Places livelavalora Wants to Go

Once an ornate movie theater remade by Catholic Charities.

Parking lot where a Chicago mayor was inaugurated under very sketchy circumstances.

Landmark Chicago building narrowly avoided destruction.

Odd, decrepit fountain honors Chicago author who had mixed feelings about his hometown.

Internationally known record store and purveyor of "dusties."

A Chicago Movie Palace Lost to Time.

Where old school Polish Chicago and young hipster Chicago live side by side.

Theater has had many different incarnations but has survived the ravages of time.

The faint remains of a Polish news empire still linger.

This unauthorized stone mermaid was secretly carved out of public stone before being permanently preserved.

This monument owes its name to a quote by the famous civil rights activist and journalist.

An unassuming store hides relics of its former life as the jazz club that hosted some of the best black performers of the 1920s and '30s.

An eccentric park and pool.

One-of-a-kind preserved ruins of an abandoned 1880s church in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.

A Museum of Holography frozen in 1974.

Nonprofit art center that promotes outsider, intuitive, and self-taught art.

This whimsical Oz-themed park had a wonderful impact on the surrounding neighborhood.

A bloodstain from "the wound of the transverberation of the heart."

The subtle science of a master molecular gastronomist.

This historic house museum that celebrates one of the world's most influential social reformers is also one of the most haunted locations in Chicago.

A hidden oasis just north of Chicago's Chinatown.

Partially submerged Buddha heads freckle Chicago’s neighborhoods.

Designed by Alfred Caldwel, this landscape showcases his vision of a native garden.

A Japanese temple, old German townhouses, and public chess tables offer a peaceful escape from the bustle of the North Side.