Ranked List
Unusual Things to Do in Chicago: 10 that skip the Bean
Start at the International Museum of Surgical Science, a Versailles knock-off on Lake Shore Drive stocked with barber-surgeon saws, then work your way south into the Loop. That is the spine of an unusual Chicago day, and this list fills the hours around it. We rank ten places we have written up ourselves, from a bronze coil of dog mess to the alley where the bodies were stacked in 1903.
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A Lincoln Park chateau modelled on a palace at Versailles, filled with barber-surgeon saws and heart valves. Nothing else in the city commits this hard to the gap between a building and its contents.
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A museum that treats leather and fetish history the way a university treats anything else, with archives, complete magazine runs, and a research library. There is also a basement dungeon. You have to be 18 to get in.
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Capone's booth is still there, picked for its view of both doors, and the coal tunnels underneath once moved liquor. This is not a museum piece. The band plays nightly, and the Uptown Poetry Slam started in this room.
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A million dollars in one glass cube inside the Federal Reserve, and everybody walks out with a bag of shredded currency. Entry is free, but bring a government photo ID or security will not let you past the door.
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An Andersonville storefront packed with skeletal remains, vintage medical tools, and taxidermy that is doing more than decorating. They run taxidermy classes on site if browsing turns out not to be enough.
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Chicago paved its streets with wooden blocks until 1871 proved that roads should not be made of fuel. One alley behind the Cardinal's Mansion still has them. It is a public walkway, so it is open whenever you are.
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Lorado Taft's hooded bronze stands over the Dexter Graves plot, and the legend says meeting its eyes shows you your own death. Cameras used to jam here. Digital ones do not, which has not slowed the pilgrimage.
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The service alley behind the Nederlander, where the fire escapes from the 1903 Iroquois Theatre fire were frozen shut and the dead were stacked. Over 600 people died in under an hour. Nothing marks the spot.
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A bronze coil of dog mess on a plinth, installed as a standing note to owners who do not pick up. It sits on private property but reads perfectly well from the public sidewalk, which is where you should stand.
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Sixty-eight rooms built at one inch to the foot in a dim gallery under the Art Institute, with woven rugs and real textiles at that scale. The staff clean them with cotton swabs and eye droppers.
Know before you go
Four of these cost nothing. The Money Museum is free, though it sits inside the Federal Reserve so every adult needs a government photo ID, and Wooden Block Alley, Couch Place, and Shit Fountain are public walkways or sidewalk views you can take at any hour. The Leather Archives is strictly 18 and over and closes at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. Graceland is a working cemetery, so keep your voice down. The Thorne Rooms sit inside the Art Institute, which opens at 10:30 and closes at 5:00, running until 8:00 on Thursdays.
Common questions
What is the most unusual thing to do in Chicago?
The International Museum of Surgical Science, and it is not close. A Versailles-style mansion on Lake Shore Drive holding barber-surgeon saws, early X-ray machines, and a room devoted to quackery. We rank it first.
Which unusual things in Chicago are free?
Four on this list. The Money Museum inside the Federal Reserve costs nothing to enter, Wooden Block Alley and Couch Place are public walkways you can visit at any hour, and Shit Fountain reads fine from the sidewalk.
What is there to do in Chicago besides the usual tourist stops?
Most of this list. The Green Mill for a Prohibition-era room that still books jazz every night, the Leather Archives for a subculture treated as scholarship, and Graceland Cemetery for the statue that supposedly shows you your own death.
How many of these can you do in one day?
Five, if you group them. Couch Place, the Money Museum, and the Thorne Rooms are all in the Loop within a short walk. Then go north for the Surgical Science museum in Lincoln Park and finish at the Green Mill in Uptown.