Kup's Chicago - Irv Kupcinet [91]
Lucius Beebe said it:
“When one considers the over-all opportunities Chicago offers a person in search of good food, it is obvious that a visitor who fails to find what he wants should have stayed at home.”
Anyone who knows Chicago restaurants will second this. At least I will. Try us.
9. What’s To See?
A city is like a Rorschach inkblot test: you see what you look for; you take out only what you put in. Chicago is no exception. To some it appears dirty, sprawling, muscle-bound, and crude. To others it is beautiful and well-planned, friendly and exciting.
So the “real Chicago” is an elusive term. It is what you yourself seek out and what conclusions you draw from your discoveries. Exploring Chicago can be a never-ending delight with its scenic, cultural, historical, and architectural treasures, and its recreational and commercial resources.
It’s all there waiting for you.
There is, first of all, Scenic Chicago. Ours is a city which for beauty rivals San Francisco, New Orleans, and Washington, D. C. To savor this, begin with our incomparable front yard: The Outer Drive, and the parks and beaches of our Lake Michigan shore line.
Just as State Street is the point from which east-west street numbering is figured, Madison is the north-south dividing line. I suggest that you begin your tour on the closest lakefront feeder street to it – Monroe.
From Monroe, you can view the lake, the Chicago Yacht Club, and a portion of the city’s enormous fleet of pleasure craft. Looking to the west and north, you can see a forest of concrete and stone highlighted by the graceful spire of the Methodist Chicago Temple, the dominolike mass of the Prudential Building, the antiseptic white of the Wrigley Building (which really is two buildings connected by a façade), the flag-topped peak of the Tribune Tower, and the Palmolive Building, at the head of Michigan Avenue. From its summit the Lindbergh Beacon sends out a piercing beam at night.
Driving north you pass the Chicago River, “the river that flows backward.” Years ago, engineers reversed its course in order to provide lake water for the city’s sanitary drainage. Beyond the busy port buildings of Navy Pier open the Gold Coast and Northwestern University’s downtown Chicago campus, then Lincoln Park, Belmont Harbor, and mile after mile of luxury apartments and spacious parkland.
Driving south, against a backdrop of buildings dominated by the world’s largest hotel, the Conrad Hilton, you will find yourself in the most attractive, best-planned park and museum center west of Washington. Located here are The Art Institute of Chicago, the Buckingham Fountain (the largest in the world), the Chicago Natural History Museum, Shedd Aquarium, and Soldier Field (capacity, 100,000 seats). The depressed roadbed of the Illinois Central Railroad keeps the skyline intact as you continue southward past the Meigs Field airport and McCormick Place convention hall. Then, along a scenic, winding roadway you will pass more luxury apartments and hotels, and the Museum of Science and Industry.
But an automobile drive cannot do justice to our lakefront. Plan to make several stops, including one on the man-made finger of land on which the Adler Planetarium is located, a favored place from which to photograph the shore and skyline. You will also enjoy a walk along any of our fifteen major public beaches, especially those at Oak Street or North Avenue on the Near North Side.
Scenic Chicago doesn’t end with the lake shore, however. You will want to visit other portions of our municipal park system, in which we take great pride.
The Lincoln Park Zoo has become familiar to millions of TV viewers through Marlin Perkins’ program Zoo Parade. Also in Lincoln Park is one of