At One Decade: Open House Chicago

If there was one Chicagoland event I would recommend to people, it would definitely be Open House Chicago, hosted by the Chicago Architecture Center. For 10 years, Open House Chicago (OHC) has provided an abundance of opportunities for people to explore in-depth what is in Chicago and, in more recent years, surrounding suburbs, too.

That was still the case for this year's event, marking 10 years, even though the event was reimagined to fit within current guidelines in place.  The focus shifted to virtual events and self-guided tours of building site exteriors.

Always interested in exploring Chicago, I was eager to participate.

So on a rainy Sunday, October 18, I drove into the southern parts of Chicago.

While not officially part of OHC, I first visited Five Holy Martyrs Parish. On October 5, 1979, Pope St. John Paul II celebrated an outdoor Mass in this church's parking lot during his visit to the United States.  The altar is still in place, as you can see in the photo below.

Then I drove north from there into the North Lawndale neighborhood to view the following sites. 

Farm on Ogden--the photos directly above and below

The Firehouse Community Arts Center of Chicago, in the three photos below:

The Central Park Theater

I later watched a fascinating program that shared in-depth about its architectural details, the history of the building as a theater, and its present-day functions as a church and community organization.

Before heading home, I stopped for photos at the original Sears Tower on Homan Avenue.

I had seen it on the list of sites in previous years' OHC events, and I look forward to the year when we can go back to visiting inside buildings and I can go inside.

A couple of weeks later, I went just across the border from Oak Park into the Austin neighborhood to view houses designed by Frederick R. Schock.  He designed numerous buildings in Austin, which contributed significantly to the neighborhood's development in the 1880's-1890's.

Informational sign at Race and Menard

The Beeson House, with Coach House appearing to the left in this photo

I saw a couple touring the homes, and one of them kindly granted my request to get a photo of me posing by the Schlect House. This photo is the only one in this post taken by someone other than me.

F.R. Schock House, the architect's house

The Marie Schock House was built for someone in the architect's family. A sign out front states it reportedly influenced Frank Lloyd Wright's Home and Studio design.

I was impressed that there are such architectural gems not that far from me.  While I had seen glimpses of elegant homes in Austin, this outing was the first time I stopped to look at them and learn more.

Everything I saw during my OHC 2020 outings continued to underscore how wonderful this event is in helping people encounter the amazing sites in Chicago and to appreciate more deeply their significance and their contributions to Chicagoland.  

I'm furthermore delighted that Oak Park was one of multiple suburbs included once again in OHC 2020 so that its noted examples of architecture can be showcased as well.

Indeed, there's so much to look at more closely in Chicago, I'm glad that I was still able to go out for some great exploring in Chicago with the neighborhood opening up once again for OHC.