Chicago Cultural Center

Completed in 1897 as Chicago’s first central public library, this landmark building is home to two magnificent stained-glass domes. Designed and built with sumptuous materials such as rare imported marbles, polished brass, fine hardwoods, richly colored glass mosaics and mother-of-pearl, the building showed that Chicago had grown into a sophisticated metropolis. Once opened, the building was quickly nicknamed “The People’s Palace.” In 1991, the building became the Chicago Cultural Center, the nation’s first and most comprehensive free municipal cultural venue, hosting hundreds of free art exhibitions, films, lectures, music, dance, theatre, and family events yearly for a local, regional, national, and international audience–presented by the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and many others.