Image from Glessner House Museum, 1800 South Prairie Avenue, Chicago, IL website
Free tours Glessner House. As of 5/14/2021 the Glessner House is no longer offering free tours except virtual tours
Where: Glessner House Museum, 1800 South Prairie Avenue
When: Wednesdays, Friday and Saturday: 11:30AM, 1:00PM and 2:30PM. Tours are 75 minutes. Self-guided tours are not available.
Cost: Adult: $20.00, Senior (60+): $17.00, Student (13-18): $17.00. Children age 12 and under are currently not permitted on tours. Purchase tickets here. Tours are free for members of Glessner House and the National Trust, but reservations are required; click on the “Purchase Tickets” button below to complete your reservation.
All tours begin at the Visitor’s Center located inside the main Prairie Avenue entrance. Groups of eight or more are not eligible for a free tour.
New rules
Visitors are required to wear a face covering over their nose and mouth at all times
No food or drink allowed.
Children 12 and under are not permitted on tours at this time.
All visitors must maintain at least six feet of distance from other visitors, Glessner House staff and volunteers.
Use hand sanitizer frequently, especially after touching doorknobs and other high touch surfaces.
Credit/debit cards are required for store purchases; no cash will be accepted.
Sneak peek on YouTube
Explore all of Glessner House YouTube videos
Take a virtual tour of Glessner House
Meet the Glessners’ cook, Mattie Williamson (NBC News, March 3, 2020)
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About Glessner House
A National Historic Landmark, Glessner House was designed by noted American architect Henry Hobson Richardson and completed in 1887.
A radical departure from traditional Victorian architecture, the structure served as an inspiration to the young Frank Lloyd Wright and helped redefine domestic architecture.
- On December 1, 1924, the Glessners and the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Architects sign a deed of gift that would give the house to the CCAIA upon the Glessners’ deaths, provided that it be used “solely for the purposes of architecture and the allied arts and sciences”
- Mrs. Glessner died in 1932, Mr. Glessner in 1936.
- The high costs of repairs in Depression-era Chicago led the CCAIA to return the house to the Glessners’ family in 1937.
- The heirs deeded the house to the Armour Institute (now the Illinois Institute of Technology), and in 1946, Lithographic Technical Foundation leased the house and converted it, leaving the original floor plan intact.
- The graphic design company bought the house in 1958 and relocated in 1965, trying to sell the house for $70,000.
- In 1960, the Glessner House was named an honorary Chicago landmark.
- A handful of local architects join together in 1966 to form the Chicago School of Architecture Foundation in order to save Glessner House.
- In 1970, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and renamed a Chicago landmark.
- In 1972, the Prairie Avenue Historic District, which includes the Glessner House, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
- In 1976, the Glessner House was named a National Historic Landmark.
- The Chicago School of Architecture Foundation eventually bought it for $35,000 in 1966, and spun off Glessner House in 1994.
