Open House Chicago Takes Place This Weekend

It's one of our favorite weekends of the year:  Open House Chicago, when over 150 incredible Chicago places are open to the public, absolutely free.  This is the second year that Uptown has participated, with ten sites.

Visit the bank lobby so beautiful that it's used for movies and receptions, one of the first theaters in Uptown (over 100 years old!), the lot where Charlie Chaplin and Broncho Billy Anderson made movies, the church from which Preston Bradley broadcast to the entire nation for over fifty years, one of the largest model railroad set-ups in the country, and what is considered the last grand synagogue built in Chicago.

The two new featured buildings are:

• 1050 W Wilson, aka Wilson Avenue Theater, aka FLATStheater.  Explore the inside of the former bank and theater built in 1908, now owned by Cedar Street Co.  Hours:  Saturday and Sunday 9am-5pm.
• Garfield-Clarendon Model Railroad Club.  We had absolutely no idea that one of the country's largest model railroads was located in the Clarendon Park Fieldhouse.  Come see what 1400 feet of track and the village surrounding it looks like.  Hours:  Saturday and Sunday 10am-4pm.

If you didn't get a chance to see these sites last year, or you want to see them again:

• Agudas Achim North Shore Congregation, 5029 N Kenmore.  "The last grand Chicago synagogue" is now for sale and could be condo-converted or torn down.   Hours: Saturday 12pm-5pm, Sunday 9am-5pm.  See photos of this once-magnificent building from last year's OHC.
• Bridgeview Bank, 4753 N Broadway.  Hours: Saturday and Sunday 9am-3pm. Access to the main lobby and the bank vault, both normally closed to the public.
• Chelsea Hotel, now Friendly Towers, 920 W Wilson.  Hours:  Saturday and Sunday 9am-5pm.
• Essanay Studios, now St. Augustine College, 1333-45 W Argyle.  Hours:  Saturday and Sunday 9am-5pm.  The Charlie Chaplin film His New Job will be shown throughout the day and light refreshments will be served.  The college is involved in restoring and reusing the original movie studio space into the Essanay Centers for Early Film and Cultural Performance.
• Green Mill, 4802 N Broadway.   Hours:  Saturday: noon-5pm, Sunday 11am-5pm.
• ICA GreenRise, aka the ICA Building, aka the Institute of Cultural Affairs, 4750 N Sheridan.  Hours: Saturday and Sunday 9am-5pm
• Preston Bradley Center, aka The Peoples Church, 941 W Lawrence.  Hours: Saturday 9am-5pm, Sunday 12pm-5pm
• Sheridan Plaza, 4607 N Sheridan.  Hours: Saturday and Sunday 10am-4pm.

You can get Uptown United's booklet with all the site info and lots more about Uptown itself here (in PDF format).

Enjoy the weekend, be a tourist in your own community and in your own city!