do some BROOKFIELD ZOO family bonding by teaming up to win SUMMER NIGHTS your freedom. Both Vault Escape Rooms in Riverside and Escape Factor in Forest Park give you 60 minutes to find hidden clues, solve puzzles and decipher cryptic messages. Or escape reality entirely at iCOMBAT, a tactical GALLOPING laser tag experience in Schiller Park. GHOST Engage in ultra-realistic combat on a BROOKFIELD ZOO ARCADE Hollywood movie-style set. ESSENTIAL MONTHLY SKYWATCH DISCOVERY GARDEN EXPLORATION TIME FRANKLIN PARK FEST FEATURING RAILROAD DAY Second Saturday of each month Summer Wednesday and Saturday mornings June | B-12 Tower, Franklin Park EVENTS | Cernan Earth and Space Center, River Grove | Oak Park Conservatory Board an assortment of train engines and cars for a look Go to VisitOakPark.com inside and enjoy a kid-centric carnival with live music for dates and more Visit the planetarium for live presentations and, in clear Docents guide you and your child to natural finds in the and food vendors. information. weather, peek at the night sky through a telescope. Elsie Jacobsen Discovery Garden outside the conservatory. 6 VISITOAKPARK.COM 7 OUTDOOR ARTS + ADVENTURE SHOPPING NATURE DISCOVERIES HAL TYRRELL TRAILSIDE NATURALLY FUN You never know what natural wonders MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Town names drawn from you’ll see at the Hal Tyrrell Trailside Museum of Natural History in River nature should tip you off: Forest. A charming 1870s Victorian This area teems with green mansion nestled in the woods near the space, waters and wildlife Des Plaines River provides a storybook setting for kids curious about nature. to enjoy at your own speed Inside, they can hear creature tales and and vantage point. see creature tails (via wildlife displays). Outside, there are nature trails and a pond to explore, a play area for fort ACTIVE ADVENTURES building, and picnic-perfect wildflower Make like Tarzan (or Jane) and monkey gardens for relaxing. You can also hike ARTISTIC SPIRIT around 40 feet off the ground at by the Des Plaines River or bird-watch Go Ape Adventures in Western in surrounding Thatcher Woods, part of Events like Harrison Street’s Third Friday Springs.