Step back into the Gilded Age of Chicago as you tour historic Glessner House! Designed by noted American architect Henry Hobson Richardson and completed in 1887, Glessner House is a National Historic Landmark. It remains an internationally known architectural treasure, and its radical departure from traditional Victorian architecture served as a source of inspiration for some of the greatest architects of all time, including Louis Sullivan, Mies van der Rohe, and a young Frank Lloyd Wright. Experience the beauty of this architectural masterpiece and see how it helped redefine domestic architecture.

Nearly all of the artifacts in the more than sixteen family and servant spaces are original and in their proper location, allowing you to imagine yourself as a guest of the Glessner family in the late 1800s.

Glessner House offers guided tours of the fully restored building. Tours are led by trained docents and last approximately 75 minutes. The tour emphasizes the significance of the architecture, the unique relationship between the Glessners and their architect, their love of the cultural arts, and their desire to create a “warm and cozy” family home in a neighborhood of millionaires. Self-guided tours are not available.

When you arrive at the house, enter the Visitors Center through the coach house entrance - the large green door facing 18th Street.