|
The first stop on any visit to Chicago
should be the Chicago Cultural Center, where the city's official Visitor
Information Center is located. The remarkable landmark structure was completed
in 1897 as the city's first permanent main library. Constructed to be "an
enduring monument worthy of a great and public spirited city," in the words
of the founding library board, the "people's palace," as the building has
come to be known, is a testament to the foresight of Chicago's turn-of-the-century
cultural leadership.
Today this magnificent building, recently
cleaned and restored to its original splendor, is the civic venue that
links the arts community and the general public. It became the nation's
first free municipal cultural center in 1991 when the Chicago Public Library
moved into its new home at the Harold Washington Library Center, 400 South
State Street.
Mayor Richard M. Daley stated, "The
Cultural Center is being preserved so that all Chicagoans -- no matter
how different their backgrounds or beliefs -- will always have
a place where they can communicate in the
universal language of the arts."
Click on one of the options below or click on the Hypermedia Tour
options on you right to continue.
|
