Places Eric Rood Wants to Go

In Chicago, an empty relic of a time when neighborhood zoos were more common.

Explore an underground labyrinth of miniature railroads.

A former atom smasher turned into an art gallery.

People escaping slavery passed through the oldest house in Lombard, Illinois on their northbound journey to freedom.

This botanical garden outside Chicago boasts an array of more than 300 varieties of lilacs.

A replica viking ship from the Chicago World's Fair is still in dry dock in an Illinois park.

Burial mounds of prehistoric Native Americans who lived along the DuPage River.

Tucked away amongst townhomes lies a restored, early 20th-century tea house and garden, the only remains of a historic estate.

A small abandoned and abused cemetery that has become a magnet for ghost hunters.

A relic of the Cold War in Chicago.

This landmark of the Chicago silent film industry may not be in the picture business anymore but it still stands proudly.

The young Black revolutionary was killed before getting to see a non-segregated pool in his hometown.

After an Illinois church was struck by lightning and burned down, Frank Lloyd Wright designed this replacement.

The overgrown remains of a folly temple/playhouse, in an unmaintained section of a Dupage County Forest Preserve.