Location: Oak Park
Top Things to do in Oak Park
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Top 7 Sights & Landmarks in Oak Park, Illinois (IL)
Architecture buffs will be well acquainted with Oak Park, once the home of Frank Lloyd Wright, where he designed and built some of his earliest buildings. Unity Temple, the Nathan G. Moore House and Wright's own former home and studio are among the many Wright buildings still preserved in the village, while buildings such as the Cheney Mansion were designed by his students. Oak Park is also the famed birthplace of Ernest Hemingway, whose childhood home is now a museum open to visitors.
Restaurants in Oak Park
1. Wright Plus Architectural Housewalk
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 114 reviews
Join the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust on May 22, 2021 for the annual Wright Plus Architectural Housewalk. Wright Plus celebrates architecture, design, Frank Lloyd Wright's innovative vision and the talents of his fellow architects. It is an enjoyable day featuring rare interior tours of private homes and public buildings designed by Wright and his contemporaries.
Reviewed By VacationDays365
We had a guided tour of the Oak Park neighborhood and the Frank Lloyd Wright houses and found the tour to be very informative. We learned so many interesting details about the buildings and had the unexpected bonus of chatting with one of the owners about his home and perspective on the area. This was an easy walking tour through beautiful streets, and our guide was engaging and never made us feel rushed.
2. Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 1,305 reviews
To ensure the health and safety of our guests, tours at the Home and Studio return on June 11 and are limited to nine guests per time slot. (Updated 6/2/20) The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park, Illinois served as Wright's private residence and workplace from 1889 to 1909--the first 20 years of his career. Today, Oak Park is home to the world’s largest collection of Wright-designed buildings. Wright used his first home to experiment with design concepts that contain the seeds of his architectural philosophy. In his adjacent studio, Wright and his associates developed a new American architecture - the Prairie style. Enjoy guided tours of the museum complex and neighboring historic district seven days a week. Trained interpreters offer insights into Wright's family life and architectural legacy. Tour details are available on the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust website
Reviewed By 1blah1
Traveling through the house, each room showed FLW’s developing style in Prairie Architecture. This tour was so fascinating, I had seen Falling Water several years ago and to see how he developed to that home was amazing. Don’t miss the homes he designed through Oak Park and also LaGrange, Illinois.
3. Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 201 reviews
Unity Temple (1905-08) is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the 20th Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright List, and represents a defining moment in Frank Lloyd Wright’s early career. Designed in Wright’s Oak Park Studio for his own Unitarian congregation, it is one of the first public buildings in America to feature exposed concrete and is Wright’s greatest public building of his Prairie era. The harmony of the building’s strikingly geometric architecture and decorative elements exemplifies Wright’s theory of organic design. Unity Temple announced a new era of innovation in modern architecture.
Reviewed By Naples64 - Wellington, New Zealand
This concluded our day at Oak Park and our immersion in all thing FLW. We had an excellent tour where we were the only people so we benefited from our guides undivided attention. Excellent guide who had such knowledge and love for the building. Nothing like I have ever seen before.
4. Pleasant Home
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 34 reviews
Reviewed By LetLoveRule333 - Oak Park, United States
This is an absolutely fabulous home! The architecture is so beautiful as well as the decor and furnishings. They have many events throughout the year. I went to the Ice Cream Social in July and have been on the tour and have had tea on the porch.
5. St. Edmund Parish
6. Ernest Hemingway Birthplace Museum
Overall Ratings
4.0 based on 132 reviews
Ernest Hemingway's Birthplace Museum is nestled just west of downtown Chicago in Oak Park, Illinois. This is the ideal place to begin exploring the roots of the author's life and work. It is here that Ernest Hemingway was born in a second floor bedroom on July 21, 1899. This Queen Anne home was built in 1890 by his maternal grandparents and was the first home in Oak Park to have electricity. The famed Pulitzer Prize winning author spent the first six years of his life at what is now 339 N. Oak Park Ave. The restoration, which began in 1992, authentically returned the house to its 1890s’ Victorian heritage; ensuring that your experience of the furnishings and stories told reflect the young man who lived there.
Reviewed By DoLdn - London, United Kingdom
I visited the Ernest Hemingway House on my recent trip to Chicago (c. 20 mins Uber drive from Downtown Chicago) and would say that the House is a must for anyone interest in literature, history or even English emigration to US (Hemingway's grandparents came to Chicago area from Sheffield). You can see the Museum with tour guide - which happens every hour. I was the only one having the tour - the tours have no minimum number of participants. The guide was excellent - so much knowledge that he shared with me! It was definitely a highlight of my Chicago trip and made me embark on re-reading Hemingway's work.
