Chicago, day 2, the Gold Coast
After some lunch Michael took us to a posh residential area of Chicago, the Gold Coast, bounded by the lake and Lincoln Park. The area was established when Potter Palmer, a developer after the great fire, created a gothic castle, the Palmer Mansion, here in 1882 and then built beautiful luxury homes around it. The mansion has since been demolished and replaced by luxury apartments housing 740 families. We started our visit in the park and then walked down North Astor Street where there are some elegant houses built in various historic styles. We hoped to be invited in for tea but the closest we got was a chat with a man and his dog. At the bottom of the street is the Charnley-Persky House, designed in 1891 by Louis Sullivan with help from his junior draughtsman Frank Lloyd Wright. It is pictured below. We turned the corner of the street and made our way down to the lake where the light was beginning to fade.