//
Photo: Spatms, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The list of Second City alumni in show business has become something of a cliche — Alan Alda, John Belushi, Bill Murray, on and on — and it's still going strong today, with recent graduates like Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, and Tina Fey. The separate revues on the Mainstage and the e.t.c. theaters are consistently smart, timely, and funny. (The third stage, Donny's Skybox, is rented out to local sketch troupes outside the artistic direction of Second City, and is hit-or-miss.) The third act of the night is fully improvised, and if there's space left among the paying customers from the first two acts, admission is free.
The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise. It is the oldest improvisational theater troupe to be continuously based in Chicago, with training programs and live theaters in Toronto and New York. Since its debut in 1959, it has become one of the most influential and renowned in the English-speaking world. In February 2021, ZMC, a private equity investment firm based in Manhattan, purchased the Second City.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
A member of the River North gallery scene, with contemporary art, including paint, drawings and sculpture.
Chicago Historical Society
A creative urban history museum. Exhibits include The Pioneer, the first railroad locomotive to operate in Chicago, and the bed upon which Abraham Lincoln died; more fun for kids is the Chicago-style Hot Dog showcase, which supplies all the giant plastic ingredients you'll need to turn yourself (or your little brother) into a life-sized hot dog (no ketchup, of course). They also host regular tours of different CTA lines and walking tours of Lincoln Park and Old Town.
Several blocks of beautiful cottages and row houses, notably the five at 1826-34 N Lincoln Park West, which were designed by Louis Sullivan in 1885. The anchor of the district is St. Mike's (below).
Unveiled in 1869, the walls of St Mike's were all that remained after the Chicago Fire swept through Old Town, making it one of only six structures to survive — and the tallest in the city until 1885. A tower was added in 1887, and the current stained glass windows date from 1902. A Catholic church run by the Redemptorist congregation, it has seating for more than 1000 people.
Buddhist temple built by Japanese-Americans who settled in Chicago following their release from the concentration camps after World War II, and part of the Jodo Shinshu sect of Japanese Buddhism. The layout of the main prayer hall more closely resembles that of a church than a traditional Buddhist temple, which was done in an attempt to gain wider acceptance for Buddhism among the mostly-Christian general American society by Americanizing the religion. Best known for their annual Ginza Festival in the summer, when their famous teriyaki chicken is sold, and numerous Japanese cultural performances are staged.
Housed in a historic mansion, the museum contains four floors of exhibits dedicated to the history of medicine and surgery and is filled with artwork and artifacts ranging from Incan surgical tools circa 2000 BCE to state-of-the-art prosthetic joints. Of special interest to those in the medical field, the collection appeals to anyone interested in history, art, science and architecture.