🏰✨ Mansions, Mimosas & Gossip: Stroll the Glittering Gold Coast 🍾🏛️

🏰✨ Mansions, Mimosas & Gossip: Stroll the Glittering Gold Coast 🍾🏛️

Join us for a special Labor Day Walk of Chicago’s Gilded Playground on the Near North Side!

Step into Chicago’s Gilded Age and explore the Gold Coast Historic District, one of the city’s most affluent and architecturally stunning neighborhoods. Stroll past grand mansions, historic townhomes, and elegant row houses, built by industrialists, entrepreneurs, and cultural figures of the late 19th century. Hear stories of the families, immigrants, and visionaries who shaped this vibrant lakeside community.

✨ Tour Highlights:
· 🏘️ Gilded Age mansions & exquisite architecture (Queen Anne, Romanesque, and Italianate)
· ⛪ Historic churches & preserved streetscapes
· 🍺 Legendary Astor Street and iconic Gold Coast hotspots
· 🏛️ Insights into Chicago’s elite social & political history

Led by a passionate local guide, this tour brings Chicago’s rich Gold Coast past to life.

📅 Date & Time:
Monday September 1, 2025
🕚 12:15 pm – 2:30 PM (~1.8 miles walking)
📍 Start: Chicago History Museum, 1601 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60614
🎯 End: St. Chrysostom's Episcopal Church & Day School 1424 N Dearborn St
💰 Cost: $20 (cash preferred; Zelle/Venmo/PayPal accepted)
🌦️ Casual pace | Outdoors | Rain or shine

⚠️ Walk ends ~3 blocks from start — plan parking accordingly

📍 Route & Highlights
· 🏛️ Chicago History Museum – 1601 N Clark St
· ⛪ Archdiocese of Chicago – Cardinal Mansion – 1555 N State Pkwy
· 🏠 John Lewis Cochran House (George Maher, architect) – 1521 N State Pkwy
· 🌳 1535 Wooden Alley
· 🏰 Madlener House – 4 W Burton Pl
· 🏡 Edward Tyler & Ruby McCormick Blair Home – 1516 N Astor St
· 🏛️ Former Home of Robert Todd Lincoln – 1525 N Astor St
· 🏰 Patterson-McCormick Mansion – 20 E Burton Pl
· 🏥 International Museum of Surgical Science – 1524 N Lake Shore Dr
· 🏠 Howard Van Doren Shaw Designed Home – 1451 N Astor St
· 🏰 Grandiose Château – 1449 N Astor St
· ⛪ Maryknoll Fathers (Catholic missionary order) – 1421 N Astor St
· 🏛️ Charnley-Persky House Museum – 1365 N Astor St
· 🏘️ Astor Court – 1355 N Astor St
· 🏨 Astor House– 1340 N Astor St
· 🏛️ John Wellborn Root House – 1310 N Astor St
· 🏨 Astor Tower Hotel - 1300 N. Astor St
· 🏨 Ambassador East Hotel – 1301 N State Parkway
· 🎉 Original Playboy Mansion – 1340 N State Pkwy
· ☕ 3 Arts Club Cafe at RH Chicago – 1300 N Dearborn St
· 🏠 Augustus Warner House – 1337 N Dearborn St
· 🏢 MCNALLY & QUINN Architects – 1366 N Dearborn Pkwy
· ⛪ St. Chrysostom's Episcopal Church & Day School – 1424 N Dearborn St

🎒 Bring:

• 👟 Comfortable walking shoes
• 💧 Water bottle
• 🌦️ Weather-ready gear
• 💵 $20 tour fee

🍽️ Optional Lunch After the Tour
Grab food & drinks nearby:
☕ 3 Arts Club Cafe at RH Chicago – 1300 N Dearborn St – https://rh.com/us/en/chicago/restaurant
🍻 Woodie’s Flat – 1535 N Wells – https://woodieschicago.com/
🍝 Topo Gigio Ristorante – 1516 N Wells – https://topogigiochicago.com/
🌮 Adobe Grill – 215 W North Ave – https://www.adobochi.davinci-group.com/
🍺 Corcoran’s Pub – 1615 N Wells – https://corcoransoldtown.com/
💵 Bring cash — some restaurants don’t split checks!

🚗 Getting There
🚆 CTA: Brown Line / multiple buses — plan via CTA Trip Planner
🚘 Driving: Metered Street parking along Wells, North Ave, Dearborn & LaSalle
💡 Tip: Gold Coast parking is tricky — SpotHero / ParkWhiz recommended

📝 RSVP & No-Show Policy
✔️ Keep your RSVP updated — no-shows prevent others from joining
❌ Please cancel if you cannot attend

🌟 Why Gold Coast?
The Gold Coast is one of Chicago’s most treasured neighborhoods—famous for quiet, tree-lined streets 🌳, stately mansions 🏰, and deep ties to the city’s history 📜.
🏠 Early Development:
Once called the Astor Street District (late 1800s), it stretched from North Ave. to Division (then Bishop St). Today, the Gold Coast runs North Ave. ➝ Oak St. and lakefront ➝ Clark St. Astor Street honors John Jacob Astor—one of America’s richest men, though he never lived in Chicago.
💼 Potter Palmer’s Vision:
After the Great Chicago Fire (1871), Palmer bought swampy land up north while others flocked to Prairie Ave. He built his Lake Shore Drive mansion 🏰 (the “goldfish bowl castle”) and developed the Palmer House Hotel for his wife, Bertha.
🌊 Lakefront Living:
When Lake Shore Drive opened (1875), the Gold Coast took off. The Palmers’ home became a hub of high society, and Bertha’s Impressionist art collection now lives at the Art Institute 🎨. Though demolished in 1950, their mansion helped define the Gold Coast’s glamorous legacy.

💫Step back in time, explore stunning architecture & rich local history, and experience Chicago’s Gold Coast like never before! 💼💎